Category: apologetics

  • Some Reformed utter “Bah Humbug!” and seek to cancel Christmas!

    Dear fellow Reformed: Stop saying it’s a sin to celebrate Christmas, or that such a celebration is unbiblical. You do things every single day not explicitly commanded in Scripture. It is a gross misapplication of the regulative principle which itself is problematic. I favor the normative principle. Unless something is SINFUL OR EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN by…

  • What Does It Mean to Be Reformed?

    In my years of being involved in Christian discussion and debate online (nearly 30 years), I’ve noticed that many Reformed Presbyterians seem to look down on us Reformed Baptists (aka Particular Baptists) and say we aren’t “Really Reformed” or we’re not “Truly Reformed”. I maintain that infant baptism is not the sine qua non of…

  • Charles Finney: Agent of Satan

    Charles Finney popularized the altar call and decisional salvation (decision theology), which is making a decision for Christ by praying and asking Jesus into your heart. It’s synergistic Arminian soteriology. He also advocated for revivals. The true Gospel is one in which God regenerates a believer, through effectual calling, grants them repentance and faith in…

  • Justification: On What Basis?

    Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Romans 5:1 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of…

  • The Sad State of American Evangelicalism

    It may be no surprise to Christians who are well-informed and careful observers of the spiritual landscape of America, but still the results of the surveys of evangelicals referenced in this post are both shocking and depressing. They reveal a fractured evangelical body in America, one that is rife with all manner of heresies and…

  • The Geneva Bible: The Reformers’ Bible

    What exactly is the Geneva Bible and what is its significance? The Geneva Bible was first published in 1560. It was the first translation to use chapter divisions and numbered verses and became the most popular version of its time because of the extensive marginal notes and annotations. Some of those notes were very controversial.…

  • Some Thoughts on the Lord’s Day

    Oh what a mysteryThat the Creator of the universeShould humble HimselfAnd incarnate as a man Who can fathom thisMiracle of miraclesThe omnipotent and sovereign GodAs a creature What depths of loveDrove the God-Man to usTo redeem wretched mankindSuch love is eternal Born to a virginChrist lived among usHe was sinless, perfect in every wayHe experienced…

  • The Glorious Protestant Reformation: Some Thoughts on Reformation Day

    On this day, October 31st, in the year of our Lord, 1517, an Augustinian friar (monk) in the Roman Catholic church, Martin Luther (1483-1546), who was also a theologian, priest, and a professor at the University at Wittenberg, nailed his 95 theses, which were theological problems he saw with Catholic theology as well as practices…

  • Imago Dei: Lost or Retained?

    Was the Imago Dei (Image of God) lost in the Fall of man, or was it retained, yet in a distorted or compromised sense? The phrase has its origins in Genesis 1:27, wherein “God created man in his own image…” I posit that the Image of God was lost in the Fall of man and…

  • Water Baptism: A Reformed Examination of John 3:5

    When a person is baptized is it the water itself that regenerates? Or is it the washing by the Holy Spirit that regenerates? According to Calvin, and other Reformed commentators, the water in John 3:5 is not referring to water baptism. And it is the washing by the Holy Spirit that regenerates. And that alone.…