Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. The culture wars are heating up again. Such, I suppose, ought not to surprise me. Evangelical professor of sociology James Davidson Hunter published his book Culture Wars in 1992. Therein he argued that the real dividing line in modern culture was not between...

Continue Reading Intelligent Design?...

Generation to Generation by Rod Rosenbladt In this article I want to address a particular problem: What we might do as Christians with those who see themselves as "alumni" of the Christian faith. By that I mean those who once professed that Christ shed His blood, freely justified them before...

Continue Reading The Gospel Is for the Broken...

Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by Allan Fisher Looking for things for which to thank the Lord this Thanksgiving? Start by asking this question: Where would my church be without Christian publishing companies? Imagine your pastor preparing his sermons week in and week out with only a Bible, perhaps in...

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Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison During the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, there were few things more precious to believers than the recovery of the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone. Centuries of semi-Pelagian (and Pelagian) growth were dragged into...

Continue Reading Why Is Justification So Important?...

Pastor's Perspective by David A. Robertson The door opened and a middle-aged man appeared. "Hi, I'm from the local church and...." "Don't waste your time," he interrupted, "I've no time for religion, I believe in science." "Really? Are you a scientist?" "No." "Have you studied science?" "No." "So why do...

Continue Reading "Science" vs. Science...

Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul Few books I have read have made a lasting impression on my mind and thought. One of them I read over fifty years ago. The title of the book was The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science, and it made a lasting impression upon...

Continue Reading All Truth Is God's Truth...

Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons In 1998 a dear friend prompted me to get involved working with Dr. Tom Woodward and the C. S. Lewis Society. A few months later I found myself at dinner with Phillip E. Johnson, noted law professor at Berkeley...

Continue Reading A Man Created in God's Image...

The November edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "Darwin." The issue looks at Charles Darwin and discusses the ramifications of his theories and Christian responses to them. Contributors include R.C. Sproul, Allan Fisher, Keith Mathison, Russ Pulliam, David Robertson and Rod Rosenbladt. We do not post all...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, November 2009...

Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith As seen in other articles this month, the word hypocrisy derives from the Greek term for "playing a part." The ordinary word for an actor on the stage in Greek drama was hypocrite. In the tragedies of Sophocles or the comedies of Aristophanes,...

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Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. The world is full of hypocrites, and the solution to this problem is twofold: If you are more modern, you deal with the gap between your obedience and what you pretend to be by trying harder to be good. You try to make...

Continue Reading The Coming Kingdom...

Generation to Generation by Alex Chediak You may have heard that retirement can kill you. Men and women die of boredom, for lack of intellectual challenge, or from the deafening silence that can accompany a spouse's death. Depressed saving accounts may represent another motivation to stay gainfully employed. Even if...

Continue Reading Don't Retire; We Need You...

Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by Michael S. Horton If you've been in Protestant circles for very long, whether conservative or liberal, you may have heard the phrase "reformed and always reforming" or sometimes just "always reforming." I hear it a lot these days, especially from friends who want our...

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Each month, Tabletalk magazine aids thousands of people around the world in their study of Scripture. Make 2010 a year of enriching and engaging study for someone on your gift list by sending them a gift subscription of Tabletalk magazine. When you do, you can choose any book listed below...

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Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison Let's do a quick word association test. What is the first thing that comes into your mind when you see or hear the word teenager? Sadly, for many, the first words that come to mind are entirely negative. The word...

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Pastor's Perspective by Robert Barnes I'm a confessional Calvinist, but I have the nagging sense that God slipped up when he allowed me to pastor a church. A number of questions go through my mind as I consider God's decision to allow me to pastor at Dayspring Church (PCA). Is...

Continue Reading To Whom Be the Glory?...

Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul About thirty years ago, my close friend and colleague, Archie Parrish, who at that time led the Evangelism Explosion (EE) program in Fort Lauderdale, came to me with a request. He indicated that on the thousands of evangelistic visits the EE teams made,...

