Ref21 Blog

Well, if I thought it was bad when I exposed a few less-well-known things about John Wesley, that's nothing compared to what happens when you touch the sacred shibboleths of Owenian Baptists!There was a bit of a social media frenzy...

The internet world exploded earlier this month when South Carolina mega-pastor Perry Noble informed his attendees that the Ten Commandments are not commandments after all but promises.  Noble gleaned this insight not from a careful study of the Scriptures -...

The details of the story are fairly well known: Noah's descendants, still within Noah's lifetime (by Calvin's reckoning), pooled their various talents and employed their common tongue towards the end of building a really big tower. God, unimpressed by their...

How many baptisms upon profession of faith have you administered or seen? I asked my church, as well as fellow pastors and ruling elders in the PCA, the same question. Overall, the answer was, 'very few.' Now, one of the...

In conjunction with our annual Southern New England Reformation Conference which will be held this year on May 29th and 30th our guest speaker Dr. Steve Lawson will also be doing a one day seminar at our building in North Providence,...

Swedish archeologists working near Gadol Eshed Nahar in Midwestern Palestine have discovered what seems to be conclusive textual evidence of the existence of Q. Scholars of early Christianity have long regarded Q--an abbreviation for "Quelle" (a German term which means...

I remember once telling a friend at church that I was going to go do a PhD on John Owen. They replied, "Oh yes, I know him. He's that great Baptist theologian." Somewhat startled, I thought I'd since made this point...

The Westminster Shorter Catechism on Q. & A. is wrong-headed, in my view. Almost everyone in Reformed circles knows the following question and answer by heart:Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?A. Man's chief end is to glorify...

Do you remember the story of Hansel and Gretel?  Two young children are taken out into the forest one day and then abandoned by their father, who can't afford to look after them anymore. (Perhaps it was during the credit...

Mrs. Jane Roach is on the steering committee of the Alliance's partnered event, the Texas Hill Country Bible Conference. Jane has been active also in Bible Study Fellowship and the Rafiki Foundation (with our much beloved Rosemary Jensen) for years....

You will doubtless have heard on a number of occasions those who bewail the present day. I admit to having limited sympathy with those who argue that we are living in the absolute worst of times. I read of the...

This is not a post that will gain me much popularity, with accusations of legalism bound to happen. If there's one thing I know from attending a Big Ten school to play soccer, it is this: don't mess with Americans...

Wesley Hill's two recent articles at First Things on divine impassibility (see here and here) have caused a bit of a stir among the theologically minded denizens of social media. The traditional doctrine of divine impassibility states that God does...

It is not particularly surprising but it is disappointing. Furthermore, it is dangerous. It is in some respects the typical kneejerk reaction to current events (by which I mean events over the last few months, even years, rather than merely...

21st Century Challenges Not Allowing Ourselves to be Defined by SexualityBy Mark Johnston from Place for TruthIt may seem more than a little strange to include this issue as one of the major challenges facing the church in the 21st...