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  • Is the Reformation Over?

    Is the Reformation over? Have the issues that divided Protestants and Catholics been sufficiently resolved that we can now pursue a return to unity? At the very end of his book Rescuing the Gospel, an account of the Protestant Reformation, Erwin Lutzer offers a compelling answer. While he admits that both Protestantism and Catholicism have…

  • Rescuing the Gospel

    Next year will mark 500 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of that cathedral in Wittenberg. Little did he know that in that simple act he was altering the course of history. The principled stand he took that day would pit him against the Roman Catholic Church, its pope, and…

  • The Beautiful Ordinary

    The Beautiful Ordinary

    This morning, all across the world, thousands of ordinary pastors will preach ordinary sermons to ordinary people, and through these sermons they will communicate the most powerful, extraordinary news of all. This news will slowly but definitely make its mark on these people, conforming them ever more to the image of Christ. These congregations will…

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    Church History Surveys

    I have always enjoyed studying history and, over the years, have read several church history texts. One thing I’ve noticed just about every time is that many of these church histories fail to make real distinctions between true gospel-centered Christianity and a kind of inculturated or tradition-based Christianity. That has always been disappointing to me.…

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    “The Case for Civility” by Os Guinness

    “It would be a safe but sad bet that someone, somewhere in the world, is killing someone else at this very moment in the name of religion or ideology.” Thus begins The Case for Civility by Os Guinness. Every day the media brings us stories of death and mayhem and often religion and ideology are…

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    Book Review – Meet the Puritans

    Through the past few decades there has been a great resurgence of interest in the Puritans. This resurgence seems to have begun with Martin Lloyd-Jones who would often refer to their works in his sermons. People would then ask “Where can I get these books?” Banner of Truth began to reprint the books and soon…

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    Book Review – The Reformation

    I love church history. I consider it absolutely tragic that so few contemporary Christians have any real sense of their heritage. They know a little bit of New Testament history, can list hundreds of today’s best and worst teachers, but know almost nothing of the 2000 years between. The Reformation: How a Monk and a…

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    While Europe Slept

    In 1998 Bruce Bawer moved from America, his homeland, to Europe. Stunned by the accepting attitudes of Europeans, and dismayed by much of what he had experienced in the United States, he moved first to Holland and then to Norway. But all was not as it had seemed. “The main reason I’d been glad to…

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    Book Review – The Da Vinci Code: A Quest For Answers

    The Da Vinci Code, having already sold some 40 million copies in book format, will soon be hitting the silver screen. Starring none other than Tom Hanks, the film promises to introduce the book’s claims to countless millions who have not already read the book. As we might expect, evangelicals are gearing up to defend…

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    Book Review – Contending For Our All

    Each year at the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors, hosted by Bethlehem Baptist Church of Minneapolis, John Piper delivers a biographical address dealing with a notable Christian figure from the history of the church. Every few years, several of these addresses are compiled into a book as part of “The Swans are Not Silent” series. The…

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    Book Review – 2000 Years of Christ’s Power

    I could draw up quite a list of reasons why Christians need to study and understand the history of the church. We should study the history of the church so we can understand the development of doctrine and realize that a doctrine like the Trinity was not simply understood by a brief reading of Scripture,…

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    Book Review – Is The Reformation Over? (Part 2)

    Yesterday I provided the first part of a critical review of Is The Reformation Over? by Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom (read it here. I wrote a summary of each chapter, allowing the reader to understand the author’s arguments as they reached the conclusion that the Reformation is, indeed, over. Noll and Nystrom feel that…

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    Book Review – Is The Reformation Over? (Part 1)

    “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John…

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    Book Review – City on a Hill

    I wonder if it has always been true that when people write about the church they write with sadness, lamenting what the church has become or is becoming. In our day we have the church growth advocates bemoaning the fact that not enough churches engage in full-scale marketing of their churches; we have the Emergent…

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    Book Review – Evangelicalism Divided

    If evangelicals wish to take stock of where they are now and what the future of the church holds, they must look to the past and understand from where it is they have come. Evangelicalism Divided by Iain Murray, would be a perfect place to start, for it is a record of the changes that…

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    Book Review – To Honour God: The Spirituality of Oliver Cromwell

    Few figures in history cause such heated debate as Oliver Cromwell. The Cromwell Association says rightly that “since his death as Lord Protector in 1658, Cromwell’s life, ambitions, motives and actions have been the subject of scholarly investigation and intense, often vitriolic, debate. Whatever position is taken on Cromwell, ‘Chief of Men’ or ‘Brave Bad…

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    Book Review – Spurgeon

    There are more biographies devoted to Charles Spurgeon than to just about any other Christian figure. The first were written before his death (including his own autobiography) and hundreds have been written since. In the two years following his death, new biographies were published at the rate of one per month! One would be justified…