Continue Reading Is the Church Full of Hypocrites?...

by R.C. Sproul The dark night of the soul. This phenomenon describes a malady that the greatest of Christians have suffered from time to time. It was the malady that provoked David to soak his pillow with tears. It was the malady that earned for Jeremiah the sobriquet, "The Weeping...

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Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons I just began reading a book by a well-known pastor who, in the opening pages, referred to himself as a "professional hypocrite." Being a pastor, he is all too familiar with the hypocrite label that is so often leveled...

Continue Reading Hypocritical Hypocrisy...

The October edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "Hypocrisy"--what it is, how it impacts the church's mission, and how we can guard against it. Contributors include R.C. Sproul, Robert Barnes, Iain Campbell, Alex Chediak, Richard Ganz, Michael Horton and Richard Phillips. We do not post all of...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, October 2009...

by Albert Mohler The Bible consistently affirms education as a central responsibility of God's people. In the Old Testament, the Jewish people were reminded that the education of their own children was an essential part of their responsibility as God's covenant people. In Israel, a father was to teach his...

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by John Piper The inner essence of worship is treasuring Jesus as infinitely valuable above everything. The outer forms of worship are the acts that show how much we treasure God. Therefore, all of life is meant to be worship because God said whether you eat or drink or whatever...

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by Terry Johnson Rich people are materialistic. We all know it. All they care about is their money and things. Or so I thought. My background consists of a blue-collar neighborhood and an inner-city high school in Southern California. My quick judgment of wealthy people, when first I encountered them,...

Continue Reading The Gain of Godliness...

by Derek Thomas "The Holy Spirit has exhorted the faithful to continue clapping their hands for joy until the advent of the promised Redeemer," wrote John Calvin in a comment on Psalm 47:1­2. Paul would heartily concur! Writing from a prison cell from which he had no certain knowledge of...

Continue Reading A Light in Dark Places...

by Tom Ascol One of the most popular sermons I have preached is entitled "How to Fire Your Pastor." I should have been suspicious when so many people requested copies of it! My purpose wasn't to advocate such action; rather, I wanted to help the church know what to do...

Continue Reading A Solemn Discharge of Duty...

Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith God is a unity of distinct persons. The one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So says the doctrine of the Trinity. Some people believe in the unity and oneness of God, but deny that He consists in different persons. Heretics such...

Continue Reading The Heresies of Love...

by Mark E. RossPhilip Schaff, the distinguished nineteenth century church historian, calls the saying in our title "the watchword of Christian peacemakers" (History of the Christian Church, Vol. 7, p. 650). Often attributed to great theologians such as Augustine, it comes from an otherwise undistinguished German Lutheran theologian of the...

Continue Reading In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity...

Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison The relationship between the Mosaic covenant and the new covenant remains one of the most controversial and difficult topics in theology. As the notable American theologian Jonathan Edwards said, "There is perhaps no part of divinity attended with so much...

Continue Reading Christ in the Old Testament...

Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. Unity matters. However, so does diversity. Indeed, unity and diversity unite in the very nature of God. God is three persons united in one essence. The world around us fails to see how God's creation reflects the Trinity, and it always therefore either...

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Fire from the BrambleJudges 9:42-49So each of the people likewise cut down his own bough... put them against the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire above them, so that all the people of the tower of Shechem died, about a thousand men and women (Judg. 9:49). After defeating Gaal and...

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September 11, 2001...

Generation to Generation by Bruce K. Waltke "Better than a bronze sculpture by Cellini, or a marble one by Bernini, or even a Beethoven symphony," I was saying to my colleagues, while our waitress with tray in hand waited attentively for my climatic closure, "I enjoy a great sermon," whereupon...

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Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by Michael A.G. Haykin In the final letter that we have from the apostle Paul, written in a lonely prison cell in Rome while he was expecting death for the sake of the gospel, he reminded his closest friend Timothy of the utter necessity of...

Continue Reading No Sacrifice Too Great...

Pastor's Perspective by Gary L.W. Johnson The English Reformer Hugh Latimer once remarked, "We ought never to regard unity so much that we would or should forsake God's Word for her sake." Wise words from a man who went to the stake, rather than compromise the truth of the gospel....

Continue Reading Deeds Over Creeds...

Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul Is the Reformation over? There have been several observations rendered on this subject by those I would call "erstwhile evangelicals." One of them wrote, "Luther was right in the sixteenth century, but the question of justification is not an issue now." A second...

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Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons We have all heard it said, and some of you have even said it: "Let's just agree to disagree." If memory serves me, I have never used that expression, primarily because I don't think it makes much sense and...

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The September edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "What Is True Unity?" It examines biblical unity between Christians as well as the difference between true and false ecclesiastical unity. Contributors include R.C. Sproul, Michael Haykin, Gary Johnson, Albert Mohler, Mark Ross, Thomas Schreiner and Bruce Waltke. We...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, September 2009...

Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith Not long ago, I learned that thirty-eight percent of my retirement account has vanished and that my house is suddenly worth less than the mortgage I am paying on it. I wasn't wasteful or reckless. I didn't vandalize my own home or spend...

Continue Reading Money, Money, Money...

Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. I'm connected to royalty. Granted, it's a rather thin point of union. In less than six degrees, though through enough marriage links that there is no legal tie, I am connected with the king of the tropical island, Yap. Yap is best known...

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by Keith Mathison In 1993, David Wells published a book entitled No Place For Truth: Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? This book was intended as a wake-up call to an evangelical church that had lost its way, having allowed modernity to replace Scripture as the primary shaper of its...

Continue Reading The Courage To Be Protestant...

Generation to Generation by David and Joshua Eby The Mission of the Father My wife Darlene and I became second-career missionaries to Uganda in 2006 after I pastored in the United States for thirty-four years. God had worked in us a heart for missions, and for Uganda in particular, over...

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Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by David F. Wells I am in the middle of reading two books simultaneously, one at my office today and the other I will resume at home tonight. My day book is Julia Duin's Quitting Church: Why the Faithful Are Fleeing and What to Do...

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Pastor's Perspective by James L. Harvey I love the movie Chariots of Fire. Now over twenty-five years old, the movie remains a compelling testimony of God blessing the faithful use of our gifts and talents. The film chronicles the life of Eric Liddell, a Scottish missionary who was an Olympic-caliber...

Continue Reading God Loves a Cheerful Giver...

Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul In the last book of the Old Testament, God spoke through the prophet Malachi. He raised a provocative question: "Will man rob God?" This is somewhat startling because it suggests something that on the surface would appear to be impossible. How could anybody...

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Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons Several years after my father's death in 1992 I found an old shoebox among my father's belongings. Among the various items in the shoebox, I came across a stack of letters that my father had written just prior to...

Continue Reading Is It Just a Money Issue?...

The August edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "In Gold We Trust: The Money Issue." It explores the necessity of practicing faithful stewardship of all our resources to the glory of God's kingdom. Contributors include R.C. Sproul, David and Joshua Eby, James Harvey, Rosemary Jensen, Ken...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, August 2009...

Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith One of the greatest social scientists credits John Calvin for the rise of capitalism and, by extension, modern Western culture itself. That is quite an influence and quite a tribute to Calvin. Nevertheless, though there is some truth to the claim, the specific...

Continue Reading Calvin & Culture, Reconsidered...

Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. As birthdays go, it's a big one. It is fitting and appropriate that we would mark the five-hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Calvin. Trouble is, that occasion is being marked in at least two different ways. First, those who do not...

Continue Reading Where Is the Glory Found?...

Generation to Generation by Gordon Reed Many years ago I was privileged to know several great men of faith in the generation just preceding my own. I regarded these men with deep respect and even held them in awe because of their great knowledge and even greater piety. Looking back,...

Continue Reading Outlived or Lived Out?...

Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by Derek Thomas Only one book is absolutely essential to save us, to equip us to obey God's will, and to glorify Him in whatever we do. Only one book gives us undiluted truth -- the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Only one...

Continue Reading Corinthian Enthusiasm...

Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison The year 2009 marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin. A number of publishers are celebrating this 'Calvin Quincentennial' by releasing new books on the life, work, and teaching of Calvin. Among these are a new book...

Continue Reading The Glory of God...

