Reformation21

[For our weekly newsletter, the past two weeks I have shared with my congregation lessons that I learned from hiking Half Dome in Yosemite at the end of August. I thought these things might be helpful to our Ref21 readers.] My dear friends: Last night, [fellow elder] Louis Benton and I got back...

Drawn Into Controversie: Reformed Theological Diversity and Debates Within Seventeenth-Century British Puritanism Edited A. G. Haykin and Mark Jones (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011) A terrific book, the kind that lights my fire, encompassing seventeenth century issues furthering the cause of the...

In a previous post (and here ), I noted how sophisticated, Reformed evangelicals are both disclaiming the arrogance of Enlightenment rationalism and skirting the bottomless pit of postmodern relativism, contending that total human objectivity is an illusion and postmodernism is intellectual...

This book has inspired me to write letters. Newton was the wise old sage to Ryland the young buck. There are 83 letters spanning over 30 years. It's terrific stuff. It's a joy to see that, even in the 18th century, Newton had to deal with Ryland and his heart break in relationships. Should he ask...

I read Parker T. Williamson's latest editorial on the continuing mainline Presbyterian crisis with interest. As most of us are aware, the progressive wing of the PCUSA finally succeeded earlier this year in removing the "fidelity and chastity" language from the church's Book of Order, thus excising...

In a recent post , I noted just how easy it is to pick up hermeneutical tools that are ill-suited for handling Scripture, if indeed Scripture is the Spirit-breathed, self-attesting Word of the sovereign, triune God. Like taking toy blocks and a screwdriver to a window that has been painted-shut (...

Further to my blog (below) about the Vitco's CD on the Children's Shorter Catechism, I have now been given a URL to a site where the CD will cost around $7 less . Sorry to those who have already purchased one. See, here .

Brother, I couldn't help but chuckle and mount a quiet defense on behalf of all my Jackson, MS Presbyterian friends when I read in Kathryn Stockett's The Help : "Hilly hands out lies like the Presbyterians hand out guilt...." What? Whoa! In my friend Lig's back yard?! Where's the love? And grace?

It will be no surprise to students of church history that God has often used theological challenges, even attacks on biblical truth, from both inside and outside the church, to spur epochal advances in Christians' understanding and explanation of the teaching of Scripture. The doctrines of the...

Teach Them the Faith CD by Dan and Karen Vitco Dan and Karen Vitco of Matthews, North Carolina, have produced this wonderful CD for young children based on the Shorter Catechism. With music that complements the text and some memorable melodies, this CD is bound to aid parents in the all-important...