Posts by Philip Ryken

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No doubt the blogosphere will be agog today over James Cameron's announcement (he of Titanic fame) that he has found the tomb of Jesus (and his son, of all people). The first advance notice I saw of today's press conference was on Tim McGirk's Time/CNN blog from the Middle East this past weekend...
In doing a little research on William Wilberforce this week (in anticipation of this week's release of the film Amazing Grace , which marks the 200th anniversary of the slave trade in the British Empire), I stumbled across a quotation that confirms the truth of Carl's recent post on humility...
A ref21 reader has written to remind me of another good use for apologetics. According to Calvin, we need apologetics not so much "to convert the hearts of the ungodly but to stop their obstreperous mouths." One wonders what Richard Dawkins would have to say about that! I am reminded of something...
During Sunday evening (!) worship a few weeks ago, I was refreshed to hear again a hymn by Derek Thomas and Paul Jones. The hymn is entitled "Our Father Bless'd, To Us Bestows." I believe we may have posted it before, but Lord willing someone from the ref21 staff will make it magically appear on...
I don't know if the discipline of apologetics is overrated or not, but one aspect of apologetics seems to be underappreciated. While apologetics may be useful in the exercise of evangelism (helping give people reasons to believe, which of course will not convert anyone apart from the Spirit of God...
Readers who lament the undeserved popularity of Richard Dawkins's book The God Delusion will be heartened by the sharp criticism the book receives in the January 11 issue of The New York Review of Books . While generally unsympathetic to biblical theism, the reviewer (H. Allen Orr) properly...
Previous posts have mourned the passing of Al Groves, who taught Old Testament at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. I was blessed by a letter Al wrote to his friends, to be shared at the time of his funeral. The letter included these encouraging words: "For most of my Christian life I have...
Lisa (full disclosure: a woman to whom I have been married for 19 years) received the following email this week from a distant friend: "Tell your husband that he is on my iPOD between the Doobie Brothers and Duran Duran (he's in the Ds -- Dr. Philip Ryken)." One can only hope that Professor Trueman...
In personal response to Derek's question: by celebrating their wives with tangible expressions of matrimonial affection. But I hope it's not a day too late to sound a cautionary note arising from a healthy Calvinist doctrine of total depravity: "Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a...
From Makoto Fujimura's "Refractions" essay on a New York exhibit of letters from soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here Fujimura is reflecting on the declaration of Jesus that wars will happen: "In Jesus' realism of 'these things must happen,' he was also reminding us that our sacrifice, either for...
It is good to see John Tweeddale introducing the work of Richard Muller -- a world-class scholar who has done much to rehabilitate a healthy understanding of Reformed theology after Calvin. I read Muller's works on post-Reformation Reformed dogmatics early in my doctoral studies and they were...
From one of Makoto Fujimura's "Refractions" essays, writing in response to the Amish school girl who tried to offer her life for her classmates, with the implications for artists: "Here, in a miracle nobody noticed, is a bugle call also directed towards us artists. It begins in a belief that our...
More material from Makoto Fujimura's essay "Operation Homecoming: Epistles of Injury." As he read letters from soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, Fujimura was reminded of a bloody event on American soil, and the sacrifice that one person was willing to make. Fujimura writes:
A close friend and ministry colleague reported to me today that the well-known Beijing church activist Hua Huiqi and his 76-year-old mother were attacked and wounded by the police in the morning of January 26, 2007:
As I may have mentioned in a previous post, Makoto Fujimura is a brilliant New York artist whose deeply Christian work represents a synthesis of ancient Japanese techniques with Western styles. Fujimura distributes occasional essays on Christianity and the arts under the title "Refractions" (his...
Especially since we have a feature on Charles Spurgeon in this month's issue of Reformation21, it seems like a good time to quote from that worthy London Baptist once again. As I have been preaching through Luke over the last several years I have tried to read all of the many sermons that Spurgeon...
