Required listening: Bauder on the call to ministry

I received my alumni update yesterday, and they said that chapel messages were available on-line at sermonaudio.com. I found a message preached there by Kevin Bauder called “A Call to Ministry,” where he is asking these collegians to consider if they are called to ministry. You should listen to this sermon (and, for your convenience, [...]

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Your daily recommended intake of baloney

While I myself am not a big fan of the idea of a “Creation theme-park,” (the official website) I thought the retort this critic gave was down-right laughable.
“The way science works is that we actually ask questions of Nature and we let Nature give the answers.” – Lawrence Krauss
Alas, the myth of an objective [...]

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Forever with the Lord

by James Montgomery
“Forever with the Lord!”
Amen, so let it be!
Life from His death is in that word
’Tis immortality.
Here in the body pent,
Absent from Him I roam,
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A day’s march nearer home
My Father’s house on high,
Home of my soul, how near
At times to faith’s foreseeing eye
Thy golden gates appear!
Ah! then my spirit [...]

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John Owen: two more ways to mortification

This is superb–one of the best things I have read in a long time. John Owen, in his spiritual classic Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, devotes a chapter (12) to reminding us how great God is and how little we know of him. Part of mortification is having before us a constant reminder [...]

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On the resignation of Pastor Douglas McLachlan

I am a fundamentalist who is young. I attended–still attend–a seminary that does not treat the course in the history of fundamentalism as a time to revel in hagiography. But when I hear the scandalous stories, the stories of power-brokers and fundamentalist cardinals making threats to slightly lower fundamentalist bishops about institutional loyalty, I am [...]

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He is not to be trusted with other men’s souls

I have been of late listening to Richard Baxter’s Reformed Pastor on audio (see below), and have loved it. Baxter is very insightful, and cuts through to expose your deepest depravity. Consider this section on the importance of the pastor believing and feeling what he preaches. If a pastor is not concerned for his own [...]

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God Himself is Present

by Gerhard Tersteegen (1697-1769), translated by Frederick William Foster (1760-1835) and John Miller (1756-90), sung to ARNSBERG by Joachim Neander (1650-80)
God himself is present,
Let us now adore him,
And with awe appear before him!
God is in his temple,
All within keep silence,
Prostrate lie with deepest reverence.
Him alone
God we own
Him, our God and Saviour;
Praise his Name forever.
God himself [...]

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Evangelists in the early church

In the New Testament, we have very little data on what an evangelist was. In fact, the term is used only three times (Acts 21:8; Eph 4:11; 2 Tim 4:5), most often as merely a “name.”
When it appears in Acts 21, “evangelist” is attributed to Philip, who is currently residing in Caesarea. Philip was one [...]

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Martin Luther does not mince his words

Some people think fundamentalists are a cantankerous bunch, and think that the tone needs to change. This is probably true to some extent. But fundamentalists (especially contemporary fundamentalists) do not hold a candle to the old Augustinian friar who started the Reformation. Toward the end of his work On the Councils and the Church, Martin [...]

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Be Thou My Vision

The way most Christians sing this ancient Irish hymn (translated by Mary Elizabeth Byrne [1881-1931] and versified by Eleanor Hull  [1860-1935]) does not make much sense. I found that this version of the words from a British hymnal makes what the hymn is trying to say much more coherent.
Be thou my vision, O Lord of [...]

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Luther on cruelty to animals

Somebody needs to tell Martin Luther about PETA.
I often joined in the general laughter when I saw someone offer a morsel of bread on the tip of a knife to dogs and then, as they snapped at it, slap their snouts with the knife handle, so that the poor dogs not only lost the bread [...]

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On Comfort and Cameron’s debate tonight

Probably many of you know (much better than I) that Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron are going to be on Nightline tonight debating some atheists. I have posted on Cameron and Comfort before (back in my sarcastic days).
Joshua Sowin provides a good critique (HT: JT). Evidently, Comfort can not only “scientifically” prove the existence of [...]

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Before I begin this, I would like to kindly point out that I have been linking to the Westminster bookstore for some time. I truly believe that they are a helpful resource for Christians, with very good prices and a broad and worthy selection. You should not buy anything from them unless you really need [...]

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Young Fundamentalists and the New Evangelicalism of the 1940’s

I have here a couple notes that I found amusing in this day of the SharperIron younger fundamentalists.
Stan Grenz says concerning neo-evangelicalism:
“The new evangelicalism began as a protest by several younger fundamentalists . . . .”*
And then, in an age where many evangelicals are more conservative than the SharperIron young fundamentalists (who still call themselves [...]

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