Christian Living

Heaven on Earth? Podcast

Jonathan Master
Oct 8, 2018
What do we think when we think about heaven? Is heaven our eternal home? Derek Thomas joins us for conversation about the delightful topic of heaven and the new earth. He’s currently the senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, SC. In this encouraging conversation, Derek tells us...

Why Get Married?

Jeffrey Stivason
Oct 6, 2018
Many Americans are still marrying but an increasing number are not. So, why aren’t people getting married these days? Recently, I was reading an article by a secular psychologist who offered several reasons for what he called the decline of marriage. First, new economic realities for women have...

Limping along through Prayer

Mark Johnston
Oct 4, 2018
For more Christians (and Christian ministers) than we might imagine, one the biggest struggles in their life of faith is that of prayer. Every Christian knows that prayer matters, but many of us know how hard it can be for multiple reasons. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the Bible has...

Natural Revelation: The Consequences of Suppression

Joel Wood
Oct 3, 2018
Romans 1 is the story of humanity’s seeking to detour itself from the consequences of its rebellion against God, and thereby making the situation all the worse. Romans 1:18 explains that God reveals Himself to humanity in nature. Simply put, nature has God’s fingerprints all over it. We understand...

A Silence on Separation

Paul Washer
Oct 3, 2018
Today there is a void of serious teaching about holiness in life. There is, of course, a general teaching on holiness that everyone agrees on. "Let us be holy," they say, "we need to be more holy. Why not have a holiness conference?" But when you get specific about what that means, everything boils...

Thomas Bradwardine and the Pelagians

Simonetta Carr
Oct 2, 2018
Anyone who felt perplexed – even outraged – the first time they read Romans 9 may identify with Thomas Bradwardine, a 14 th -century Archbishop of Canterbury. His age was, like ours, entrenched in Pelagianism, exalting man’s free will and ability to come to God on his own terms. That’s the...

Natural Theology & Christian Apologetics: A Brief Primer

David Smith
Sep 28, 2018
The topics of apologetics and natural theology are, to say the least, complex and controversial. Yet as Christians we have to deal with them. So let us try informed by God’s word and the history of the Church. We must define our terms, and while broad summary definitions can generally be agreed...

Still Protesting: the Donum Superadditum

Jeffrey Stivason
Sep 27, 2018
“Why can’t you get past the objections of Luther and his progeny?” That was the question that came plaintively from the man who sat opposite the pastor in the coffee house. The Pastor, whose name was Peter, looked at him as if to say, “Haven’t I already explained?” I could see his frustration as I...

What is Natural Revelation?

Tim Bertolet
Sep 26, 2018
It is important to understand that we cannot know anything about God unless He reveals Himself to us. God is infinite, and we are finite. The distance between God and man is so great that we could not know anything about Him or what He requires if He did not reveal Himself to us (WCF 7.1). As...

Conrad Cordatus and Solus Christus

Simonetta Carr
Sep 25, 2018
On 24 July, 1536, Conrad Cordatus heard a lecture that troubled him deeply. While commenting on the Gospel of John, the Lutheran preacher Caspar Cruciger said, “Christ alone is the meritorious cause; meanwhile, it is true, in a way, that man must be active in a manner; we must be contrite, and must...