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Jim Palmer, a former evangelical pastor who once served in ministry at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago and went on to preach the power of faith to hundreds as lead pastor of his own church in Brentwood, Tennessee, is now the vice president of the Nashville Humanist Association, which promotes humanism and a secular state.Palmer, 53, told The Tennessean that his journey away from faith in God was triggered about 20 years ago by two devastating events. He said his faith was shaken when he learned that a church staff member was beating their spouse. It then suffered another blow when...

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16) After stating that the Bible is God-breathed, Paul spelled out its purpose and value. Scripture, he said, is profitable for several things, including doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness.The value of the Bible lies, first of all, in the fact that it teaches sound doctrine. Though we live in a time when sound teaching is denigrated, the Bible places a high value on it....

According to the Christian Post Monday, megachurch, Westminster Presbyterian Church (This is a PCUSA church) in Greensboro, NC will be without a senior pastor because of his recent admittance to having an affair for the entire nine months he has been the pastor. “ Weaver apologized in a letter to the Salem Presbytery: I have violated my ordination vows and my wedding vows," the 33-year-old Weaver confessed in the letter, which was mailed to the congregation on Friday by the Salem Presbytery, the regional governing body for local Presbyterian (U.S.A.) churches. "I am sorry and I ask your forgiveness.” This...

Calvin’s Neglected Spirituality “The spirituality of John Calvin is seldom examined.” Although there are notable exceptions to this verdict by Howard Hageman, it seems generally true that even those who consult Calvin on theological or exegetical questions may be inclined to look elsewhere for spiritual direction. I suspect that a principal reason for this oversight has to do with what we mean by “spirituality.” Once upon a time, daily rhythms were ordered by the tolling of the church bell and the annual cycle punctuated by the church calendar. People passed into the church to mark life’s milestones through rows of...

October 2006 – It is a mark of our changing times that many people have only a vague idea who Martin Luther is. Most of us have heard his name but we’re not sure where he’s from or what he did or when he lived. Some of us even get him mixed up with someone else. I would venture to say that most of us are aware of the fact that Martin Luther was a religious leader who managed somehow to get a whole denomination named after himself. And some of us are probably aware that Martin Luther had something...

Advertising for an event in the Marshall Student Center next week has caught the attention — and concern — of some students: Blue posters and a banner advertising a lecture on “Homosexuality and Christianity,” a lecture that will be given by Dr. Rosario Butterfield, a self-proclaimed former “leftist lesbian” professor at Syracuse University who became heterosexual after becoming a devout Christian. According to Butterfield’s website, she advises people to “have no contact with pornography or with secret lovers—physical, non-physical, virtual or real,” not to “misuse Christ by asking Him to baptize your feelings” and to stay away from ministry if...

Full Title: Ten Basic Facts about the NT Canon that Every Christian Should Memorize: #3: The New Testament Books Are Unique Because They Are Apostolic Books ___________________________________________________________________________________________ One of the most basic facts about the New Testament canon that all Christians should understand is that the canon is intimately connected to the activities of the apostles. Jesus had commissioned his apostles “so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority” (Mark 3:14–15). When Jesus sent out the twelve, he reminds them that “For it is not you who speak, but the...

Full Title: Ten Basic Facts about the NT Canon that Every Christian Should Memorize: #2: “Apocryphal Writings are All Written in the Second Century or Later” _______________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ In the prior post, we discussed the first basic fact about the New Testament canon, namely that the New Testament writings are the earliest Christian texts we possess. We were careful to make clear that the early date of these books does not make them canonical, but the early date does show that these books were written during a time period when eyewitnesses of Jesus were still alive. In this current post,...

The “young, restless, and Reformed” movement is growing throughout in Africa The testimony of these young men and women has been universally the same. They have listened to a few of the sermons and felt like men and women who have starved for years and stumbled into a room with food meant for a king. Hence, they have listened to everything that they can lay their hands on. They have also foraged the blogosphere for Reformed discussions and monologues. After my last blog post, which went “viral” compared to my other blog posts, I have decided to write on something...

I saw this over at Denny Burk’s blog today. Apparently the reason the Presbyterian Church USA doesn’t like “In Christ Alone (one of my favorites), is because of that unpopular, un-politically correct word, “Wrath.” As we’ve pointed out many times here at SUFTT, the more sin is watered down, the less we have of the true Gospel. In other words – no sin = FALSE gospel. The PCUSA has been going down a concerning path for quite some time now, and it appears that this is just another symptom of the problem the devil delights in: a departure from Truth...

The commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the birth of the great Geneva Protestant Reformer, John Calvin, took place this past July 10, 2009. Without question, Calvin was a giant among men used by God to rediscover and expound on biblical truth that long had been forgotten and rejected by Rome. His influence on all spheres of life is immeasurable, and today, his understanding of theology is making a huge comeback within certain quarters of the Christian community. However, what Americans do not realize immediately is that the birth of the American republic is steeped in Calvinist presuppositions, and perhaps...

You Might Just Be A Calvinist If…. If you have a Martin Luther Jell-O mold… you just might be a Calvinist. If your DVR has over 25 episodes of Wretched With Todd Friel recorded on it… you just might be a Calvinist. If your child’s first word was “Westminster”… you just might be a Calvinist. If your 4 year old can explain what the word “propitiation” means… you might just be a Calvinist. If you send your mother tulips on Mother’s Day… you might be a Calvinist. If your passion for evangelism blows away your Arminian friends… you might just...

The law of God has all but been abandoned today in gospel preaching and has produced "Finneyesque fruit" of half-hearted committments and temporary conversions all across our nation. The "new life" claimed by nearly forty million evangelicals today makes one wonder: if there is so much light in America, why is everything becoming so dark? Antinomianism is rampant today in evangelicalism (cp, Rom. 6:1) and due in part to the absence of the law in the proclamation of sola fide. I trust the following will encourage you to live by the Word of God, the gospel of God, and the...

Available very soon is a new book by Dr. Michael Horton called "Christless Christianity." Thabiti M. Anyabwile, Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Grand Cayman describes this new work as follows: “Horton has ably helped us see the train wreck that is so much of popular Christianity... A more important and timely volume could not have been written.” Here is a 5 minute video by Dr. Horton about it...

The Covenant of Grace: A Key to Understanding the Bible Calvin Knox Cummings The young Christian who has come to know Christ the living Word will want to know more of the written Word, the Bible. But as he examines his Bible there may sometimes come over him a feeling of confusion and discouragement. The Bible is composed of many books written over a long period of time. What does it mean? How can the young Christian master the Bible? How shall he begin its study? This little booklet is designed to aid the young Christian in his initial study...

When the Lord opened my heart to the gospel in December of 1985, He set me on a radical new course, having delivered me from a wild life which was characterized by various anti-social behaviors, selfishness, drugs, crime, and the occult. Out of the most unlikely place, as I was reading the Scripture, the Lord revealed to me my lost condition: that I was without hope save in the mercy of Jesus Christ alone. In a moment, the Holy Spirit graciously united me to Christ, adopted me into God’s family, turning me from my idols to serve the Living and...

“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” - Rudyard Kipling When one travels to a new culture it is all to common to be overwhelmed by a cacophony of smells, sounds, and sights. The Aegean provides just such a stimulus to many travelers. Among some of the most interesting sights are those held in high esteem by Christians. The ruins of the city of Ephesus and the island of Patmos provide a direct connection to significant portions of Scripture. Located in South-West Turkey, Ephesus has some of the most impressive ruins this traveler has seen....

"See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is." (1 John 3:1-3) The mark of knowing God is that you see God's love for you as a miracle. Notice this [text]: it...

It has been observed in the last chapter that Christianity is based on an account of something that happened in the first century of our era. But before that account can be received, certain presuppositions must be accepted. The Christian gospel consists in an account of how God saved man, and before that gospel can be understood something must be known (1) about God and (2) about man. The doctrine of God and the doctrine of man are the two great presuppositions of the gospel. With regard to these presuppositions, as with regard to the gospel itself, modern liberalism is...

Modern liberalism in the Church, whatever judgment may be passed upon it, is at any rate no longer merely an academic matter. It is no longer a matter merely of theological seminaries or universities. On the contrary its attack upon the fundamentals of the Christian faith is being carried on vigorously by Sunday-School "lesson-helps," by the pulpit, and by the religious press. If such an attack be unjustified, the remedy is not to be found, as some devout persons have suggested, in the abolition of theological seminaries, or the abandonment of scientific theology, but rather in a more earnest search...