Of all my years counseling Christians and non about the dangers of pornography, there are 9 common emotional and situational patterns that trigger porn use. Some of these are simply symptoms of a deeper problem, meanwhile others only serve to justify a depraved craving. I don’t want to harshly judge those who have fought tooth […]
Theology
Christ is King
What does it mean that Christ is King? We explored this recently as a church as we walked through Ephesians 1:21. So in today’s post, I want us to explore the meaning of Christ’s kingship by considering four attributes of His kingdom based on Ephesians 1:21. It is Unparalleled Verse 21 in the ESV begins […]
Fault Lines by Voddie Baucham (book review)
Why the name Fault Lines? Baucham describes the climate around Critical Social Justice, etc. in terms of “fault lines,” continually referring to this metaphor throughout the book. It has less to do with a demand to pick a side than it does with the inevitability of finding oneself and one’s church on one side or […]
Assurance of Salvation, or the Lack Thereof
The Problem I saw a heartbreaking post in a Facebook group. It went like this: Do any of you worry that Jesus will say depart from me for I never knew you? And I worry that I would be one of those wolves in sheep clothing, deceiving the Body of Christ? I don’t understand why, this bothers […]
Baptists and the Christian Tradition: Towards an Evangelical Baptist Catholicity (book review)
Baptists and the Christian Tradition offers ample material contributing to the conversation of what it means to be an evangelical, committed to the church catholic.
You Will Be Like ‘Gods’?: Genesis 3:5 and Mormonism (re-post)
The following post originally appeared on Things Above Us in October 2019. A good friend in the ministry recently raised a question she was asked by someone else concerning Genesis 3:5 in the context of a conversation with members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and it’s a very good one. In this […]
Rightly Understanding John 3:16 — Applications
In a previous post, I wrote a little on understanding John 3:16. In today’s post, I’d like to walk through a few applications of understanding this verse rightly. There are negative applications for both the non-Calvinist and the Hyper-Calvinist. There are also positive applications for those who desire to be consistently Calvinistic, or biblical. First, […]
“Antiracism” Deserves a Capital Letter: A Preview of Voddie Baucham’s Fault Lines
Note: The full review is now published. Recently on Twitter, a Ph.D. student at a Southern Baptist seminary threw shade at Voddie Baucham’s upcoming book Fault Lines for many flaws such as “commitment to innuendo,” riling up a “populist mob,” and lacking integrity. He went so far as to criticize Baucham and his publisher for […]
Rightly Understanding John 3:16
It seems some Calvinists get so concerned about John 3:16 being used as a “gotcha” against the Doctrines of Grace that they can go too far in overcorrecting. Some work so hard to show what all the verse does not mean that they fail to eagerly embrace all that it does mean. Certainly, John 3:16 […]
2 Peter 1 in the Legacy Standard Bible
With the full text of the LSB New Testament now available, we have an opportunity for the first time to look through how the translation handles one of the catholic (general) epistles. I’ve sought to explain every change in 2 Peter 1 in this post. LSB NASB 1995 head Growth in Christian Virtue Precious and […]
5 Reasons Baptist Churches Should Associate
I may write a follow-up post on the nature of associations, but in today’s post, I just want to lay out 5 reasons that churches ought to cooperate. Dr. Gregg Allison says this: [C]hurches are to establish and promote strong associations with other churches for the sake of mutual accountability, sharing of resources, cooperative high-impact […]
The Living Logos and True Mythos: A Response to “Satanic Panics and the Death of Mythos”
Finding the good, the true, and the beautiful requires logos and mythos. A response to Aisling McCrea.
Extrabiblical Revelation: Being Chained to the Ocean Floor (repost)
Here’s a repost from August of 2018, back in the infancy of Things Above Us, that we think might encourage you today. Here in the DFW area, much has been made lately concerning Matt Chandler of The Village Church having encouraged his congregation(s) to seek extrabiblical revelation in the form of visual images. I thought […]
Someone Turned Out the Light: Guest Post from Pastor Paul Vawter
I’ve gotten to know Pastor Paul Vawter on Twitter. He is a good brother, though we disagree on hermeneutical methodology. I subscribe to the Redemptive Historical approaching and he the Grammatical Historical Hermeneutic. Though I disagree with what he has written, I wanted to give him a platform for publishing his rebuttal to my recent […]
Spurgeon – Tethered to the Cross and Lost Sermons – Vol. 4 (book reviews)
In this article, we will take a look at a pair of recent books on Charles Haddon Spurgeon. First up is Tethered to the Cross: The Life and Preaching of C.H. Spurgeon, followed by The Lost Sermons of C.H. Spurgeon – Vol. 4. Enjoy.
Accordance-fu(n) with the Legacy Standard Bible
This post is edited from its original version. See comment from Rick Mansfield below. The Legacy Standard Bible app for iOS and Android is out, but it’s not exactly a standalone app. It’s really a repackaged version of Accordance 13. If you’ve already purchased Accordance, you can go to their web page and “purchase” the […]
Full Stomach, Empty Heart: A Sermon Outline from Ruth 1, Part 2
Last time we looked at how Elimelech’s departure from Bethlehem to Moab revealed that he failed to, Discern the Purposes of God, Delight in the Precepts of God, and Dwell in the Presence of God. We have two final points to mention in today’s post. Elimelech’s departure from Bethlehem meant he failed to: Depend on […]
“The Rank Game” Review
THE RANK GAME by Storyastic Check out the promotion for this new game. One of the difficulties of family life is finding activities that everyone enjoys. Sure, the whole family says they like to spend time together, but when Sally wants to sew and Mitch wants to watch movies and Gary enjoys gaming, finding an activity […]
Full Stomach, Empty Heart: A Sermon Outline from Ruth 1, Part 1
In this post, we’ll look at a sermon outline from the book of Ruth and focus on Elimelech’s decision to move his family to Moab. In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he […]
Biblical Doctrine and Biblical Theology (book reviews)
In this article, we have the privilege of offering you another double review. We will be looking Biblical Doctrine (a systematic theology, not a biblical theology), and Invitation to Biblical Theology (a how-to on biblical theology, not systematic theology). Confused yet? Don’t be. It will be ok. We can do this. Enjoy.