Have you ever heard the story of the old preacher who stood in his pulpit and explained the doctrine of election? With great excitement, he said pointing down to the floorboards at his left, “Election is when Satan casts a…
As a A.C.B.C. certified counselor and ordained pastor, I have the privilege of helping at the Biblical Counseling Institute associated with the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, PA.[1] I value an educated pastorate and stress the importance of systematic…
The doctrine of election should be a most humbling doctrine. It means that God chooses for salvation before the foundations of the world a people unto Himself to receive that salvation. The basis for election is “unconditional”. In other words,…
The Apostle Paul in Romans 9 addresses God’s sovereignty and uses the illustration of the potter and the clay. The potter, of course, creates out of his pile of clay whatever he or she desires. The clay has no say…
The word depravity implies the absence of something that used to be abundant. In considering the doctrine of man’s total depravity it’s good to see first that man, Adam, was totally good, righteous, and upright. This is what Solomon…
Did you know that you are an intricate integrated dispositional complex? At least that’s the way God created you in the beginning. When Adam and Eve came from the hands of the Lord they were holy, righteous, and knowledgeable. How…
Every society has a rulebook, but living in one’s birth culture creates a blind embrace of its practices, norms, and expectations. We believe certain things about speech, social cues, and even driving habits with little awareness of what we prize…
Let’s face it, in common parlance pastoral means practical. What is more, people want the practical. I don’t blame them. I just had the joy of reacquainting with a young woman who has recently experienced conversion. The next day I…
Perhaps the most disturbing sign of the impoverished condition of many professing Christians, Christian congregations and denominations is their inability to recognize and self-consciously live in the practicality of the doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity is…
The doctrine of divine impassibility is a biblical, catholic, classical, and confessional doctrine of the Christian church which states that because God is simple, infinite, eternal, and immutable, he cannot undergo any change in state of being, or be acted…
