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  • GLOCKS FOR THE FLOCKS: A THEOLOGY OF CHURCH SECURITY AND THE RIGHT OF CONGREGATIONAL DEFENSE

    RICH LUSK REFORMED EVANGELICAL SEMINARY PRESENTATION 4/6/26 I am not trained in church security other than having worked in churches where congregational security was taken seriously for the last 30+ years, but I have thought a lot about the biblical principles that ground a congregation’s right to defend itself from an active threat. This is… Read more

  • March/April X Posts and Other Miscellanies: Feminism, Motherhood, Paedocommunion, Half-Way Covenant, Lent/Holy Week, Dawson on Christendom, Race, Crime, Etc.

    — Maundy Thursday note: We couldn’t get to God so he came to us – and met us at the most ordinary of locations, the dinner table. — Puritan marriage advice from William Whately: “Love is the life and soul of marriage, without which it differs as much from itself, as a rotten apple from… Read more

  • Explaining the Text — Or Explaining It Away?

    Far too many modern pastors spend far too much time explaining what the text of the Bible is NOT saying rather than what it IS saying. A few examples: I’ve been in conservative paedobaptist churches where, when an infant gets baptized, the pastor spends far more time explaining what is not happening than what is… Read more

  • Who Preaches the Easter Message?

    Some memes are funny and accurate. Other memes are misleading or even dishonest.There is a meme that starts to make rounds around Easter each year that says something like, “In the interest of biblical accuracy, all preaching about the resurrection this Easter Sunday will be done by women.”One does not have to appeal to the… Read more

  • Why Social Media Makes Us Crazy

    Society will always get more of what it glamorizes and less of what it stigmatizes. The law of incentives remains undefeated. Every society has a shame code – certain practices it publicly shames. You can tell a lot about the health of a society by looking at what it shames versus what it celebrates. Shame… Read more

  • “It is Finished!”: The Cross as Prophetic Finale

    What did Jesus mean when he cried out from the cross, “It is finished” in John 19? Certainly, Jesus was making a soteriological statement. “It is finished” means he has drunk the cup of divine wrath against human sin to the dregs. He has paid for and cancelled our debts (“tetelestai” was often written on… Read more