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In Defense of Pessimism
I came across a great passage in Machen in preparation for yesterday’s lesson in adult education. I read most of it and so the audio that Camden Bucey is posting here at oldlife will have it. But for...
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Missing the Forest for the Pericopes
I have yet to read T. David Gordon’s book, Why Johnny Can’t Preach, but I’m tempted to wonder if part of the reason for Johnny’s homiletical ineptness is that he feels constrained to preach one...
View ArticleBen Franklin: Patron Saint of Applicatory Preaching?
I came across the follow excerpt while teaching a few weeks ago and it was striking that the self-made man and pursuer of virtue, Ben Franklin, was no fan of doctrinal preaching. I suspect that his...
View ArticleAre Protestants Logocentric? Proudly (in a humble way)
From Luther’s comments on John 3: What should Christ do, and of what use is the Messiah? What kind of Messiah is He? . . . What does He do? He testifies. If He walks in such weakness and holds on His...
View ArticleWhen Allies Impersonate the Axis
I was surfing around the Internet last weekend, hoping to find a paper by a certain academic theologian, when I came across The Gospel Coalition’s Resources page, which includes a gargantuan list of...
View ArticleCould Christ Have Preached Christ and Him Crucified?
Rick Phillips introduces a tension — though that was not his intention — between Jesus’ preaching and Paul’s. We have the old was-Paul-the-second-founder-of-Christianity problem. Here‘s is what Christ...
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Lord, I Know Already, Help Me Do
What is the purpose of preaching? Is it to increase knowledge or provoke akSHUN? Randy Nabors thinks the latter: We don’t need more didactic moments that simply tickle the minds of those who thirst for...
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Preaching the Great Commission
Even Purgatory: Today at my parish we had a missionary priest from India. I am happy to say that after years of disappointment, it was refreshing to finally here a missionary actually talking about...
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Has the Bible Become So Common that People Don’t Go to Church for It?
One of the questions I raised in my review of John Fea’s book on the American Bible Society was whether making the book so widely available, even more common than Wifi, has undermined its uniqueness:...
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Both Cannot Be True
On the one hand, preaching the Bible is haahht: According to a new study by Gallup, the hottest thing at church today is not the worship and not the pastor. It’s not the smoke and lights and it’s not...
View ArticleNothing Could Possibly Go Wrong
Not only is the magisterium’s teaching infallible, but a Roman Catholic’s salvation is never in doubt: neither the Catholic or Orthodox speakers accepted the term ‘nominal Christian’. People from a...
View ArticlePutting the Loco in Logocentric
Rod Dreher reflects on the ways that even while denominational brands among Protestants are in free fall (and have been, I might add, since the Second Not-So-Good Awakening), the differences between...
View ArticleWhat Happened to Preaching?
For some evangelicals, the options in worship are either the sacraments or the gifts of the Spirit: This Sunday, thousands of believers will enter a sanctuary in which all eyes are drawn to the table...
View ArticleWho Sounds Protestant?
Another upgrader to Rome marvels about continuity between the ancient church and contemporary Roman Catholicism (were the church fathers as sexually confused as today?): I haven’t officially tweeted...
View ArticleJohn Owen Preached Irrelevantly
Speaking of liberalism, Benjamin Rush, a Presbyterian, agreed with Thomas Jefferson, that preachers should stay in their own lane and stop trying to do what politicians do. He even recommended John...
View ArticleGreat Song, But Can you Preach It?
Imagine preaching a prayer. Sometimes Tim Challies includes prayers from the congregation where he worships (the pattern seems to be using a common text for confession of sin rather than producing a...
View ArticleHope For Fans of Ravi Zacharias
Reporting on the alleged sexual abuse of a prominent apologist has shaken parts of the evangelical world if the coverage at Christianity Today is any indication. I for one still find it hard to...
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