New Testament

This in the first in a multi-part series. Stay tuned over the next few months to read more on how the Puritans teach us to live in the world! Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and...
Dear Theophilus, I find that the greatest danger facing the church today is Christ-less Christianity. I realize that this expression will raise your eyebrows and well it should for what is Christianity if not Christ? But if I leave it undefined you will ask what it means in your next letter! So,...
Dear Theophilus, Since God’s word makes abundantly clear that the human soul is “deceitfully sick, beyond cure”—that is, human cure—and that God alone knows it (Jeremiah 17:9), we are wholly incapable, on our own, of accurately discerning the biblical validity of our desires, thoughts and actions...
The Identity and Attributes of God Jonathan and James have the pleasure of speaking with Terry Johnson. Terry is the senior pastor of Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, GA, and the author of several books including his latest, The Identity and Attributes of God by Banner of Truth. What...
Give us this day our daily bread. —Matthew 6:11 In A Body of Divinity , Thomas Watson (1620–1686) presented over 150 sermons on essential Christian teachings, including a series on the Lord’s Prayer. Here is a brief section taken from his treatment of the fourth petition: Thus we argue from the...
Edward Dering and His Stunning Lenten Sermon Whatever Queen Elizabeth I might have expected by inviting Edward Dering to preach a Lenten sermon in her presence, it was certainly not an outspoken rebuke. Edward Dering was a young, promising preacher, with an outstanding reputation as a Greek scholar...
Tertullian and Irenaeus are the earliest witnesses to the Creed now known as the Apostle’s Creed. During their pastorates it was likely in its earliest form and known as the Roman Symbol. This early form of the Apostle’s Creed most likely appeared in or around 150 AD in Rome and was a response to...
The phrase in the Apostle’s Creed, “He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty” is packed with theological importance. Early on we learned that this creed was written to combat the theological deviance of Gnosticism. Everywhere the Creed indicates that the...
I am not sure where I first heard this wisdom, but I have heard it several times: a pastor does not need an office, he needs a study. Spot on. The bulk of pastoral work is not management behind a door labeled “office,” it is bookish work behind a door labeled “study” – reading, research, writing,...
According to N. T. Wright, it is now generally agreed that an overall theme in II Corinthians is “Paul’s defense, not of his apostolic ministry in itself, but of the particular style or character of that ministry.” [1] For Wright, these arguments concerning the nature of Paul’s ministry form the...