The Bible has a lot to say about what is fair in the realm of provisions. The entire book of Proverbs outlines what the wise and hard working man and woman should generally expect and what the lazy and foolish person should expect. That is what makes the issue of socialism being raised right now so important for the Christian to consider. A friend of mine passed this video off to me today. I have to admit, it left me in awe. How can someone actually think this is good?

On …

Michael, over at 21st Century Table Talk, who happens to work for IVP, has posted about a new N.T. Wright book on Justification that is due out Spring 2009. This should be interesting considering all the controversy Wright has caused in the Protestant and Reformed churches in his attack on the historic, Reformed (and I would argue biblical) understanding of the doctrine of Justification. You can read Michael’s post here.

A few days ago I posted an Eric Alexander lecture titled, “Israel and the End Times.” I promised to post the other two lectures that he delivered at the 1999 Ligonier National Conference. The lecture below is one of the finest lessons on hermeneutics (i.e. principles of biblical interpretation) I have ever heard. I know you will enjoy it! As I mentioned in the previous post on these lectures, Ligonier owns the copyright–making it impossible for me to give you the mp3 download. You can purchase the tapes from Ligonier. …

Dr Benjamin Shaw has some helpful thoughts on reading the Scriptures in public. He writes:
On Reading the Bible to the Congregation

One word–preparation. First, you should look over the passage. Are there any words you doesn’t know? Then you need to look them up and learn how to pronounce them. Are there names? Ditto. (On this point, I would recommend that anyone who is going to read Scripture in public should purchase a “self-pronouncing” edition of the KJV and learn how to use the diacritical marks for the pronunciation of …

You cannot download this message because it is copyrighted by Ligonier Ministries. You can call Ligonier and order this message together with the other two that he gave at their 1999 conference. I will be posting a link to the other two in the near future.

I don’t post a lot of pictures on this blog, but I wanted to put this one up from our trip to Hilton Head, Is. for a few reasons. It reminds me what a blessing children are from the Lord. It also reminds me that I should spend as much time as possible with my family.

Of all the series that I have heard Sinclair Ferguson preach, I think that this was the finest.
You’ll also be interested to know that hundreds of the sermons Dr. Ferguson preached at First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, SC have been added to SermonAudio. This makes it a bit easier to download them than it was at the First Pres. website.

While there are many introductions to the Reformed faith, I would like to recommend Joel Beeke’s new volume Living For God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism. This is an excellent well-rounded portrait of the Reformed faith that covers both TULIP and so much more. This is the book to give to family and friends who wonder what the big deal is that you are a Calvinist. It is thorough and winsome.

I also want to suggest a book by apologist William Lane Craig. You may be …

I recently stumbled upon this interesting quote:

The genuine realist, if he is an unbeliever, will always find strength and ability to disbelieve in the miraculous, and if he is confronted with a miracle as an irrefutable fact he would rather disbelieve his own senses than admit the fact. Even if he admits it, he admits it as a fact of nature till then unrecognised by him.

from The Brothers Karamazov, page 31 of the 2004 Barnes & Noble Classics edition.

With Reformation Day rapidly approaching it seems appropriate to consider the origins of what we call the solas of the reformation (i.e. Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fidei, Solus Christus, and Soli Deo Gloria). Scott Clark has a helpful post outlining the history of these five tennets of the Protestant Reformation. You can read it here. If anyone is able to contribute more to the historical development of Solus Christus and Soli Deo Gloria, feel free to do so in the comment section of this post.

This past Sunday I had the enormous privilege of preaching at the historic Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Ga. Independent has seen such ministers in its 253 years history as D.L. Moody, Daniel Baker, and most recently Terry Johnson. Pastor Johnson has been the minister there for over 20 years now and has written several very good books for the church. He has made contributions specifically in the area of historic Reformed worship.
You can listen to Rev. Johnson’s sermons here.
You can listen to the sermon I preached last Sunday here. …

Here is the link to the Christ the Center interview we had with Russell Moore. Dr. Moore is the senior vice president of academic administration at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He is the author of several books (including one forthcoming) and articles. Our goal was to talk with him specifically about his book The Kingdom of Christ, which is a study of the sociological and theological ramifications of evangelicalism on the political situation in America.

Christ the Center recently interviewed Dr. John Carrick, Associate Professor of Applied and Doctrinal Theology at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, about his newly released book on the preaching of Jonathan Edwards. I had the privilege of having Dr. Carrick as a professor of homiletics during my time in seminary, and we thoroughly enjoyed having him on the program to talk about this book. You can listen to the interview here.

The guys over at Creed or Chaos have a helpful post about Augustine and the prelapsarian covenant between God and Adam, commonly called the “Covenant of Works.” You can find it here.

If you have never seen this guy before you should find some of his other standup routines on You Tube. He is hilarious!

