James White’s book Scripture Alone, contains a chapter entitled “Definitions: More Than Half The Battle.” He begins the chapter with these words: “After engaging hundreds, possibly thousands of individuals over the sufficiency of Scripture, I have come to realize that 85 percent of the battle is fought over definitions.” Later he warns against arguing against…
George Barna has an interesting job. He must feel that more often than not he is the proclaimer of sad tidings. His surveys often showcase the ways in which Christians are struggling and the ways Christianity is changing for the worse. Some of his recent studies have concluded that “Americans Agree: Kids Are Not Being…
Thanks to all who participated in the giveaway of Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism. Participation once again exceeded all expectations. Unfortunately, there can be only two winners in this giveaway. Before I announce their names, I would like to let you know that Monergismbooks.com, which sponsored this giveaway, has offered a great…
I generally don’t go for all these blog awards, but because I consider myself a responsible member of the blogosphere and enjoy the Evangelical Underground, I will play along. Evangelical Underground is hosting the 1st Annual Evangelical Blog Awards. My site has been nominated thus far in the category of “Best Designed Evangelical Blog.” In…
I have once again dipped into my site’s archives to update and refresh an article I posted in the past. In the past few days there has been much discussion in the forum and in my inbox about how we can define “Calvinist” and “Reformed.” I covered this very topic last year, but since that…
I would like to make some further comments on the topic I wrote about yesterday. First, thank you to all the readers who pointed out that “Biblical Theology” is in reality something of a “reserved term” as it has a definable theological meaning. Biblical Theology is considered an alternative to Systematic Theology and to Historical…
Writing for a forum as public as the internet provides ample opportunity to receive criticism. While I rarely take the time to respond to people who post on other sites long, drawn-out criticisms of myself and what I write, I always respond to those critcisms when they are directed at me through the forums or…
In the past few days I have been going back and reading some articles I wrote months or years ago and have been updating a few of them. Last night I had my weekly home church meeting (AKA small group Bible study) and we discussed the importance of confession among Protestants. I realized I had…
Quite a while ago I wrote an article about spiritual gift assessments. Today I am hauling that article out of storage and am going to update it. At the time I first wrote about spiritual gift assessments I was responding to a question a friend had asked me. He was interested in knowing my opinion…
Spam is annoying. Really annoying. What is especially annoying is when you post your email address on your web site and those spammers send their bots to automatically glean your site and scrape all those addresses into their ever-growing databases. We all hate it. What I see more and more often these days is people…
Al Mohler’s column for today is entitled “The Generation That Won’t Grow Up” and deals with what TIME Magazine, in their latest issue, is calling the “twixers.” He quotes Lev Grossman, the author of the article, as saying, “In the past, people moved from childhood to adolescence and from adolescence to adulthood, but today there…
Several months ago I wrote an article where I outlined the difference between evangelism and outreach. These are terms that many people treat as being synonymous, yet they are distinct and need to be treated as such. This morning I was thinking about the idea of “successful evangelism.” What makes one evangelistic effort successful and…
I grew up in a comfortable little Christian subculture. I have gone to church just about every Sunday since I was born, I attended Christian schools all the way through high school and have sat through countless Catechism and Sunday school classes. I can’t count the number of times I had to sit through sermons…
Adrian Warnock, of Adrian Warnock’s UK Evangelical Blog has just announced the recipients of his second “Warnie” awards and I am glad to say that one of those recipients is me. Adrian is the brain behind The Blogdom of God and is a man with his finger on the pulse of Christian blogging. Writing about…
We are at a stage of human history that in some ways is quite bizarre. Because of the Internet, electronic storage media, the rapid rate of technological progress and the fast-pace of our society, we have unparalleled access to unparalleled amounts of information. Never in history have people had access to so much information. Consider…
Apologetics is an underappreciated art. Or is it science? Whatever it is, people do not appreciate it as they ought. I suppose it is because apologists seem always to be on the attack, though the reality is generally that they are on the defensive, defending the faith against the inroads of the evil one. A…
There exists a surprisingly popular series of books entitled Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader. These books are a compendium of quotes, short stories, trivia and jokes that are each just a few lines or paragraphs in length. The book was designed to appeal to the bathroom reader – one who likes to read whilst he is…
Doilies, Bagel Blankets and Princess Lace. That has been my life over the past couple of weeks. Sometimes web design can be glamorous. As designers we have the ability to create great-looking sites, to watch our sites win awards and to really push the boundaries of good design. We sometimes have people pat us on…
Every soul thirsts. It may not be felt every moment, but to some degree every soul thirsts after something it does not have. We are rarely content in our current condition and it seems that this is the way we have been Divinely wired. But while we all thirst, we do not all thirst in…
I admire John Piper and have grown tremedously through his ministry. He is a gifted teacher and one I deeply respect. Yet for some strange reason I do not enjoy his books. I have tried reading several of his books several times and have never enjoyed doing so. I don’t know why this is, but…