Articles by Derek Thomas

I've lived a pretty peripatetic life (moving to St. Louis was my 12th major move; my wife and I have lived in 8 different addresses in nearly 15 years of marriage). Born outside of Philadelphia, I spent most of my growing up years moving up and down the I-95 corridor between New York City and Washington DC. continue

I grew up in Stornoway, and professed faith in the church there in 1977, when I was almost fourteen. The congregation is still the largest congregation of my denomination, the Free Church of Scotland. When I left school I studied biblical languages at Glasgow University prior to my theological course at the Free Church College in Edinburgh. continue

I think church history is also important especially today to save us from the hubris and near tyranny of the present. The past gives necessary perspective, not to mention how it humbles us. continue

The Lord saved me from His wrath and to His glory about 12 or 13 years ago. I had been for some time a practicing Muslim and a real enemy of the cross. In college, I'd say I was something of the campus Saul. continue

Then along came Deconstructors who took things further. Philosophers like Hans-Georg Gadamer, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida ("more Frenchmen" I hear you exclaim, but Derrida was technically born in Algeria). Derrida's point is (well, "was" since he is also dead - in 2004) that even the very words themselves employed to describe such a view are themselves an impossibility since words have no stable relationship to reality. continue

Drawing too many conclusions from descriptive passages is hermeneutically perilous. Revelation 5 is descriptive of heavenly worship and not necessarily prescriptive of worship here on earth. continue

If you're looking for something theologically deep, this is not it. Instead, what we have here is John Stott dreaming of what he desires the church to reflect. The occasion was the 150th anniversary of the dedication of one of... continue