Into a political, economic, and moral cauldron Peter Martyr was sent by Gasparo Cardinal Contarini (1483–1542), himself a fascinating figure without whom the Reformation might not ever have reached Italy nor Peter Martyr, whose initial work was to begin to clean up the Cathedral Chapter and the cloisters of Lucca.    It was on 18 April 1521 that... Continue Reading

A Christian church teaches the Bible. It is committed to the inerrancy, sufficiency, clarity, and authority of the Word of God and therefore preaches it week by week with confidence and consistency. A Christianish church teaches about the Bible. It is committed to imparting life lessons and uses the scriptures as a starting point to... Continue Reading

It is only those churches that have theological confessions that are able to define heresy. Thus heresy, since it to be opposed, ought rightly to be opposed and condemned, not by individuals with their differing individual standards, but by the church courts, properly called. When the shortcomings of our forefathers are examined in light of... Continue Reading

Archaeology is not central to preaching, but it can play an informative role primarily in the areas of context and content. It is one of the sources that ought to be used to gather information about a particular text that is being preached. Other disciplines are also to be brought into the study: geography, linguistics,... Continue Reading

Today is the 399th anniversary of the publication of the Canons of Dort. The word canons means “rules” or “rulings” of the Synod. These are what people commonly (but incorrectly) call “the Five Points of Calvinism.” First, Calvinism was a nickname given to us. The Reformed Churches do not call themselves by Calvin’s name. We designate ourselves by our theology,... Continue Reading

For seven years, T and her husband had been active church members with marital problems, and many people had devoted hours of marriage counseling with them. The couple even flew to Missouri to participate in an intensive four-day marriage conciliation program. Now T was saying that after all that effort, things had become worse—and she... Continue Reading

Every indication is that we will continue to see claims from the culture, fed by neo-pagan antipathy to orthodox Christianity, such as those made by Dan Brown and even by some scholars who should know better about competing “gospels” (e.g., the so-called “Gospel of Jude”) or competing “epistles,” which give the impression that the formation... Continue Reading

If you can speak, you can sing. God designed you to sing and gave you everything you need to sing as well as he wants you to. He’s far less concerned with your tunefulness than your integrity. Christian singing begins with the heart, not the lips (Eph. 5:19).   Sometimes we meet people who say,... Continue Reading

Ministering in multicultural Toronto, it’s easy to assume that any ethnic church would automatically become culturally diverse, given enough time. However, we realized that various practices we took for granted were getting in the way of reaching non-Filipinos. For example, all our services are in English; but our tendency to converse in Filipino dialects unintentionally... Continue Reading

I’ve seen prominent and not-so-prominent pastors portray video gamers as stereotypical, lazy college graduates. These video game players refuse to get a real job. They live at home in their parents’ basement and never take responsibility. We need men to grow up. This may elicit chuckles and high-fives from some, but it may also hurt a faithful... Continue Reading