Like the culture around it, the Presbyterian Church in America has been facing a fair amount of turmoil for some time now. Some of this usually shows up at the PCA’s General Assembly, the annual gathering of PCA elders (teaching and ruling). This year’s event, coming up this week in Dallas, promises more of the same. Three years…
Category: Faith
The Gospel According to Hebrews
In a Bible study I attend, we had a good discussion yesterday on Hebrews 4, which draws parallels between the Israelites in the wilderness, the first Century Hebrew recipients of Hebrews, and even us today. The connection is that TODAY they and we were/are invited to enter into God’s rest. Not just His Sabbath rest…
Anointed with the Oil of Gladness
With the loss of the Vietnam War, Watergate, stagflation, the mainstreaming of drug use, and the Jimmy Carter-led American malaise, the 1970s is not a prime candidate for nostalgic memories. Yet one thing stands out when looking back to that decade; liberals had a sense of humor. Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury poked fun at everyone–liberals and…
The Bible, Politics, and the Gospel
We have a fair amount of discussion in my church over what the Bible teaches when it comes to government and how to apply God’s Word to particular areas of public policy. During one of those discussions, a friend recently commented, “I reject the notion that someone needs to be a small government conservative to…
Hate is a Christian Virtue
Let me from the start confess to not being very original. I borrowed the concept of the title of this piece from a recent column from Douglas Wilson–though I use it differently. We’ll return to it in a little bit after I work through a couple of things. The first is the White Horse Inn,…
Gimme All Your Money: The Trap of Progressive Liberalism
During its 1980’s resurgence, the Texas band ZZ Top released its Eliminator album, which contained the hit single, Give Me All Your Lovin’. The chorus went like this: Gimme all your lovin’, all your hugs and kisses too,Gimme all your lovin’, don’t let up until we’re through. Reviewing the song’s lyrics as I write this,…
A World at War
Perhaps the greatest blindness of the modern church is its failure to understand that the world is at war–against the church. This war pits the church as a combatant against its opponent–or enemy–the unbelievers in the world. In fact, the war is an effort by the unbelieving world to usurp God’s rule; in other words,…
Cassidy and Peacock on Capitalism and Socialism
David Cassidy, my church’s former pastor and a godly man, and I had a brief conversation on Facebook a while back. I thought I’d re-post it here: Cassidy: Pastors are not on the job to ‘Save America’. We are here to announce its eventual demise, conquest, redemption, and replacement with something that is already here…
Are Unbiblical Government Activities Theft?
In 1 Samuel 8:10-18, Samuel warns the people of Israel. He is warning them because they sinfully want to replace God with a human king: God says “they have rejected me from being king over them.” One thing to keep in mind is this is really God’s warning to the people; Samuel is just passing…
A Brief Primer on Church and State–and Oppression
“The purpose of government is to justly uphold life, liberty, and truth in order to bring increase and peace to the Kingdom of God.” This shouldn’t be a surprise. Because every government official, every government worker, every voter, every citizen, and every subject was made for one very specific purpose: to glorify God and enjoy…