Author: Pastor Rich Lusk
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John MacArthur Runs His Last Lap: A Tribute to the Modern Spurgeon
[A version of this article was published at 1819 News.] The passing of John MacArthur could be considered the end of an era in American evangelicalism. MacArthur’s public preaching ministry spanned over 50 years. He brought faithful Bible teaching to millions as his ministry grew from the local church, to radio and television, to the…
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Nature, Natural Law, and Pushing Back Against the Sexual Revoluton: Some Notes and Bibliography
In the aftermath of Obergefell, I wrote a paper that deals at least in a cursory way with nature, natural law, and sexual perversion. I also explore why appeals to nature are sometimes effective and sometimes not. See pages 2-16 of this essay:http://trinity-pres.net/essays/obergefellandamericaswarongod.pdf About the same time, I developed one of the footnotes from that essay into a paper of its…
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Reno on the Post-War Consensus, Populism, and Liberalism
A few quotes from R. R. Reno: “Neoliberalism” is the word that gets tossed around to describe our current system. It describes an economic and cultural regime of deregulation and disenchantment. The ambition of neoliberalism is to weaken and eventually dissolve the strong elements of traditional society that impede the free flow of commerce (the…
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What Calvin Thought He Was Doing
Ronald Wallace explains what John Calvin thought he was doing (from the book Calvin, Geneva, and the Reformation, p. 134): Calvin thought of himself in relation to the Church as an architect of reconstruction. In the letter dedicating his Commentary on Isaiah to King Edward VI he described the state of the Church. It had become like…
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1 Corinthians 7:14
How should we understand the holiness of the unbelieving spouse and children in 7:12-16? This is a complex issue on which good Christians can and will continue to disagree. Some commentators assume that the holiness in the two cases has to be precisely analogous. On this reading, the holiness in view is probably best construed…
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Infant Baptism and Church History: Did the Doctrine of Covenant Children Vanish Without a Trace? What Do We Conclude from the “Missing Controversy”?
Baptists have to argue children stopped being members of the covenant sometime in the first century with no controversy, no discussion, no explicit statement from Jesus or an apostle, and no church council. If Baptists were right, the Jerusalem Council should have been about the exclusion of infants, not (merely) the inclusion of Gentiles. Children…
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Notes on 1 Samuel 25: Pissing Against the Wall
In 1 Samuel 25, David and his men have acted as a “wall” of protection (v. 16) for Nabal’s servants, guarding Nabal’s men and numerous animals from attack by roving marauders (probably raiding Philistines). Soon after, when Nabal is having his great sheep-shearing feast, David sends men to ask him for provisions. David was not…
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Notes on Political Theology
Petrus Van Mastricht’s systematic theology text (“Theoretical-Practical Theology”) takes up the office of the civil magistrate in his section on Christology, under the heading “The Mediator as King.” In other words, political theology is treated as a subdivision of Christology. The magistrate represents Christ and is to rule in submission to Christ. He then proceeds…
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Postmillennialism and Missions
On June 23rd 1833, Princeton Seminary graduate James Eckard was about to set sail for Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He took with him a letter written by ten year old Archibald Alexander Hodge and his sister Mary Elizabeth. The letter was addressed to the “heathen.” It said: Dear heathen, The Lord Jesus Christ has promised that…
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Notes on the Necessity of Christian Education
An X post on education from 9/9/24: What is (shockingly?) missing from this article is any acknowledgement of what God has actually commanded parents to do. The most obvious thing is completely ignored. It’s not as if God’s Word is silent in this area, leaving us to our devices when it comes to deciding how…
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