Tonight I found an important paper by William Cunningham, entitled, “The Principles of the Reformation Not the Cause of Sects and Heresies,” in James Wylie’s Tercentenary of the Scottish Reformation, pp. 108-123. The charge that Protestantism produces thousands of schisms and sects is frequently bandied about by the likes of Scott Hahn.
You can find Wylie’s book here.

The ESV Study Bible has finally been published and I must say that it is an impressive piece of work! You can find discussions about this new study Bible all over the internet so I will keep my comments brief. This is a virtual library between two covers. Reformed readers should know that unlike The Reformation Study Bible this Bible includes material produced by non-Reformed Evangelical scholars. But a quick scan of the study notes and articles suggests that the lion’s share of the study helps …

Joseph Randall sent this video to a few of us to consider the Calvinistic undertones of this early Christian Contemporary Music. I think the video pretty much speaks for itself! I wonder if these guys are still touring. If you have any questions about the band you should email Joseph. I think he is a big fan.

I am pleased to announce that the first volume of a projected three volume set of Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation has been released. Professor Dennison, who is connected with Northwest Theological Seminary, has done us a great service in bringing these valuable confessions of faith into the English language. Dennison also provides us with very helpful introductions. I am already looking forward to the remaining two volumes.
I have also been reading through Robert Brown’s prize-winning volume Jonathan Edwards and …

I recently picked up my copy of Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism in order brush up on his arguments. Kuyper argues that Calvinism espouses an “all-embracing system of principles” (Kuyper, 19) that defines our relation to God, the world and man. This shouldn’t be news to any self-respecting reformed person, but Kuyper pushes the envelope with quotes like this:
…Calvinism is rooted in a form of religion which was peculiarly its own, and from this specific religious consciousness there was developed first a peculiar theology, then a special church-order, …

While browsing books by Andrew Thomson on Googlebooks, I came across a volume entitled, “Four Lectures for Young Men.” It is not edited by the Andrew Thomson for whom I was searching, but I discovered that one of the lectures was by one of my all-time favorite theologians, William Cunningham. The lecture is entitled, “On the Temptations of Young Men to Embrace Infidel Opinions.” It is 20 pages long. Enjoy! It can be found here.

I affirm the doctrine of the spirituality of the church, within limits. I will explain what I mean after I briefly define the doctrine in question. What is the doctrine of the spirituality of the church? Simply put, it is the view that Jesus Christ has called the church to be concerned about one thing and one thing only, the ministry of Word and Sacrament. That is, the church exists to proclaim the gospel, indeed the whole counsel of God. There is more to it …

As I was preparing a message for this Sunday morning I remembered something the great, biblical-theological Southern Presbyterian, Stuart Robinson, had outlined in eight points in Discourses of Redemption. Focusing on the significance of God’s curse on the serpent, Robinson explained:
1) The Redeemer would be a man (i.e. the seed of the woman)2) The Redeemer would be more than a man (i.e. He would be Divine) because He would conquer the one who conquered man (i.e. the devil)3) The Redeemer would represent a people.4) The Redeemer would gather a collective …

If the angry driver with a Christian bumper sticker on the back of his car is a bad witness, this is probably worse. We need to be sure that God’s word is dwelling richly in us before we call others to know it and live by it.

Dane Ortland has a very helpful post over at Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology showing the relevance of J. Gresham Machen on the present postmodern rationale. You can read it here.

Ok, this is the reason that no one who calls themselves a Christian should every use the guise of Matthew 25 to support Barak Obama.

HT: Mike Cuneo

Here is the link to a great James Boice Sermon on a call for Theology in the church. It is based on Ephesians chapters 2 and 3. Boice affirms David Wells’ concern that the evangelical church has become worldly, and has abandoned God’s word. This is a superb message.

Here is the latest Christ the Center episode. We recently interviewed Dr. John Fesko on his newly released work, Justification: Understanding the Classic Reformed Doctrine. John is pastor of Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Woodstock, Ga. He is also Adjunct Professor of Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Atlanta. Prior to writing this book on justification, John wrote this biblico-theological gem, and this helpful little book. There are many helpful biblico-theological references in the interview. At one point he shows the connection between Israel coming through the water and into …

Consider this comment from J.H.Merle’s History of the Reformation (Context: Merle is discussing the bishop of Constance, Hugo of Landenberg, whom Zwingli thought was sympathetic to the reformation of the church.):

He was one of those men, too common in the Church, who, although they prefer truth to error, show more regard to error than to truth, and often end by turning against those by whose sides they should have fought.

Here is the link to the sermon that Phil Ryken preached at Elijah’s baptism. The text was Jeremiah 36:1-36. It was a great sermon with a very creative ending. This particular sermon exalted the centrality and importance of the word of God more than any I have heard in quite a while. Our friends, the Helfands, were also having their son, Daniel, baptized at this service.