In the midst of various public events and engagements, the first day of 2012 saw the promulgation of a special Vatican document with particular reference to the former Anglicans wishing to be in full communion with Rome. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a decree which makes provisions for them to be fully accepted into the Roman fold. continue

It's six o'clock Wednesday evening. Your church's mid-week Bible study starts in one hour but you don't feel like going. The trouble is, you can't think of a fresh excuse and you don't dare to say what you, (and several others) would like to say: "Is this really what a Bible Study is supposed to be like?" continue

Even before the book came out, Jesus + Nothing = Everything had the perfect formula for a popular book: a catchy title that "just sounds right" (p. 25), an author with an intriguingly unique name (Tullian Tchividjian, pronounced cha-vi-jin), his... continue

John Bolt accepted the unenviable challenge of editing an abridged volume of Herman Bavinck's magnum opus, the Reformed Dogmatics. While Bavinck's magisterial work encompasses four volumes, Dr. Bolt was required to select the most germane sections of these four volumes, and then to distill those sections down to their irreducible minimum and to give the reader the essence of each section. That made his challenge even more difficult. continue

In our day, unlike in the days of generations past, we have much too simplistic a view of what it means to believe something. In the world today, many people use the word believe to describe their feelings about something or describe a fleeting wish or hopeful desire. But as we consider the word belief, or faith, in its fullest biblical sense, we see that the word implies God's gracious act of giving and our humble act of receiving and resting on Christ alone, which involves our entire being: the heart, the mind, and the will continue

My transition to pedobaptistry was remarkably smooth, but the investigation that brought me to it raised new questions. I could not help but think about the kind of life that existed under oikos where the father was master, the mother was a kind of domestic executor, and the children were successors in-training. There might have also been extended family in the household, as well as apprentices, hired labor and servants. It nagged on me. To think that, for thousands of years, the household enterprise was not only a social but an economic unit was both baffling and intellectually stimulating. continue

Readers of this column will know the various chips I have on my shoulders. At least I hope they do. I try to wear my chips with a certain amount of unapologetic panache, after all. One of them is disco music. Another is the middle-aged pastor with the soul patch. And one of the more serious is my conviction that the savvy use of modern media has created a situation whereby the great pastoral role models of today actually bear little resemblance to the experience of most pastors and are often, in fact, biblically deficient. continue

The Roman Catholic Church is masterful at celebrating special years: the year of Jubilee, the Holy year, the Marian year, the Year for priests, etc. In a sense, every year is a "special" occasion for something. So it was with the Pauline Year (PY). Designed to celebrate the bimillennium of the birth of St Paul, which historians place between the years 7 and 10 AD, the PY included a series of liturgical, cultural and ecumenical events, as well as various pastoral and social initiatives, all inspired by Pauline spirituality. continue

Christmas is not what it used to be. At least that is the impression I have after reminiscing for a few moments with the Ghost of Christmas Past. The food is just as good, I admit; and the drink, of course, is vastly superior. But the music has clearly gone into decline. No doubt this year Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga will inflict some synthetic tripe upon the world in a last minute attempt to lower the average quality of the overall cultural contribution of 2011. continue

Professor Scott Oliphint's book, God With Us: Divine Condescension and the Attributes of God, is a welcome addition to the Reformed, evangelical, and scholarly communities. The doctrine of God, the covenant, revelation, and Christology are major themes that come together in a manner that allows Oliphint to express some of the very best contributions made by Westminster Theological Seminary over the years, but in a fresh way that deals with a number of contemporary challenges to Reformed orthodoxy continue

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was a Reformed Congregational pastor, theologian, missionary, and for a brief period of time, college president. The story of Edwards is fascinating and often told. He is the subject of more than four thousand books and articles. My goal in this article is to crack the book cover and reveal the major chapters of Edwards' storied life. Before Edwards became famous as a philosophically inclined theologian, he was a son, a student, a husband, a pastor, an apologist for the Great Awakening, a missionary, and finally an educato continue

His life was at the centre of the major affairs of the twenieth century: the tragedy of Nazism and the trauma of the Second World War, the apex and fall of Communism, the Second Vatican Council and its debated implementation, the apparent triumph of Western democracy and the oppressive costs of globalization for the Majority world, the fracture of ideologies and the rise of secular hedonism. Wojtyła played a significant role in all these major events. Supporters have acclaimed his achievements in terms of navigating, surviving and overcoming the dangerous streams of our post-something world. continue

The death of John Stott has led to a veritable flood of accolades and uncritical adulation over the last few months. A recent example was the memorial service for him at Wheaton College which raised a number of questions in my mind. One was the issue of what Stott himself would have thought of it. I never met him but he seems to have been a modest and unassuming man by all accounts; it was thus probably a relief to him not to have to be there and listen to the hyperbolic claims being made for him and his ministry by others. continue

If ever you find yourself lost for words, there is something you can do. Turn to the Lord's Prayer. It is a model given to us by our Lord Jesus to help us pray. True, we can use it "as is" and repeat its grand petitions. But we can also use it as a model and learn from its structure and proportion how we ought to pray. continue

In full disclosure, I was really excited when I first heard about Lit!. The idea is genius--writing a book about reading books. It made me stop and think about reading, a crucial part of life that I had done for years but hadn't considered with much intention or precision. (That specific point may say something more about me than the genius of the book idea.) So I ventured into the book with eyes wide open, optimistic about finding something of value in light of the amount of material I read in a vain attempt toward keeping up with the evangelical and Reformed worlds continue

Editor's Note: Western missionaries are producing Bible translations that remove "Father," "Son," and "Son of God," due to the offense that Muslims have over these terms for God. In response, the Presbyterian Church in America approved an overture declaring such translations as "unfaithful to God's revealed Word." Yet agencies like Wycliffe and SIL defend the practice, even writing the PCA about the overture. The agencies' appeal, along with a response by PCA pastor Scott Seaton, offers a valuable insight into the current thinking of Wycliffe and the most controversial trend in missions today. continue

One final, yet crucial aspect of the Holy Spirit's ministry, which must be considered in relationship to the preacher of God, is that of power. continue

Brothers, with C. H. Spurgeon, in his classic work Lectures to My Students, I trust we all can say personally, "I believe in the Holy Ghost." However, I wonder how many of us can say of a truth, "I need the Holy Ghost!" continue

One of the prerogatives of the teaching office of the Pope is to hold the cathedra Petri (Peter's chair). St. Peter's basilica hosts the relics of a chair that tradition traces back to the apostle Peter (though, like most relics, it was produced in the Middle Ages). The cathedra Petri is part of the altar, so as to indicate the unique combination of the teaching and sacramental role of the Pope. continue

This year marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. To mark the occasion, well-known scholarly historian, Reformed pundit and OPC elder, D G Hart, has written a history of the years 1945 to 1990. Love him or hate him, everything Hart publishes is always provocative and well-written. continue