Pastor's Perspective by Philip G. Ryken As far as John Calvin was concerned, almost nothing was more urgent for the church than the reformation of pastoral ministry. For centuries, most ministers had been shockingly ignorant of the Scriptures and thus ill-equipped to preach the gospel. As Calvin said in one...

Continue Reading The Pastor Scholar...

Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul Thinkers in the ancient world sought to plumb the depths of ultimate reality. With that quest for ultimate reality came the birth of the discipline of philosophy. Some philosophers focused on one particular aspect of philosophy called metaphysics (ultimate being). Others focused their...

Continue Reading The Theologian...

At Ligonier Ministries, we're having a week-long celebration of John Calvin's 500th birthday (July 10) by having special one-day offers all week long.Today only for a donation of any amount, you can receive a one-year Tabletalk subscription for yourself or someone else as a gift. This is a call-in offer only and is...

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Read feature articles on John Calvin by R.C. Sproul, Thabiti Anyabwile, Rick Gamble, David Hall, Keith Mathison, Iain Murray, David Powlison, Gordon Reed, Philip Ryken, and Derek Thomas. You can also enjoy the daily devotional studies that will continue this month on 1 Timothy.   Open publication - Free publishing...

Continue Reading Read the Entire July Issue of Tabletalk on John Calvin Online...

Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons John Calvin was a churchman for all ages. He was a reformer par excellence. He was a godly pastor who equipped his people for ministry. He was a humble revolutionary. He was a loyal husband, father, and friend. But...

Continue Reading Good Old Calvinism...

The July edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "John Calvin" and, on the five hundredth anniversary of his birth, it focuses on the ministry and the legacy of the great reformer. Contributors include R.C. Sproul, Thabiti Anyabwile, Rick Gamble, David Hall, Keith Mathison, Iain Murray, David Powlison,...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, July 2009...

Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith Might there be a time when readers of the Bible will not understand -- without a host of reference books -- what a sower is? For most of the world's history, the majority of people made their living from the land. Today the...

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Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison In 2004, Alister McGrath published a book entitled The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World. Although the book did not suggest that atheism was dead, its publication may have been a bit premature....

Continue Reading Atheism Remix...

Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. The kingdom of God is at war. The promise from the beginning was that the seed of the woman, our King, would come and crush the head of the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). Jesus' first step out of the tomb at...

Continue Reading Plowing in Hope...

Generation to Generation by Scotty Smith With three decades plus change in the pastoral ministry, the gospel seems to be getting bigger and Jesus is appearing more gracious than ever. Maybe that's because I've never been more aware of my brokenness and more disrupted by longings for the day when...

Continue Reading The Genuine Life...

Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by Justin Taylor Only one book is absolutely essential to save us, to equip us to obey God's will, and to glorify Him in whatever we do. Only one book gives us undiluted truth -- the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Only one...

Continue Reading A Teachable Spirit...

Nations are currently experiencing the most volatile economic period in a generation. Many investors here in America have made moves to reduce their risk and put their treasure into securities backed by the U.S. federal government. The government gives us its word that it will guarantee deposits up to a...

Continue Reading Federally Backed Security...

Pastor's Perspective by Lane Keister All people are supposed to hear the good news of Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected from the dead. Not only are all people supposed to hear that salvation has been accomplished in history, they are to hear that any who repent of their sin and...

Continue Reading Evangelizing the World...

Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul Soli Deo gloria is the motto that grew out of the Protestant Reformation and was used on every composition by Johann Sebastian Bach. He affixed the initials SDG at the bottom of each manuscript to communicate the idea that it is God and...

Continue Reading Grace Alone...

Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons Church historian Mark Noll writes, "In many ways, the defining figure in the history of American evangelicalism is the eighteenth-century revivalist George Whitefield." Prior to America's declaration of independence from England, the Calvinist preacher from England turned the colonies...

Continue Reading A Sower Went Out To Sow......

The June edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "The Parable of the Sower" and it provides an exposition of this parable of Jesus, focusing on the gracious work of God in salvation. Contributors include R.C. Sproul, Daniel Doriani, Michael Glodo, Lane Keister, Robert Rothwell, Scotty Smith and...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, June 2009...

Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison Without a doubt, the greatest theologian in the first thousand years of the church was Augustine of Hippo (354-430). His voluminous theological, exegetical, and devotional writings have had a lasting impact and continue to be studied to this day. One...

Continue Reading Two Kingdoms, One God...

Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. It is a strange habit, though I am often caught in its grip. Why is it, I wonder, that we find ourselves so often longing for those days of the early church? Where did we begin to confuse the descriptive with the prescriptive,...

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Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith The seven churches of Asia addressed in the book of Revelation had their problems. One of them looked quite lively but it was actually dead. Another was so lukewarm that the Lord was ready to spit it out of His mouth. And yet...

Continue Reading Doing Without the Church?...

Generation to Generation by Roger Nicole We are called upon by the Lord to contend earnestly for the faith (Jude 3). But that does not necessarily involve being contentious; it involves avoiding compromise, standing forth for what we believe, standing forth for the truth of God -- without welching at...

Continue Reading Dealing with Differences...

Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by John MacArthur The truth that Christ is Lord of His church may sound somewhat benign to a casual listener in our generation, but the struggle for Christ's authority in the church has come to us through the ages on a sea of blood. Thankfully,...

Continue Reading The Lord of the Church...

Pastor's Perspective by Mark Bates The pipes in our home sprung a series of leaks. Since most of my neighbors had replaced their plumbing, I knew it was time for me to do the same. However, hiring a plumber to do this would cost thousands of dollars. My friend, Monte,...

Continue Reading The Letter to the Church in Laodicea...

Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul When we consider the predicament that the evangelical church of the twenty-first century faces in America, the first thing we need to understand is the very designation "evangelical church" is itself a redundancy. If a church is not evangelical, it is not an...

Continue Reading The Perils Facing the Evangelical Church...

by John MacArthur (Continued from Divine Immutability and the Doctrines of Grace Part 2) Why Did God Determine to Elect the Redeemed? Though the doctrine of election applies to all that God does in a general sense, it most often refers, in a specific New Testament sense, to the election...

Continue Reading Divine Immutability and the Doctrines of Grace (pt. 3)...

Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons I love to hear stories about our faithful forefathers in ages past, and while it may be mere legend, I have heard that the great nineteenth-century British pastor Charles Spurgeon posted a sign on the door of his study....

Continue Reading Complacent Repentance...

The May edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "The 7 Letters of Revelation" to urge readers on toward holiness. Contributors include R.C. Sproul, Mark Bates, Chris Donato, Paul Gardner, Dennis Johnson, John MacArthur, Roger Nicole, Jason Stellman, Cornelis Venema and R. Fowler White. We do not post...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, May 2009...

Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison One of the most common ways of looking at the relationship between science and faith is the conflict thesis, which posits an inherent conflict between science and religion. The conflict thesis was popularized in the nineteenth century by John William...

Continue Reading Has Science Buried God?...

For a donation of any amount today, you can receive a one-year Tabletalk subscription for yourself or someone else as a gift. This is a call-in offer only and is not available online. Available for US addresses only. To take advantage of this special one-day offer, call 800-435-4343 from...

Continue Reading Get a 1-Year Subscription to Tabletalk for a Donation of Any Amount...

Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith These days it's easy to become cynical about politicians, government officials, and other national leaders. Governing a country takes hard-nosed, practical realism. Morality and religion are well and good, many of us say, but someone who follows such ideals in the political arena...

Continue Reading A 'Great' Leader...

Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. There is a tension among the people of God that reflects a delicate balance to which the Bible calls us. Paul, you will recall, argued that in his passion for the gospel, he wished to be all things to all people, that by...

Continue Reading Beauty and the Best...

Generation to Generation by Tim Challies Admiral Lord Nelson once remarked that "every sailor is a bachelor when beyond Gibraltar." This was a statement about anonymity, a rare concept even just a few short generations ago. Nelson knew that once his sailors moved beyond the bounds of the British Empire,...

