Tag: christianity
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2/15/26 Baptismal Exhortation: There Is More to Baptism Than Meets the Eye
One of the great confessions produced the Reformation era is the Belgic Confession of Faith, authored by Guido de Bres in 1559, a few years before his martyrdom in 1567. The entire section on baptism is excellent, but here is part of it: By [baptism] we are received into God’s church and set apart from…
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Medieval Myths
These notes are based on my sermon from November 6, 2005. Audio available here: It is useful and fitting to reflect on the saints who have gone before us. This reflection leads us especially to the saints of the Middle Ages and to the many myths that surround the medieval church. While the medieval era…
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Liturgy and the Gospel
[This short essay was written for the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Austin TX. It appeared in the church newsletter sometime in the late 1990s, when I was on staff there.] One of the most talked about aspects of our church is our worship. Considering the centrality of gathered worship in the Scriptures, this is probably how…
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Liturgy as Cradle to Grave Pastoral Care
[I hope this is not breaking any copyright laws. I do not know where I found this but I saved it many years ago and it’s such a great essay on the pastoral value of liturgy that I want to post it here. Robert Zagore was a Lutheran pastor in the LCMS, if I recall…
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Advent in Isaiah (Part 2) — The Church’s Culture of Feasting (Isaiah 25:1–12) — 12/11/25
The Church’s Culture of Feasting (Isaiah 25:1–12) Advent in Isaiah (Part 2) The Church’s Culture of Feasting (Isaiah 25:1–12) And now our lesson of the day from the prophet Isaiah chapter 25, verses 1 to 12: “O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done…
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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Dabney Ecclesiology Lectures from Revelation 21-22 (Fall 2006) — Audio and Notes
Audio Lecture #1: Audio Lecture #2: Dabney Ecclesiology Lectures Fall 2006 Lectures #3-4 A Biblical-Theological Vision of the Church from Revelation 21-22 Hermeneutical background Reading the text as symbolic architecture Statistics, stories, and structures – 3 ways to describe a people What does it mean to be an American citizen? What does it mean…
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February 2026 X Posts and Other Miscellanies: Baptism and Circumcision; NETTR; Critique of Theonomy; Modern Israel; Conspiracy Theories and Identity Politics; Drugs and the Demonic; Immigration; Presbyterianism, the Public Church, and the Culture War; Etc.
“A brave man is a man who dares to look the Devil in the face and tell him he is a Devil.” — James A. Garfield — “Life’s tough. It’s even tougher when you’re stupid.” — John Wayne — A podcast I did about a year ago with the guys from Lancaster Patriot on Christian…
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Son of Man
Jesus’ most frequent title for himself is “Son of Man.” Why did Jesus refer to himself this way? Son of Man is Jesus’ way of calling himself the “Son of Adam.” In Pauline language, it means Second Adam, or Last Adam. It means he inaugurates a new humanity, Humanity 2.0. But there’s more. In Daniel…
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Jim Jordan’s Ecclesiocentric and Hermeneutical Critique of Theonomy
I do not recall the source of these notes, but they are a helpful summary of Jordan’s criticisms of theonomy. I have a couple of different versions here. These notes are based on Jordan’s lectures “A Theocratic Critique of Theonomy,” given in 1991. — How to think about Biblical Law Introduction• When Christianity first came…
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Covenant Infants Dying In Infancy
From the Synod of Dordt, Canon I, Article 17, Concerning the Salvation of Infants Dying in Infancy: Since we must make judgments about God’s will from his Word, which testifies that the children of believers are holy, not by nature but by virtue of the gracious covenant in which they together with their parents are…
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