Prevenient grace, according to Arminians, convicts, calls (outwardly), enlightens and enables before conversion and makes conversion and faith possible. While Calvinists believe the inward call to the...
How crucial is prevenient grace to the Wesleyan system? Wesleyans themselves seem to concur that their theology hinges on the doctrine. Robert E. Chiles says that "without it, the Calvinist logic is i...
Growing up I always heard that it was better to be accused of committing a sin of omission than a sin of commission. That way, you could always chalk your sin up to forgetfulness, ignorance or thought...
Almost every book in the NT has something to say about false beliefs and those who advocate them. We are warned, e.g., about false prophets (Matt. 7:15–16; 24:11), false christs (Matt. 24:5, 24; Mark...
In his book Fundamentalism and the Word of God, J.I. Packer explains that the terms ‘evangelical’ and ‘fundamentalist’ originally served to distinguish the Christianity of the reformation and the spir...
This is vital to note: a person who embraces heresy is not a Christian according to Christian tradition. Thus, when an author very critical of an historical Baptist figure described his teaching as be...
A witness for Christ in any age--and certainly in this present age--requires a prayer-saturated, Christ-centered, Gospel-motivated, Bible-shaped, Spirit-filled and God-glorifying commitment to "speak...
Christ-centered preaching is the source of hope, comfort, and life for the regenerated believer. Those touched by the love of God desire above all to hear faithful preaching which directs them to thei...
Ever since the world went on COVID-19 lockdown and stay-at-home orders were issued, the terms “essential” and “non-essential” have loomed large in our discourse. Businesses and services deemed “essent...
At its very heart, the Canons of Dort are about the nature of grace – supernatural, unilateral, sovereign, effecting, redeeming, resurrecting grace, with all of its angularity, all of its offense to h...
It’s true that not everything in the Bible is of equal weight. But I am worried that we have drawn too stark a line between “essentials” and “nonessentials;” in fact, I am convinced that this maxim le...
In that book the author challenges the slogan “No creed but the Bible" (no authoritative confessional texts besides the Bible) — a position that is prevalent in many denominations and congregations. H...
Invoking the vague concept of ‘cult’ is a lazy way of attacking one’s opponents. If I label your group as “little more than a cult” I can avoid having to assess and come to terms with your teaching. I...
Under Phillip’s leadership and influence, Sydney Anglicanism has become a ministry well-known for its faithfulness and gospel-centeredness. Listen to this 9marks Interview on his experiences of doing...
What makes a Reformed understanding of the gospel is the desire and the passion that God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son receive the fullest measure of the glory they should receive i...
What are the most basic things a person needs to believe in order to be saved? Paul says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." He says, "If you confess with your lips that Jesus i...
What does the Bible have to say about the rights and responsibilities of leaders to exercise authority? The New Testament speaks clearly of the existence and exercise of authority in the world. The bi...
Jonathan Leeman interviews Dr. David F. Wells on the subject of authority.
Recently, a fellow historian at another Christian institution commented to me about the growing number of Presbyterian prophets who make their reputations on the back of bashing evangelicalism, while...
Let me commence by saying that the title “the Limits of Fellowship” is misguided. I know I chose it myself, but it is the wrong question. It starts us off looking for the negative when the theme of th...
The term “membership” is misleading because of how it’s commonly used. Often it connotes privilege in a club. Costco members get access to deals. Country club members get reduced green fees. If you pa...
Waiting is a challenging lesson. The better we perceive something to be, the stronger the desire. And the stronger the desire, the harder the wait tends to be. I'm keenly aware of this because I'm pra...
Churches are often distinguished from each other in terms of their theological position or worship tradition. A further, significant distinguishing characteristic of a church, however, is the nature o...
Are you a member in good standing at your local church? More importantly, are you a member in good standing of the invisible church? In this message, Dr. Sproul teaches us the distinction between the...
There is no ideal polity, at least not in the way most Westerners would think about the matter. Following in the Greek tradition of Plato and Aristotle, democratic Westerners think in terms of one con...
In the early days of American Protestantism, the training of ministerial candidates was carried on by pastors of churches. A young man feeling a call of God to the ministry would associate himself wit...
Wedding season is here. Are you committed to your church? That may seem like a rather abrupt shift in topics, but they are actually closely related, especially if we consider a certain popular wedding...
JUDGMENT OF GOD. The belief that God passes judgment on the lives of his human creatures is important for Christianity, as it is for most of the world?s religious traditions (see, e.g., S. G. F. Brand...
The answer is, there is no “cross-cultural key.” In our evangelism, we don’t do anything differently here than we would anywhere else. Our evangelistic methods are singularly uncreative. To suggest th...
For Christians, the past should always be instructive. When we look back to the Old Testament, we see how much of Old Testament faith and life was nurtured by remembrance of times past. The Passover,...
The Oxford American Dictionary gives this informal usage of the noun jerk: a contemptibly obnoxious person.
The Reformation was, more than anything else, an assault on faith in humanity, and a defense of the idea that God alone reveals Himself and saves us.
The ambivalence expressed by Warfield cannot help but be felt today by those who are convinced of the persistent truth and vitality of the catholic faith as it is expressed in the confessions and cate...
"Now, with new Reformation categories, I was able to see some of the problems inherent in American evangelicalism as I had experienced it over the past few years. I no longer considered myself an evan...
We see nothing in Jesus? life that would pass the approval of a life coach's prescribed 'ideal week'. Should church staff strive for a 'balanced' life, or a full life?
R. C. Sproul Jr. talks about being asked by a deacon at church twenty years ago if he had an "accountability group." When it was explained that this would be "a group of men who are active in your lif...
Are denominations dying? That seems to be the common wisdom. Certainly the mainline denominations are bleeding out; people are leaving those churches en masse. But what about denominations of evangeli...
What is the relationship between your local church and every other church in the world? In the companion piece to this article, I consider how different churches should integrate together. Here we wan...
What is the relationship between your local church and every other church in the world? In the companion piece to this article, I consider what makes different local churches independent from one anot...
Yes, autonomous local churches really can cooperate in church discipline. No, they typically don't. But, yes, they should! The first step my own church takes to cooperate with other churches in discip...
A Presbyterian and a Baptist discuss how they derive their polity and who calls the shots.
I am here to talk to you about what ministry shaped by the gospel, profoundly shaped by the gospel, really looks like? In this letter, Peter was not writing to the same type of situation Paul addresse...
I am sometimes told, when discussing how to present the gospel to a non-believer or how to formulate a sermon or Bible study, to "keep it simple." Sometimes the admonition is "to keep the cookies on t...
Church membership can feel boring, secondary, extrabiblical, and unimportant. Aren't there plenty of more pressing things to talk about? Not really, suggests Jonathan Leeman in "Church Membership: How...
How do you move beyond the gospel without moving on from the gospel? On the other hand, if the gospel is so all-important, do we need to "move beyond" the gospel in any sense at all? Those are two of...
At a seminar I gave last week, I used the tried and true method when facing a crowd outside of my usual comfort zone. Three points nobody could disagree with, a fourth point that might have raised som...
The "regulative principle" is the Reformed view of how God regulates our worship and provides that worship is by divine appointment. Everything we do in worship must be divinely warranted. And since S...
If your doctrine of conversion is missing the corporate element, it's missing an essential piece of the whole. A covenant head comes with a covenant people.
As a pastor, I interact with a lot of people who struggle to have confidence in the authenticity of their conversion. To their mind, their sin clings closely and their failings are always at hand. Mos...
