Journal of Biblical Counseling

The Journal of Biblical Counseling is now defunct, but you can purchase all 41 issues along with the 36 issues of its predecessor the Journal of Pastoral Practice on cd here.

How well do you understand Christianity?

J.I. Packer (Knowing God):

Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption… If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.

The Gospel is Free

The late John Stott used to say:

The English love the Gospel because it gives them something to talk about.  The Welsh love the Gospel because it gives them something to sing about.  The Irish love the Gospel because it gives them something to fight about.  The Scottish love the Gospel because . . . it’s free.

Preachers and Fiction

Why preachers should read fiction?  by A. Craig Troxel

Do You Have a Light?

Ferene Visky:

Richard [Wurmbrand] could not abide any fanatical legalism in his congregation.  He once received a report that one of the brethren had been found to be a secret smoker.  Now that was not the custom in that congregation.  Without delay, the elders of the church convoked and decided to expel the man.  Before passing the resolution, they summoned the culprit.  As the proceedings began, Richard took out a packet of cigarettes, leisurely lit one up, and to the utter amazement of the elders, began to smoke.  No one was expelled.

Quote of the Day

Matthew Henry (H.T. Wes White):

[Jesus] did not keep the sabbath according to the tradition of the elders and the superstitious observances of the Pharisees, but he kept it according to the command of God, and therefore, no doubt, he was of God, and his miracles proved him to be Lord also of the sabbath day. Note, much unrighteous and uncharitable judging is occasioned by men’s making the rules of religion more strict than God has made them, and adding their own fancies to God’s appointments, as the Jews here, in the case of sabbath-sanctification. We ourselves may forbear such and such things, on the sabbath day, as we find a distraction to us, and we do well, but we must not therefore tie up others to the same strictness. Every thing that we take for a rule of practice must not presently be made a rule of judgment.

Master’s Thesis

My master’s thesis on Daniel Williams and the 17th century neonomian-antinomian controversy can be downloaded on this page.

Book Sale

The best selling books of 2011 at Westminster Bookstore are 50% off retail until January 12.

 

Quote of the Day

D.A. Carson:

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.  We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.  (Reflections, Christianity Today, 7-31-00.)

On Understanding Van Til

When I was in seminary in the mid-90′s I had to read Cornelius Van Til’s book The Defense of the Faith.  Even though I had taken a number of philosophy classes in college, I still found Van Til’s book quite difficult.  This book by John Frame and this book and especially this book by Greg Bahnsen were instrumental in helping me understand and read Van Til.

I should also mention this book by Frame too.  Bahnsen and Frame differ on some issues, which Bahnsen addresses in his book on Van Til.