When I was in seminary, our apologetics professor regularly reminded us that all of God’s relationships with humanity are covenant relationships. The covenant ungirds every facet of our existence as humans. Not only has the truth of this affected me…
Many doctrinally solid evangelical churches would not self-identify as “confessional”. What is the value of historic confessions for this kind of typical evangelical church? If the church is already doctrinally orthodox, evangelical, and solid, why encourage such people to think…
The story goes that there was an astronomer, a biologist, a cosmologist, a geologist, and a physicist who climbed the highest mountain in the world in order to collaborate on determining the origin of life. The astronomer measured the distance…
In today’s church, there are a number of significant questions about the doctrine of assurance. Some argue that you cannot ever really know if you’re saved at all; others insist that if you made some kind of profession of faith,…
The Westminster Confession of Faith begins with one of the most well articulated statements concerning the doctrine of Scripture. And incorporated right into the Confession is an ever so brief clause on how one might do theology. The clause was…
All the benefits of redemption are found in Jesus Christ. While Phillip Melanchthon, Martin Luther’s colleague and heir apparent, said “To know Christ is to know his benefits.” We could just as rightly say to know Christ’s benefits one must…
If, as my wife descended the staircase ready to go out on a date night, I said to her, “Hon, you look beautiful,” she would likely thank me. But, if on that same evening, not ten minutes after, I told…
A quest for “Truth According to Scripture” drove the Westminster “divines” (theologians) and should drive us today. Why? Because it’s biblical. When Paul left the church in Ephesus, he warned that false teaching would arise (Acts 20:29-30). Sure enough,…
The battle over inerrancy can get quite messy and convoluted. It can become an exercise in losing the forest for the trees as varying sides’ debate the minutia of issues. More than one scholar has complained that the problem with…
As orthodoxy[1] itself has come under contemporary fire, religious and cultural forces persuade many to extend the theological fence posts. The logic? Exclusivity of the Christian faith is the cause of intolerance; intolerance is not tolerable, so therefore, change the…
