I recently finished Mark Galli’s book, Beyond Smells and Bells, a book I enjoyed quite a bit. Given the title, I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did, and I found myself agreeing with virtually everything Galli wrote. He writes engagingly, and with a great deal of practical wisdom. He is clearly …
A Cistern for the Water
My friend Toby Sumpter, no enemy of robust liturgy, recently posted the following on Facebook. “When people come to our church ‘for the liturgy’ I think I will begin asking how frequently they use porn, yell at their wife, or tell lies.” On a related note, Mark Galli, author of Beyond Smells and Bells, noted …
An F5 Revival
I often tell our people that they must come to the sacrament of the Lord’s Table in “evangelical faith.” But what is that? Men love rituals. Man is a liturgy-making creature. Nothing whatever can be done about it — the only thing that distinguishes one tribe from another is the respective shape of their rituals. …
Generation, Degeneration, Regeneration
One of the reasons the doctrine of regeneration is so important is because the doctrine of generation is so important. God fashioned man out of the dust of the ground in the first place, but it was the breath of God that established us after His image. “And the LORD God formed man of the …
One Vast Boneyard
The end of October approaches, and as we mark and celebrate the great Reformation, our heart’s desire and prayer should be for future historians to be able to describe it as the first reformation, as the small one. “Small” does not mean insignificant, but in this case it does mean early on. Eye has not …
The Holy Spirit’s Commonplace Book
If you can bear with me for a moment, I would like to ask you to read a short chain of verses, at the end of which I will make just a couple observations. “But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you” …
Gnosticism and the Supper
Matt Colvin does a good job advancing our discussion of the Lord’s Supper here. I am talking, obviously, about his description of our disagreement, and not about the side he takes in that disagreement. He is quite right that I am simply following Westminster at this point. I would only add two things about that. …
Little Damnation Wafers
Historic evangelicals, at their best, are unaccredited teachers in the schools of the prophets. At their worst, they are sons of Zedekiah, selling little miniature horns of iron on the teevee for $9.95 plus shipping and handling (1 Kings 22:11). Institutional Christians, let us call them, at their best, are like Jehoida (2 Kings 11:17). …
The Savannahs of Heaven
In John 8, Jesus has a remarkable interaction with the Jewish leaders, an interaction that teaches us what it means to be an evangelical indeed. Jesus has collided with these men, and they do not grasp what He is talking about. They do not grasp it because they do not know the Father. They do …
He Doesn’t Call Them Episcopalian Bishops
What are we to make of the invisibility of regeneration? Jesus teaches us that the moment of regeneration is beyond our power to manipulate (John 3:8), but He also teaches, equally clearly, that the effects of regeneration are entirely visible (John 3:8). The theological problem is this. At the eschaton, everything will be completely visible …