As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“Other false Lewis quotes can even make him appear to put forth theologically disputable claims, like this quote, referenced by big-name leaders and cycled with regularity: ‘You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.’” - Christianity Today
“”Eternal security is one secondary issue—an issue which sincere followers of Christ debate—that has presented significant challenges for many congregants in the pews.” - P&D
When one is associating a belief with the text of Scripture it is never wise to choose texts from obscure, debated or overly figurative portions of the Bible. Why go to a vision of Zechariah when you can go to an epistle of Paul for the same doctrine?
When tying a doctrine concerning the Church to Scripture we find good men like F. Turretin running to the song of Solomon. Surely it is unwise to appeal to the Song of Solomon, since the assumption that the Song is actually speaking about the Church is a decided long shot.
“Welsh poet David Jones lamented decades ago the sacrifice of our divinely inspired vocation as artists and makers to machines. The advent of AI threatens to hasten this decline.” - Acton
“The Bible tells us that the end of our sanctification will be our glorification, when all vestigial remnants of sin will be removed from our character. We will be pure. No more doubt. No more fear. No more error. No more pain.” - R.C. Sproul
“Interlacing representative, essential, mostly brief passages from Confessions with a breezy but incisive ongoing commentary… Dr. Kreeft navigates us through the mind of a man who, in changing his own world, helped lay the foundations for our own.” - Imaginative Conservative
“the concept of blessing lies at the very heart of the gospel. The Apostle Paul highlights this in his letter to the Christian believers in Galatia…. ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed’ (Gal. 3:8).” - Ligonier
Collin Hansen talks with Hans Madueme, author of Defending Sin: A Response to the Challenges of Evolution and the Natural Sciences. - TGC
“Why are we so good at recognizing and enforcing ethical limits when it comes to medical or genetic experimentation on animals, but not humans?” - Breakpoint
There are many books on Christian worship: some helpful and some not-so-helpful. Nicolas Alford’s Doxology: How Worship Works clearly belongs in the former category. Though affirming the broader sense of worship (as a way of life), the book intentionally focuses on congregational worship. Alford is preeminently concerned that God’s people worship by the Book. Drawing from the Reformed tradition, he concisely expounds and carefully applies the Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW), which, in essence, is the doctrine of sola Scriptura applied to church life and ministry.
But Alford does more—which is what makes this book superior to many others. First, he prefaces the the major principles that should govern our worship with a chapter that distinguishes between authority and influences. The Bible is the ultimate authority for worship. Nevertheless, there are other considerations that may and, in some cases, should affect the way we understand and apply the Bible. Alford defines and explains these influences in the following order of priority: Confessional/Convictional, Traditional/Cultural, and Preference/Deference.
Second, Alford identifies seven prefatory principles that we must employ as we seek to order our worship aright: the Biblical, Trinitarian, Covenantal, Ecclesiastical, Sabbatic, Governing, and Commissioned principles. These are Scriptural vantage points or perspectives from which we can ascertain the biblical contours of worship more clearly.
Discussion