Resources from 2011
"And behold, I am with you always,even to the end of the age." (Matt. 28:20) This past year we have unpacked the Great Commission. We began with the "Great An-nouncement" that generates the church's mandate. Jesus grounds his imperative "Go!" in the indicative announcement that he has already accomplished our redemption. "All authority in heaven […]
After declining several invitations, John Witherspoon (1723-94) finally accepted a call as the first pastor of Nassau Presbyterian Church and president of Princeton College. At Princeton he also taught theology, history, and philosophy to many of the new nation’s leaders, including James Madison, Aaron Burr, and a host of Supreme Court justices and members of […]
Christ's promise to be with his church until the end of the age’delivered on the eve of his departure’is one of those gospel promises that comes wrapped in a riddle. Once the riddle is understood, it no longer obscures the truth but rather reveals it all the more profoundly. The profound truth revealed by this […]
Ben Franklin’s oft-repeated motto, “Remember that time is money,” stands in need of a serious twentieth-century upgrade. Today, text is money. Intellectual property rights are the new cash cow, not the time clock. It’s a shame Jesus didn’t have a financial advisor to counsel him on such matters. If only he would have trademarked John […]
In the 1980s, many evangelicals spoke about winning the world to Christ by the year 2000, and there were a number of conversations about the matter, all of which, in hindsight, appear to have been a tad ambitious. It was not uncommon in those days for a Gordon-Conwell Seminary student to raise a hand in […]
Readers of Michael Horton's Christless Christianity and The Gospel-Driven Life will find Good News for Anxious Christians an outstanding companion in the effort to foster a proper understanding of Christian thinking and living that flows from God's good news. Emerging from decades of firsthand exposure to evangelical anxieties about sanctification, this is a welcome addition […]
I recently had the sad experience of watching two dear members leave our congregation; and after two hour-long phone calls, I was able to get to the root of the issue: my recent sermons on the doctrine of election from Acts 9. Though I tried my best to dissuade them against leaving the fellowship, they […]
Michael S. Horton joined fellow White Horse Inn co-host Kim Riddlebarger, Steve M. Baugh, and Dennis E. Johnson in a roundtable discussion on the book of Revelation. Dr. Kim Riddlebarger is pastor of Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim and the author of A Case for Amillennialism: Understanding the End Times (Baker, 2003) and Man of […]
"Whose Community? Which Interpretation? Philosophical Hermeneutics for the Church" by Merold Westphal
Merold Westphal writes in Whose Community? Which Interpretation?: "It is sometimes said, that one is not prepared to read any serious philosophical text until one has already read it at least once, and there is a lot of truth in this reminder that philosophy, like physics, takes serious, disciplined preparation. There are no cheap seats […]
In the summer of 2009, when scholars, pastors, and the historically minded laity were celebrating the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth, The Washington Post ran an op-ed piece by a constitutional attorney who attempt-ed to give reasons for not only Protestants but all Americans to commemorate the Frenchman's birth. Ac-cording to Doug Phillips, "On […]
"Rid of My Disgrace: Hope and Healing for Victims of Sexual Assault" by Justin S. Holcomb and Lindsay A. Holcomb
Throughout our lives on this side of heaven, we may be characterized as either a villain or a victim in any given circumstance. Rid of My Disgrace is written particularly to give help and hope to victims of sexual abuse by placing their painful experiences in the context of God’s redeeming grace. This book is […]
"Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" by Laura Hillenbrand
Not usually one for reading nonfiction books, especially in the genre of war- time literature, I was glad I took the plunge with Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (author of the popular book Seabiscuit, which has been made into a film). And this is probably the first time I've written this column about a book that […]
Scripture not only speaks of the personal faith of every believer in Christ, but also of “the faith once and for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Paul gives us the proper coordinates in 2 Timothy. After reciting the gospel of Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection, he exhorts his young apprentice to “hold fast […]
This year we have considered Jesus’ issuance of the Great Commission in Matthew 28. Not just part of it, mind you, but all of it, from the initial triumphant “Great Announcement” that all authority has been given to the Son from the Father, to the “Great Commandment” to “go” into all the world to use […]
We have observed that the risen Lord Jesus corrected the assumptions behind his apostles' question, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). (1) He gently squelched their curiosity about the timing of God's kingdom agenda, as such "inside information" was not theirs to know (1:7; see Matt. 24:36; 25:13; […]
