Of the Way

“Throughout history, the Christian Church has had to guard against the heresy of gnosticism.  Gnosticism is not an ordinary heresy, because it does not manifest itself as a set of defined beliefs.  Rather, gnosticism is a tendency: the tendency to replace the historic facts of Christianity with philosophical ideas.  Gnosticism is the tendency to de-historicize […]

There is good reason to oppose the syrupy, squishy, evangellyfishy, Jesus-is-my-boyfriend treacle that we see around us, but we need to follow scripture rather than reacting against the prevailing error. There is a certain aspect of American reformed and Calvinist culture that operates as if our bodies only exist to take our brains to and from church. I’d be lying if I said that I haven’t been influenced in some way by this. We are Christians, not Vulcans. Christianity is incarnational. Both of these ditches have latent Gnostic assumptions and both of them are inconsistent with the Incarnation. If you think you can do theology without it erupting into doxology, your theology is wrong. Period. I don’t care how many fat books with small type you’ve read.

“I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry.  He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay.” Our Father, we thank You for wondrous love that raised us out of the very dust of death.  You did not withhold Your Son, Your […]

Required for my Historical Theology class.  It can’t be easy to attempt to distill the primary sources of Christian writing from the generation following the apostles to the eve of the reformation into a 150 page anthology.  Given the difficulty of the task, Placher does an admirable job choosing excerpts from some of the most […]

I chipped away at this big, fat green tome for the better part of the academic year.  While there is a great deal of useful information in the book and the author is a conservative, some of his inclusions, omissions, and conclusions were perplexing.  For example, Jonah is not mentioned once.  There is an entire […]

“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” Hebrews 13:5 Our most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for your abundant provisions for us.  We, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, […]

“Regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today.” I Kings 8:28 Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people, according to all that He promised. Our Heavenly Father, there has not […]

I don’t believe any individual of the post-apostolic age has had as large an impact on the universal Christian church as Athanasius of Alexandria.  On the Incarnation is one of his most notable works.  I had to read this book for my Historical Theology class at Christus Rex Study Center and lecture on it for […]

Presented as a series of conversations between a seasoned pastor and a young man who is beginning to ask questions about what is popularly known as “Calvinism,” this book presents the doctrines of grace accurately and pastorally.  At only 150 pages this would be the perfect book to give to somebody who is working through […]

Ever since the the first missionaries arrived on the British Isles almost two millennia ago, I don’t know if there has ever been a period of greater spiritual decline in the history of the English-speaking world than the Victorian Era.  Ryle lived in a period that was not devoid of religious profession, but where the […]

I’m sure that you, like me, have had situations when you labored in vain.  It is part of the toil of living in a cursed world.  The ground produces thorns and thistles which are representative of the difficulties we encounter in every vocation.  Pests infest crops; data is lost on computers; thieves break in and […]

I’m currently reading Holiness by J.C. Ryle.  It is a very good book.  One of the things I like about it is that it makes me think even when I disagree with him.  However, his chapter called “The Church Which Christ Builds” had me flabbergasted.  Here is one of the giants in the history of […]

This was a read-aloud book to my daughter, which I hope will become a yearly tradition.  I cannot recommend this book highly enough.  The book isn’t just a story about a Christmas pageant; it’s the gospel lived out.  Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners.   The Herdmans were the worst kids in […]

He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth. Remember His covenant forever, the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations. The covenant which He made with Abraham, And His oath to Isaac, And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, To Israel for an everlasting covenant, fulfilled not merely […]

At fifteen pages, I anticipate this will be the shortest book I will read for CRSC.  (Many magazine articles are longer.)  Warfield packs a lot of punch into his brief address originally delivered at the Autumn Conference at Princeton Theological Seminary on October 4, 1911.  He exhorts the seminarians regarding the type of spiritual lives […]