On Christmas Day some years ago, a dear saint in her eighties sat at our fireplace and regaled us with stories of what it was like to be a Christian in twentieth-century America. The conversation took a melancholic turn as she described the problems in the Reformed communions of which she had been a part. […]
Christians agree that our growth in godliness is important, but not everyone agrees about why that is true or what is at stake. In recent years, discussions within the Reformed community about the role of our good works in relation to the final judgment have been prominent, some suggesting that our works play a role […]
Professor John Stackhouse, Jr., is the Sangwoo Youtong Chee Professor of Theology and Culture at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. He is the author of seven books, the most recent of which is Making the Best of it: Following Christ in the Real World (Oxford University Press, 2008). He is a senior advisory editor to […]
We live in a world where some of the most popular forms of communication actually make us worse listeners. Just think about the number of words that pass through your mind on any given day: texts, social media posts, headlines, television, radio, podcasts, friends, coworkers, emails, books, articles, etc. We’re consuming more information than ever […]
Denominations across the spectrum are facing the reality of youth attrition. Findings from Pew Research Center suggest that upwards of three-quarters of today’s religious “nones” were “raised as a member of a particular religion before shedding their religious identity in adulthood.” Historically, at least a portion of those who left the church would return when […]
Even though few of us have ever worked with sheep, the line "sheep without a shepherd" resonates for all of us. A scene flashes before our mind's eye of kids on a playground with no adults: it's Lord of the Flies. So it was this imagined scene that frosted Moses' mind when God told him […]
This round-table discussion on evangelism took place during the 2000 National Pastors' Conference held in Atlanta, Georgia. The pastors engaged in the discussion included Alliance Council members Ken Jones, John Nunes, Gene Veith, and Michael Horton, as well as Alistair Begg and Rick Phillips. Horton: We have a situation today where people often wonder, "Can […]
It’s easy to yawn over yet another new book on Martin Luther, this past year’s five-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation notwithstanding. We’ve seen the movie, right? We all know he fell terror-struck in a thunderstorm, confessed copious amounts of sins we would today label as personality foibles or age-related distress, gave the “Here I stand” […]
(PART ONE OF A FIVE-PART SERIES) My grandfather was a boxer. He was never good enough to be a professional, but he did a good deal of amateur boxing when he was a young man and always loved “the fights” (as he called boxing matches) throughout his long life. The biggest compliment he ever paid […]
When Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code first caused a stir, White Horse Inn co-host Michael Horton interviewed Paul L. Maier, who coauthored The Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction? with Hank Hanegraaff. As their discussion is relevant to this issue on canon formation, we are providing it here for our readers. Dr. Maier is […]
Should Amy Grant sing cross-over songs? (1) After all, the distinction between full-time Christian service and secular employment is arbitrary. One of the great Reformation truths is that all occupations done before the face of God, and in compliance with his revealed Word, are godly occupations. On the face of it, the conclusion seems self-evident: […]
Over the last few weeks, our one-year-old son Jack has started pointing at things. Usually it’s pretty simple to figure out what’s caught his attention—“tree” and “squirrel” are perennial favorites, unsurprisingly. But the picture gets more complicated when it comes to his fascination with, and apparent love of, everything that happens at church. For Jack, […]