The second commandment is tricky business. Let me state the matter in the form of a question. Do verses 4-6 of Exodus 20 constitute another commandment, a second commandment, or are these verses simply part of the first commandment stated…
Agnes and Margaret Smith and Their Crucial Discovery Agnes and Margaret Smith lived at a time when scholars were raising new and disturbing questions about the Bible. Is it reliable? Having being copied by hand, how do we know that…
“You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:4, Deuteronomy 5:7). Over half a century ago, the late Martyn Lloyd-Jones, minister at Westminster Chapel, London, aimed the penetrating light of the first commandment at modern idolatry, saying, “There are…
According to the Westminster Confession of Faith, “The moral law doth for ever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof….neither doth Christ, in the Gospel, any way dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation” (WCF, 19.5)…
As we come to the conclusion of our study on the beatitudes it will be good to ask, how we should respond? What are we expected to do about this set of familiar blessings? Certainly these blessings are part of…
In Matthew 5:9, Jesus preached, Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God, proclaiming that God’s children are shown to be His by extending their Father’s peace to others as something they enjoy, often by…
You are what you eat! This age-old motivational wisdom teaches that the content of our diet is exposed by the composition of our selves. This is never more true than in spiritual matters. We become what we consume, and we…
Mary Sidney Herbert and the Poetic Depth of Her Psalter Mary Sidney was one of the most influential women of the Elizabethan age and received high praises for her writing skills. Forgotten for many centuries, she has recently been recognized…
Several years ago I was reading or re-reading various old books. As I read, a theme struck me. It was the theme of companionship or friendship. For example, in H. G. Well’s strange little book, The Invisible Man, the man…
An ancient proverb says: “We must howl with the wolves, because the wolves will immediately devour everyone who makes himself a sheep.” Such worldly wisdom tickles the ears of all who despise the meekness of Christ’s kingdom. It is despised…
