We worship and serve the triune God of Scripture, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our triune God is one God, and everlastingly the same. Our God is three Persons and constantly, surprisingly, different. God is without shadow or variation due to change. But at the same time, the Father is not the Son, and the …
Liturgical Dualism
INTRODUCTION: There are great dangers facing a congregation engaged in trying to restore a more honestly liturgical and reformed pattern of worship, problems that arise because of good old-fashioned sin. Call it the human factor. THE TEXTS: “Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I …
When Sin and Death Build the City
I enjoyed getting to meet Darryl Hart at the Auburn Avenue conference last year, and also enjoyed our discussion on the Federal Vision over at De Regno Christi. He’s a good guy, and has many valuable things to offer the church, particularly in the realm of historical analysis. But in our discussion at DRC, the …
Potoked Again
Reactions to the NYT article were not long in coming. This one comes from the Southern Poverty Law Center, the world’s richest civil rights organization. Mark Potok, author of this article, was upset that Molly Worthen, author of the NYT piece, wrote a balanced, critical piece when the SPLC clearly sees the crying obligation for …
Civilians Fair Game
“Prophet Muhammad was once asked if it was OK to kill women and children of those who were polytheistic . . . or infidels. He said, ‘I consider them as of their parents.’ In other words, if the parents were infidels, then it was permissible to kill their children” (Mark Gabriel, Islam and Terrorism, p. …
He Who Says A Must Say B
“It explains why ministers cannot teach on certain subjects from the pulpit. It explains why Christians cannot aerticulate why women in combat is an abomination. It explains why the masculine virtures of courage, initiative, responsibility, and strength are in such short supply. We cannot resist the deman to let pretty women lead us for the …
The Deeper Issue
“When the standards of Christian leadership are all feminine, the individuals most obviously qualified to be Christian leaders will be women. And so this poses a dilemma — why should we exclude women from leadership when they are so obviously qualified for what we call leadership? At that point we divide, with some calling for …
River of Blood
“Islam is full of discrimination—against women, against non-Muslims, against Christians and most especially against Jews. Hatred is built into the religion. The history of Islam, which was my special area of study, could only be characterized as a river of blood” (Mark Gabriel, Islam and Terrorism, p. 5).
Difficult Relationships
INTRODUCTION: For a number of years, we have been emphasizing community, life together, fellowship, communion, what the New Testament calls koinonia. The response to this emphasis has been significant—showing that there is a real spiritual hunger for this kind of thing. But there is a hitch—other people are involved. A number of months ago, Doug …
Oceans of Beer
“Thus a man who slept with twenty women before his conversion, but was enough of a jerk not to marry any of them, is thought to be qualified for eldership after his conversion, but a man who married one woman and was divorced from her before his conversion is thought to be automatically disqualified. This …