Jonathan Leeman has a really helpful article dealing with the proper use of pastoral and husbandly authority. This is really insightful stuff, and I commend it to you. There’s a Satanic version of authority and a godly version of authority. There’s authority as intended in creation and exercised in redemption, and authority as exercised in the Fall. Godly authority authors life, like the root of the word itself. It builds up, equips, strengthens, serves. Satanic authority steals, takes, diminishes, destroys. Godly authority, as set down in Scripture and as I’ve witnessed it, is seldom an advantage to those who possess it. It involves leading and making decisions, to be sure.…
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Eyes Wide Open about Abolitionism
Tom Ascol has written a long essay in which he makes the case for the Abolitionist resolution passed at the 2021 SBC and against pro-life dissensions from it. He also engages my last two posts on the subject, so I thought I would write a brief word of response here. Tom Ascol frames our differences in term of class struggle—the SBC “elites” versus the average man in the pew. He writes: It is the elite class that is woefully out of step with the rank-and-file believers who are working hard to see the scourge of abortion brought to an immediate end in our nation… Six times Ascol uses the language…
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Candidates for SBC President Discuss the Issues
The three candidates for the Presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention just completed a two hour discussion about the issues facing Southern Baptists. They discussed CRT, the sex-abuse task force, and a variety of other issues. You can watch the video below.
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Carl Trueman at T4G Warning about Celebrity Pastors
I have lots of thoughts about the final meeting of Together for the Gospel (T4G) last week. I may try to put some of them together at some point, but that is not the point of my post today. The final T4G has given me an occasion to think back to the most memorable moments from T4G over the years. I’ve already written about one of them. Another one that I have always remembered was from 2012, and it involved Carl Trueman. I will never forget it. In the lead-up to T4G that year, Trueman had published a series of warnings online about celebrity pastors (see here, here, here, here).…
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How To Correct False Teaching
?? I’ve been preaching through 2 Corinthians at our church and recently delivered a message on 2 Corinthians 10:1-6 titled “How To Correct False Teaching.” There is an excerpt printed below. To hear the rest of the message, you can download it here or press play to listen above. Last week, the Biden administration released two documents making policy recommendations concerning the care of children who are experiencing feelings of gender confusion. Perhaps you can guess what the recommendations are. They recommend putting minor children on puberty blockers to keep their bodies from maturing and becoming fully developed. They allow infusion of opposite sex hormones in minor children. They even…
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What is conscience, and what happens if I ignore it?
I think I received a copy of the book Conscience back when if first came out in 2016, but I didn’t read it then. That was a mistake. I just finished the audiobook version last week and believe it is one of the most practical, theologically-rich, biblically-saturated books I have ever read. The table of contents reveals what the book covers and its practical nature: What Is Conscience? How Do We Define Conscience from the New Testament? What Should You Do When Your Conscience Condemns You? How Should You Calibrate Your Conscience? How Should You Relate to Fellow Christians When Your Consciences Disagree? How Should You Relate to People in…
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Resurrection Hymn
O Jesus, Savior of my life, My hope, my joy, my sacrifice, I’ve searched and found no other one Who loves me more than you have done. So I denounce my lingering sin Whose power You have broke within My ever weak and faithless frame. Its vigor’s crushed in Jesus name. For your death did at once proclaim, The Godhead’s glory and my shame. And you did seize my cup of guilt And drank all that the chalice spilled. No condemnation now I dread Because you went for me instead To bear the curse and wrath and rage, To pay the debt I would have paid. Yet your work finished…
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The Innermost Meaning of the Cross
“But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.” -Isaiah 53:10 “God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness.” -Romans 3:25 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us– for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’” -Galatians 3:13 “It is those who cannot come to terms with any concept of the wrath of God…
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Debating Manhood and Womanhood with Ron Pierce
I recently joined Rob Pierce on Sean McDowell’s podcast to have a discussion about manhood and womanhood. Ron is a well-known egalitarian and the editor of the landmark egalitarian work Discovering Biblical Equality, which is now out in a third edition. I’m the President of the Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood, which is an organization that promotes the complementarian position. And we’ve both written a great deal on this issue. Sean says that our discussion isn’t really a “debate” but a “robust discussion.” But it’s still kind of a debate, I think. 😉 In any case, Ron and I go at it for about an hour. In a format like…
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Don’t Deconstruct
I posted a few sentences on social media a day or two ago that seem to have kicked the proverbial hornet’s nest. Here’s what I wrote: If you think deconstruction is just another name for reformation or revival, you don’t know what deconstruction is. Reformation dispenses with the bad but holds on to the good. Deconstruction tries to destroy both the good and the bad. Don’t deconstruct. Since writing this, there have been a string of fairly harsh denunciations. Just read the the “quote tweets” of what I wrote, and you’ll see what I mean. The basic objection I’ve read is this. “Denny, you don’t understand what deconstruction is. Deconstruction…