From Charles Spurgeon, "The First Cry from the Cross": "These places of worship are not built that you may sit here comfortably, and hear something that shall make you pass away your Sundays with pleasure. A church in London which does not exist to do good in the slums, and dens, and kennels of the...
Historians now generally regard the 1900's as "the American Century." What do you suppose they will call the twenty-first century? Possibly "the Biotech Century," as new scientific discoveries enable the radical re-engineering of the human body [see Jeremy Rifkin, The Biotech Century: Harnessing...
Historians now generally regard the 1900's as "the American Century." What do you suppose they will call the twenty-first century? Possibly "the Biotech Century," as new scientific discoveries enable the radical re-engineering of the human body [see Jeremy Rifkin, The Biotech Century: Harnessing...
I am grateful for Rick Phillips's latest post on feminism. There are errors on both sides of a biblical view of godly male leadership in the home and in the church. Authoritarian, domineering men who stifle the gifts of women -- or worse, who use their stength or their position to legitimate verbal...
Many thanks to Rick Phillips for his helpful comments on slavery, servitude, and manstealing. The topic seems especially appropriate in 2007, which is the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. In support of what Rick has already said, here are some additional...
You can't choose your family . . . or can you? Last week ABC News reported that 40-year old Jenna MacFarlane has adopted new parents. Feeling estranged from her own family, MacFarlane took out a personal ad that began "Single white female seeking family." She received nearly a hundred replies and...
From Dave Shiflett, Exodus: Why Americans are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity (New York: Sentinel, 2005). Shiflett wonders what accounts for the diverging growth rates of liberal (on the decline) and conservative (on the rise) churches in America. He quotes approvingly from...
I see that Rick Phillips has already written a full-length response to Susan Wise Bauer's Books & Culture review of Finally Feminist , a new book by John Stackhouse. I have not read the Stackhouse book, but based on the summary in the review, its arguments for egalitarianism are all too...
Taking some exception to my recent theological slur on his beloved sport of cricket, an English friend has written to correct my athletics and my theology: "I feel moved to defend cricket against the charge of pelagianism recently made on the Ref21 web log. "I do not think such a view can be...
From Dave Shiflett, Exodus: Why Americans are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity (New York: Sentinel, 2005): "As the mainline has moved closer to flatlining, churches that have maintained allegiance to traditional Christian belief, comparatively speaking, have experienced...
Here is a juicy paragraph from Charles Spurgeon ("The Dying Thief in a New Light") that couldn't find its way into last week's sermon but was too good not to share: "I believe that many Christian people get into a deal of trouble through not being honest in their convictions. For instance, if a man...
There is still time to register for the Workshop on Biblical Exposition at Tenth Presbyterian Church February 6-8. One of last year's participants wrote: "I want to thank you again for the Workshop on Biblical Exposition. It has changed my preparation and my preaching. My deacons and congregation...
From Dave Shiflett, Exodus: Why Americans Are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity : "Most people go to church to get something they cannot get elsewhere. This consuming public--people who already believe, or who want their children to believe--go to church to learn about the...
Carl, can you tell us again where to get all these provocative quotes from P. T. Forsyth? With regard to the last quotation in your most recent post, may I infer that Mr. Forsyth had never been to Wales?
Many thanks to Ligon for reporting Aaron Messner's call to Covenant College. Aaron has exercised a faithful and dynamic ministry at Tenth Church, and we expect him to make a large difference on Covenant's campus. His weekly ministry of the Word will cherish the life of the mind and challenge the...
Belatedly, I write to reflect further on Carl Trueman's Counterpoint ("Close, but No Cigar"). There Carl writes about his recent visit to a synagogue and the rabbi's thoughtful homily on Genesis 22, which included everything except the gospel. As I read Carl's article -- and as I write this post...
This is the second installment in a series of occasional selections from Dave Shiflett's Exodus: Why Americans Are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity . To prove his thesis, Mr. Shiflett must first prove that Americans are, in fact, fleeing liberal churches, and also explain why...
