Meet the Puritans

Since theological seminaries have recently held graduations and a new class of students will soon enter, I thought it would be a fun exercise to write a post on "the learned Doctor" William Ames' advice to theological students. William Ames (1576–1633) was an Englishman who was "exiled" to the...

In discussing the practical doctrine of assuance (see parts 1 , 2 , and 3 in this series), one careful distinction we must make is between assurance and presumption . The reason is that a false assurance is the worst delusion and spiritual insanity, but too many people bless themselves even while...

On two different occasions recently, I have read and heard Spurgeon’s story of the Scottish “fishwife” carrying a basket of fish while an eager young man challenged her about spiritual things. When he compared her “burden” of fish to Bunyan’s spiritual one in Pilgrim’s Progress , the woman claimed...

Quick; what’s the first thing you think of when I say the word “estate?” Got it? Now let me take a wild guess and say that you probably thought of the word sale, as in estate sale, right? To us materialist Westerners, an estate is the sum total of our lives that we can pass on to our children, with...

The creeds and confessions of the past continue to serve the Church today because they summarize the eternal truths of Scripture. While the grass withers and the flowers fade, the Word of God stands forever (Isa. 40:8) and therefore faithful summaries of Scripture stand the test of time as well...

Say it aint so, but the Puritans cut and pasted their own material across their works! I think it was Mark Jones who once made this point in relation to Thomas Goodwin. Well, John Owen did it too. For example, his sermon on 1 Corinthians 12:11 ( Works 9:441–452) does this. But there is one section...

Thanks to our friends at Crossway we have one (1) copy of The Theology of the Westminster Standards by J.V. Fesko. The deadline for entering is Friday, July 1. Here's the entry form .

As we continue our series ( part 1 , part 2 ) on assurance, we come to four basic details about it that are so important to consider. It is possible for a Christian to have an assurance of his salvation. We see in Scripture that God’s people have enjoyed it. David called God his God and his portion...

An Honest Admission Recently, this title in the Washington Post (Feb 4, 2016) caught my eye: “I’m an atheist. So why can’t I shake God?: Turns out it's pretty hard to believe in nothing when your psyche is wired for faith.” Elizabeth King, the author, then tells how she abandoned her childhood...

“In Adam’s fall, we sinned all” ( The New-England Primer: A Reprint of the Earliest Known Edition, with Many Facsimiles and Reproductions, and an Historical Introduction , ed. Paul Leicester Ford [NY: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1899], 14). This famous line of Benjamin’s Harris’ 1690 New England Primer...