Bible

Paragraph one of the first chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith sets forth the necessity of Scripture, if Scripture is necessary then it is essential to know which ancient Judeo-Christian writings combine to make up its content . The Westminster Assembly’s confession answered this...

In Part 1 , I narrated a process in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), which will continue at the 52nd General Assembly in June. The Committee on Discipleship Ministries (CDM) and Mission to the World (MTW) will report on Sarah Young’s book Jesus Calling . I thought my 2024 overture was...

The world has about eight billion people distributed over its surface in remote villages and massive congested cities. Estimates vary but it is believed there are about four thousand recognized religions in the world with Christianity first with 2.5 billion adherents, Islam comes in second with 1.9...

Paul Harvey, the beloved radio broadcaster who chronicled mysterious “rest of the stories” for America with his nationally syndicated program, shared this sad but true account of “Sparky”: WHEN HE WAS a little boy the other children called him, “Sparky,” after a comic-strip horse named Sparkplug...

A (Brief) Theology of the Sabbath By Dale Ralph Davis From ‘Is Reformation Really Possible? Or: The Ongoing Perils of the Church (Nehemiah 13:4-31) in Ezra & Nehemiah: The Quest for Restoration , Focus on the Bible (Fearn: Christian Focus, 2025), pp 195-97. A bit about the background and...

In college, I lived with seven of my best friends in apartment Nu 8, “The Ocho.” Our living room was placarded with posters displaying our various passions: a Pulp Fiction scene with John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson pointing pistols at a hapless victim, an atomic mushroom cloud, the album art of...

It is difficult to argue against the claim that Princeton Theological Seminary of Princeton, New Jersey occupied a—if not the —principal position of influence in shaping American Reformed Christianity in the nineteenth century. The years between its founding in 1812 and the resignation of Dr. J...

Jack is not going to seminary. He has a good job, he is settled in his local church, and he wants to minister in his home state, preferably his hometown. Staying put permits him to help in his local church and to build connections he’ll need in the future. Jack will get his book learning from...

Many have strong opinions on the amount of time a pastor should take to prepare his weekly sermon, with many affirming that roughly 20 hrs is not just normal but advisable. We’ve probably seen pastors piling up their commentaries on the book they’re preaching on (with an almost obligatory social...

‘After the hymn, the minister will ascend the stairs into the pulpit for the Scripture reading, pastoral prayer, and sermon.’ What role does the physical pulpit have in a local church? For most of my life, I attended churches where the pulpit was moved around, wheeled in, carried out, or was a...