There are many things in life that remind us that we look through the glass darkly. We wish we understood more than we do. The classic Presbyterian view is that children are included in God’s covenant of grace, and so are baptized. There is thus a continuity between the sign …
God has left His new covenant people with two visible signs of His invisible grace: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Down through the ages, Christians have differed in their understanding of these signs, but we do well to seek to understand them as well – that is, as biblically – …
It is not uncommon in life to be dragged into the unwelcome territory – I once took a kindergarten Scripture class which came to resemble drowning on land, as the children got off the topic of Abraham and onto an aunty who was visiting that weekend or a pet cat …
In 1546 Martin Luther was dying. He had been trying to resolve a dispute within a family at nearby Mansfield when he fell seriously ill. On his death bed, he prayed Psalm 31:5 (‘Into Your hand I commit my spirit’), kept repeating John 3:16, and wrote on a slip of …
In meeting regularly with a Muslim friend, I am often surprised when perhaps I should not be. The topic under discussion is commonly prophecy, and recently he made the claim that prophecies in the Bible were ‘vague’. I tried not to roll my eyes or knock over my coffee. His …
There are people who like to think that they do not trust anything or anyone. It used to be
common for people to say that they only believed what they could know by reason. Nowadays,
reason seems to be so restrictive and passé, so we are more likely to hear …
It is a commonplace in theologically liberal circles to downplay the cross, to say, as Adolf
von Harnack did, that the gospel is all about the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the
infinite value of the human soul, with little reference to the atonement. In nineteenth century…
Introduction
In 1984 I wrote a booklet on abortion entitled Open Your Mouth for the
Dumb: Abortion and the Christian (Banner of Truth), and in 2010 it was revised and
enlarged as Abortion: ‘Open Your Mouth for the Dumb’. It has been an interesting,
and I hope helpful, exercise to …
Raising children is the most important and most difficult job in the world. Parents are
seeking to point their children to God; to curb their sinful natures; to prepare them to take their
place in a fallen world; and to equip them, so far as they can, for eternity. For …
It is fearful how often the condition of ancient Israel resembles that of the
modern world. One example of this is found in Isaiah 59: ‘Justice is turned back, and
righteousness is far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and
uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and …
