Tag: faith
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A Note on the Real Presence
Few areas of theology caused as much controversy at the time of the Protestant Reformation as that of the way in which Christ is present in the Lord’s Supper. Briefly consider the parameters of this debate and the Reformational answer. On one end of the spectrum, were the Anabaptists (and supposedly Zwingli shared their view,…
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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…
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March/April 2026 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…
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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…
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“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…
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Pilate on Trial: The Gospel According to Pilate
Pilate sneered, “What is truth?” when Jesus stood trial before him. But then Pilate went on to speak truth, time after time. Indeed, Pilate, like Caiaphas in John 11, unwittingly preached the gospel. Consider the words of Pilate in John 18-19: “Are you the King of the Jews?” Yes, he is the King of the…
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Against the Seder; For the Lord’s Supper
There’s nothing more stupid in the church today than evangelicals doing a play-acting “Seder Supper.” First, we don’t need to do a fake Passover. The church already has the Lord’s Supper which is (among other things) the fulfillment of the old covenant Passover. Jesus gave us a meal. Why do something other than what he…
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February/March 2026 X Posts and Other Miscellanies: Imprecatory Psalms, Feminism vs. Femininity, War with Iran, Putnam on Diversity, American Christian Nationalism, Roosevelt on Islam, John Stott on the Cross, Thomas Manton on Covenant Children and Parenting, Free Market Capitalism, St. Patrick, Wealth, John 13, Empathy, Etc.
I recently did a podcast with Josh Haymes on love/hatred for enemies: This was a follow up to an earlier podcast we did on imprecatory psalms: Right Wing Watch took notice of our most recent episode — though they managed to miss the whole point of what we were saying: https://www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwatch/any-means-necessary-christian-nationalists-call-destruction-their-political-enemies Of course, this article…
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Biblical Submission vs. Mutual Submission
A note on a wife’s submission to her husband: Egalitarians push the concept of “mutual submission” based on Ephesians 5:21. The grammatical problems with this way of reading that text have been pointed out many times by the better commentators. The egalitarian reading of the text is a novel interpretation. It’s a reading of the…
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Thomas Manton on Infant Faith and Infant Salvation
If without faith it be impossible to please God, then childrenmust have some kind of faith, else they can never be accepted to life. Iknow that the apostle doth principally speak of adult or grown persons,men of age, such as come to God, and seek him: but though, however, therule is general, there is no…
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