Many Christians today question whether it's necessary or even biblical to join local churches. Some think joining a church will rob them of personal freedom and independence. Others believe they may attend several different churches without ever committing to just one. Some even believe they don't need to be part of any particular local church, …
(Co-Authored with Garret Walden) “What do you think about Doug Wilson?” is a question we receive often as pastors, and it’s sometimes hard to know exactly how to answer. He has a remarkable wit that he sometimes uses to defend biblical positions in a hostile society, which accounts for much of his appeal among conservative …
Continue reading On Justification, Doug Wilson, and the Moscow Doctrine
Merkle, Rebekah. Eve in Exile: And the Restoration of Femininity. Moscow: Canon, 2016. On X this week, I happened to see an advertisement clip of Rebekah Merkle reading a paragraph of her book that I believed lacked an emphasis on redemption, the gospel and Jesus Christ. When I said as much, a large number of …
I'm posting this mainly to help define the term "conservative." It's a misunderstood word, though it is frequently used. Many who call themselves conservatives today are libertarians, classical liberals, who advocate a freedom from most constraints both socially and economically. I would generally call myself a classical conservative. Here I’m speaking of conservatism broadly in …
If you missed any episodes of the Modern Marrow Men podcast, you can now find them with a dedicated channel on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. A new episode will release each week until the season is complete. Modern Marrow Men is a podcast John Divito and I hosted for one year to try to explain …
Continue reading How can you listen to the Modern Marrow Men podcast?
The Bible prohibits unclean language. This includes all language that society understands be obscene or dirty. Obscenities and vulgarities refer to things that are offensively revealing, disgusting, dirty, ugly or crude. Certain passages of Scripture forbid such speech. Jesus, in Matthew 15:10 says, “And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear …
There has been a good deal said and written about expository preaching, Christ-centered preaching, redemptive-historical preaching, etc., but very little has been said about pastoral preaching. Pastoral preaching is at the heart of true pastoral ministry. It’s expository, based on biblical hermeneutics and Christ-centered, but it goes further. Pastoral preaching is directed to a particular …
The Reformed confessions of faith all affirm that God made a “covenant of works” with Adam in the Garden of Eden. For example, The Second London Baptist Confession 20.1 explicitly refers to this covenant: “The covenant of works being broken by sin, and made unprofitable unto life….” But some aren't sure the doctrine is found …
In his magnificent work, A Treatise on the Law and the Gospel, John Colquhoun has a chapter titled, “Rules for Rightly Understanding the Ten Commandments” (pp 85-98), which is similar to Question 99 of the Westminster Larger Catechism, “What rules are to be observed for the right understanding of the Ten Commandments?” I highly recommend all …
Continue reading What does it look like to apply the Ten Commandments?
To frame the issue more precisely, the question is not whether a society or nation ought to worship the one true God rightly. Societies should certainly worship the one true God according to His commands. Furthermore, the question is not whether false worshippers deserve punishment. God will certainly punish them temporally in this life as …
Continue reading Should government punish false worship or coerce true worship?
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