If scoring is the criterion, then basketball is semi-Pelagian, at best. For a truly Pelagian sport, one would have to consider the quintessentially English sport of cricket, which is much higher scoring than basketball, and where even the bowlers can manage to score the occasional run or two. If...
One of the most important questions we ask prospective pastoral interns at Tenth Church is: "How do people grow spiritually?" The answer quickly reveals whether or not candidates are grace-oriented in their discipleship and also how well they understand the role of God's means of grace (the Word,...
Yesterday my father (Leland Ryken, Professor of English, Wheaton College) sent me a thought-provoking exchange from John Steinbeck's East of Eden : "If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen. And I here make a rule--a great and lasting story is about eveyrone or it will not last. The...
Dave Shiflett has written a provocative book about the decline of liberal Christianity in America and the concomitant ascendancy of historically orthodox Christianity. The book is called Exodus: Why Americans Are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity (New York: Sentinel, 2005). It...
Tenth Presbyterian Church is hosting its second annual Workshop on Biblical Exposition, February 6-8. The workshop is put on by The Simeon Trust; the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals is also sponsoring the event and assisting in various ways. The speakers include Kent Hughes (retired Senior...
A ref21 reader has pointed me to an alternate version (the same for substance, but different in some important factual respects) of the story of "The Man from George Street," which I serialized in December. For details, visit: http://www.wordsoflife.co.uk/FrankJenner/FrankJenner.htm . Also, Dr...
From my morning's reading, in preparation to preach on Luke 23:32-38: "Now thou art lifted up, draw me to thee, And at thy death giving such liberal dole, Moist, with one drop of thy blood, my dry soul ." -- John Donne, "Crucifying"
John Selden was a leading layman, churchman, and scholar who served as a member of the Westminster Assembly. His notable achievements include establishing the core 17th century collection of books for Oxford's Bodleian Library. Selden had this to say about why pastors need the assistance of elders...
One of my most vivid memories of kindergarten is hearing Miss Killip talk to us about heaven, telling us that Jesus was preparing a place for us. This was back in the day when John 14 still said "many mansions" -- an evocative phrase. Recently I received a "Tribute to Beatrice K. Killip," written...
My colleague Aaron Messner writes: "Here’s a special Christmas story. My sister-in-law was visiting for the Christmas holiday and attended the 7:30 Christmas Eve service with us. She thoroughly enjoyed the service and after we got back to the house, she asked if the service would become available...
At Philadelphia's Tenth Presbyterian Church we end the old year and begin the new oneby celebrating the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Our worship service traditionally closes with the singing of "Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners!" This year I learned that the hymn's author, J. Wilbur Chapman,...
Here (in the last post I will be making until the new year) is the last installment of a series on an exceptionally effective evangelist from Syndey, Australia: "Well, eight months later, that Crystal Palace Baptist pastor was ministering in Sydney, in Gymea, a southern suburb of Sydney. And he...
That London preacher, six months later, flew to do a convention for 5,000 Indian missionaries in a remote corner of northeastern India. And at the end, the Indian missionary in charge, a humble little man took him home to his humble little home for a simple meal. And he said, “How did you, as a...
In an article entitled "An Atheist Can Believe in Christmas," Randy Kennedy asks how some prominent atheists are (or are not) celebrating the holidays. It turns out that Sam Harris ( Letter to a Christian Nation ) has a Christmas tree up at his house, albeit a small one -- "a tree that even an...
Our own Derek Thomas and Dr. Paul Jones (an Alliance Council member who serves organist and music director at Philadelphia's Tenth Presbyterian Church) have collaborated on a new Christmas carol. The full text and music will be posted soon, but here is the opening stanza: Not in regal robes of...
Coming back to London, the minister stopped outside Atlanta, Georgia, to speak at a naval chaplain’s convention. And when his three days of revving these naval chaplains up—over a thousand of them, in Suwanee—the chaplain general took him out for a meal. And he said, “How did you become a Christian...
"The more I go to church, and the more I turn myself over the process of believing in Jesus and listening to His Word and having Him guide my hand, I feel as though the pressure is off me now." Can you guess the source of this quotation?