Haters of John Calvin (including many Christians) love to blame him for the burning of the heretic Michael Servetus, and they use the execution of Servetus to paint Calvin as a harsh, hateful, soulless Pharisee. But nothing could be further from the truth.--Because Servetus openly taught against the doctrine of the Trinity, he had already been cond...
"Here my son, take this musket and never disgrace it; for remember, that I had rather all my sons should fill one honorable grave than that one of them should turn his back to save his life. The door of my cottage is ever open to brave men, but always shut against cowards."--Sam Houston's mother when he left home to join the army"He's never hurt an...
The recent school shooting in Nashville tragically illustrates the principles we've been discussing in the adult Sunday school class over the past few weeks. In our consideration of the 6th Commandment ("Thou shalt not kill"), we talked about what murder means and what the murderer hopes to accomplish by it. Murder is almost always driven by anger,...
It's well known that Pre-Millennialism has a very pessimistic view of the future of history before the return of Christ. In that view, Jesus tried and failed to establish His earthly kingdom in His first coming and will not be able to do so until He comes again. Thus, the Devil is ruling the world, and history is God's Vietnam. Our only hope is not...
Significant Dates Facebook became available to teens (age 13+) in 2006.Instagram was founded in 2010.The iPhone 4 was released in 2010. It was the first smartphone with a camera meant for selfies.Facebook bought Instagram in 2012, which drastically increased its number of users. Research Findings 1) Social media usage is more strongly connect...
Renowned Ivy League professor of psychology William Kirk Kilpatrick wrote in his 1983 book Psychological Seduction, "However good-intentioned and however nice, it is not at all clear that the psychological establishment knows how to help. Everywhere there are dark hints that the faith doesn't work. Despite the creation of a virtual army of psychiat...
Life expectancy for Americans has been falling for the past several years, due in large part to a sharp increase in "deaths of despair" (click here). How is it that the most prosperous nation in history could be filled with so many people who are unhappy, bitter, discontent, suicidal, and generally do not care whether they live or die? As one pasto...
As I mentioned briefly, one very important application of my recent sermon has to do with education. I know full well that it's very unpopular to criticize government education (aka "public schools"). Most people around here (including me) attended public school for part or all of our primary education. Many people in our area (including many of yo...
We find ourselves at the beginning of June, which, in recent years, means that we are about to be bombarded by all manner of sexual perversion along with even more social pressure seeking to normalize that sexual perversion. There has been a fringe "gay pride" movement since the onset of the sexual revolution in the 1960s, but it has slowly become ...
I think it's safe to say that most Christians are far more shaped by feminist ideology than they realize. The underlying assumption of the feminist movement is that men and women are not different in any meaningful way. As a result, society should treat men and women exactly the same. This is a manifestation of egalitarianism, which seeks to homoge...
During the first few centuries of the church, it became a custom to honor the legacy of Christians who were martyred or who were significant leaders in the church. You probably know a few of the big ones. The most famous feast day of a saint in America is March 17, which is the day that St. Patrick of Ireland was martyred. Christians have been cele...
Ecclesiastes 1 confronts us with the sobering reality that all of our toil cannot provide us with leverage or control over the basic realities of life under the sun. We are finite, mortal creatures. And as a result of the Fall, we are broken and live in a crooked world that God has subjected to futility. We should thank God for all the inventions a...
Protestant Reformed covenant theology is not replacement theology. God hasn't broken a single promise to Israel, because they are all fulfilled in Jesus (2 Cor. 1:20). Ethnic Jews who believe in Christ are no longer Jewish in any meaningful sense (Gal. 6:15), because in the body of Christ—the church—there is no such distinction as Jew vs....
Have you ever wondered why, over the past fifty years, America has had so many professing Christians while our culture has been circling the drain with increasing velocity? How is it possible to have churches on every corner but for those churches to have so little impact in the public square? At the risk of oversimplification, I believe the c...
There has been much in the media lately about women in the armed forces as President Biden pushes the military to become as woke as possible. While some conservatives are pushing back, the vast majority of social/cultural conservatives are overlooking or ignoring the teaching of Scripture on the matter. Our denomination, the Communion of Reformed a...
February 14 give us the opportunity to reflect upon the life and death of the early church pastor Valentine (Valentinus in Latin). According to church tradition, Valentine was imprisoned for performing marriages, which the emperor had outlawed in order to strengthen his military forces. While in prison, Valentine famously wrote a letter ...
As you have watched/read the news the past few weeks, have you felt outrage? Despair? Resignation? That's exactly what our godless elites want you to feel. With the legislature, the executive branch, Big Tech, and the mainstream media, they think they have a free rein to "save" our country by imposing their compassionate policies upon us (pay atten...
Last Sunday, I committed the cardinal social sin of "mixing politics and religion". But the truth is, it is logically impossible to mix politics and religion. Politics and religion can't be mixed because they can't be separated. Religion is always political, because every belief system has a particular vision of morality (what is considered good vs...
My sermon on Sunday focused on the centrality of the church's worship to the mission of God in the world. The Bible is filled with examples that show the effectiveness of worship, prayer, and singing in overcoming evil spirits, initiating widespread revival, toppling city walls, and routing foreign armies. But this is not simply a phenomenon restri...
The church is the tip of the spear in God's work in the world. The church is where God speaks to us, meets with us, and blesses us. It is the church and her officers that possess the keys of the kingdom. It is to the advancing church that Jesus promised victory over the gates of hell. The church is where disciples are made and strengthened, where m...