Faith

The task of theology is multi-layered and multifaceted. Behind its obvious component of exploring the Bible’s teaching on the major doctrinal loci there are many other factors that influence the task and its outcome. At the most basic level there is the issue of our presuppositions about Scripture...

Why does my church - the mourning widow, the lustful high-school jock, the overworked dad, or the tired homeschooling mom - need to relish in the doctrine of God’s Simplicity? Why do I as a pastor have a duty to ground my people in this seemingly obscure doctrine? Before I answer I want to briefly...

The idea of ‘the means of grace’ has undergone an encouraging rehabilitation in the life and ministry of many Reformed churches in recent years. This has come as a healthy corrective to pressure from the wider church to embrace ideas and practices that seem more effective vehicles for church growth...

‘Grace’ could easily be seen as one of those doctrines every child from a Christian home ought to know from Kindergarten. Whether it be through the acronym God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense , or just the plain and often repeated ‘God’s unmerited favour’, it would be easy to check it off as ‘learnt’...

In discussing the practical doctrine of assuance (see parts 1 , 2 , and 3 in this series), one careful distinction we must make is between assurance and presumption . The reason is that a false assurance is the worst delusion and spiritual insanity, but too many people bless themselves even while...

On two different occasions recently, I have read and heard Spurgeon’s story of the Scottish “fishwife” carrying a basket of fish while an eager young man challenged her about spiritual things. When he compared her “burden” of fish to Bunyan’s spiritual one in Pilgrim’s Progress , the woman claimed...

As we continue our series ( part 1 , part 2 ) on assurance, we come to four basic details about it that are so important to consider. It is possible for a Christian to have an assurance of his salvation. We see in Scripture that God’s people have enjoyed it. David called God his God and his portion...

So the pastor of the church you attend says the church is “confessional”. He explains that this means the church requires its ministers, and perhaps even members, to subscribe to a common doctrinal standard underneath the authority of Scripture. You might wonder, what does that matter? As long as...

In my last article I discussed that the puritans believed that good works are more than the fruit of faith, justification and salvation in that they are the way to eternal life and an antecedent condition of glorification. The minority of puritans labelled as "antinomians" not only rejected this...

Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661) is often regarded as the finest Scottish theologian of the mid-seventeenth century. I’m not sure I entirely accept that. For me, at least David Dickson and James Durham were on a par with him, if not his theological betters. But Rutherford wrote more, and specifically...