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Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by Larry G. Mininger About forty people scattered on metal chairs greeted me on my first Sunday in my first (and only) pastorate in a quaint little sanctuary nestled in the woods between massive orange groves just west of Orlando, Florida. There were no pews,...

Continue Reading Measuring Success...

Pastor's Perspective by Kris Lundgaard "We, the Slovak People, bearing in mind the political and cultural heritage of our predecessors...mindful of the spiritual bequest of Cyril and Methodius...adopted this constitution." Slovakia, lying at the crossroads of East and West in secular Europe, after being dominated for over forty years by...

Continue Reading The Mission to Slovakia...

Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul It was many years ago when my grandmother related to me games that she played as a little girl in the 1880s. One game she mentioned was one that she and her Methodist girlfriends played with their Roman Catholic friends. In a playful...

Continue Reading The Word of God in the Hands of Man...

Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons "Pray with your mouth, cry out with your heart, make petitions while you work, so that every day and night, every hour and moment, God may always assist you." These are the words of the ninth-century, Christian noblewoman, Dhouda....

Continue Reading Our Hope in Ages Past...

The April edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "The Church in the Ninth Century." Contributors include R.C. Sproul, Burk Parsons, Kris Lungaard, Larry G. Mininger and Tim Challies. We do not post all of the feature articles or the daily devotionals from the issue, so you'll have...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, April 2009...

Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. It is a rather tedious and tiresome thing to pull the legs out from under our national confession. Our creed is not just internally inconsistent, it is not just incomprehensible, it is both these things rather quickly. That is, you do not start...

Continue Reading Says Who?...

Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith Do you want to know how Christians can influence the culture? How to have a strong family? Do you want to know the meaning of your life? Do you want to know how authority works? Then attend to the Reformation doctrine of vocation....

Continue Reading Authority in Vocation...

Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison In the early part of the twentieth century, one would have been hard pressed to find a greater theological mind than that of Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921). Sadly, both he and his work are virtually unknown today outside of certain...

Continue Reading The Final Word...

Generation to Generation by Knox Chamblin In December 2008, I turned seventy-three. Invited by Tabletalk to address younger generations "on matters pertinent to the faith," I thought of Psalm 71, the prayer of an elderly man. Says verse 18: "So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do...

Continue Reading Thanks Be to God ...

"In Jesus' name we pray, Amen." Is this just habit, a formal closing in public prayer? Or, is it a powerful declaration that we who pray in that name are in him to whom that name belongs? Well, Christians from the time of Christ onward have prayed in the name of...

Continue Reading All Hail the Power...

Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by David Mathis My dad hasn't been to seminary. He has no formal theological training. Nobody pays him and Mom for their endless hours serving the church. But they could write an article on sacrificial service to the church. They've lived it. Pop is a...

Continue Reading Served By God, Serving Man...

Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul "You're out!" "I'm safe!" "Out!" "Safe!" "Out!" "It's my ball, and it's my bat, and I say that I'm safe." This is how we settled disputes over plays in our pickup baseball games played without the benefit of a referee or umpire. When...

Continue Reading The Divine Foundation of Authority...

Pastor's Perspective by Matt Schmucker "Matt, I don't understand how you and Steve can be a part of the same church given what you each believe and practice." This came from a young woman with whom my wife and I had been sharing the gospel. "I don't understand," I replied....

Continue Reading Something Different...

Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons I am terribly vexed. I have just finished reading an article from the notoriously left-wing magazine Newsweek. In the cover story, "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage," author Lisa Miller argues the case for gay "marriage" using the Bible...

Continue Reading Unquestionable Authority ...

The March edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "Authority: Church, Family & Government" The issue explains the importance of thinking rightly about authority as Christians. Contributors include R.C. Sproul with Knox Chamblin, David Mathis, John R. Muether, Matt Schmucker, Denise Sproul and Cal Thomas. We do not...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, March 2009...

Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison If I have heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times: "A Calvinist evangelist? Isn't that an oxymoron? Calvinism undermines evangelism." This accusation has been repeated so many times that few make the effort to argue it. Instead, it...

Continue Reading Does the Center Hold?...

Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are not enough for many denizens of the twenty-first century. In their search for a more palatable Jesus, novelists such as Dan Brown of The Da Vinci Code, feminist theologians such as Elaine Pagels, and their acolytes in...

Continue Reading The Gospel of Reality...

Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. I've got great news -- I just saved a bundle on my car insurance. This pop-cultural punchline might just expose a real problem we have in our Christian sub-culture: we don't know what the good news is. The confusion, from one perspective, is...

Continue Reading The Good News...

Generation to Generation by John R. de Witt When I began to consider what I should say in these pages, I found myself pulled in two directions. My first impulse was to lament the spiritual decay that people of my generation have observed at close range and to urge the...

Continue Reading Judgment and Mercy...

Tabletalk magazine is issued faithfully every month in the hope that, among other things, it will encourage readers to ponder the truths of God when they lie down, when they rise up, and, yes, even when they fly. Missionary pilot Glenn Grubb recently wrote to share how he relies on...

Continue Reading Tabletalk Ministering to Those who Minister...

Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by Kevin Smith Gary Thomas, in his book Seeking the Face of God, makes this statement: "Christian health is not defined by how happy we are, how prosperous or healthy we are, or even by how many people we have led to the Lord in...

Continue Reading Total Surrender...

Unfortunately, it is not too long before we discover that our heroes are just as flawed as we are. History is filled with details of great men and women who succumbed to their flaws and temptations. Regrettably, we find this is true both of the heroes of the kingdom of...

Continue Reading Hero of Heroes...

Pastor's Perspective by Daniel R. Hyde Quick. What are the Gospels? Time is up. Did you answer: "The Gospels are the biographies of Jesus Christ?" When we read the Gospels as biographies only, we basically look at them like trees apart from the proverbial forest. There is a better way...

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Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul In the history of biblical studies, we have seen in the last two centuries the rise of so-called "higher criticism." So much of higher criticism is fueled by skepticism with respect to the reliability of the biblical texts. Since orthodox Christians stand opposed...

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Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons I am a Christian, and I am a Protestant. I am a Christian because I trust Jesus Christ alone, believing that salvation is accomplished by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. I am a devout Protestant...

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The February edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "The Gospels." The issue looks at the main point and the main purpose of each of the four gospels. Contributors include R.C. Sproul, Steve Baugh, Robert Cara, John de Witt, Daniel Hyde, Robert Rothwell and Kevin Smith. We do...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, February 2009...

For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he...

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On October 31, 1517, Dr. Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses on the academy bulletin board (which happened to be the church door in those days). Essentially, the theses rebuked church leaders for abusing indulgences. Indulgences, he argued, cannot forgive sins. Rather, they are in danger of bringing a false...

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Generation to Generation by C. FitzSimons Allison I wish I had been told when I was young about the lie all of us naturally believe. This lie is explained to us by Jesus when he said to the Jews who had believed on Him: "If you continue in my word,...

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Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. To suggest that wisdom is always balanced seems to me to be a bit, well, unbalanced. Whoever first uttered the words of wisdom, "moderation in all things," should, I believe, have healed himself. All things? Isn't that a bit extreme? In like manner,...

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Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison In the first centuries following the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah and the inauguration of the new covenant under which the people of God became a trans-national people crossing all borders, the church had few choices in the...

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Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by Simon J. Kistemaker As we saw in last month's installment of "Pro Ecclesia," privileges and duties go together. In making disciples, Jesus commanded they be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and to teach...

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Pastor's Perspective by Sinclair B. Ferguson When Sereno E. Dwight included the seventy resolutions in his biography of his great-grandfather Jonathan Edwards, he added the arresting comment: "These were all written before he was twenty years of age." Doubtless the resolutions display the marks of relative youth -- references to...

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Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul Some years ago, I drove along the Pennsylvania Turnpike about two o'clock in the morning with a friend after having spent all day at a steel corporation in eastern Pennsylvania dealing with labor management issues. My companion was a man who had lost...

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Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons It's hard to believe that it was nearly a decade ago that we witnessed the turn of the third millennium. If you recall, on New Year's Day several network TV stations featured live coverage from around the world. It...

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The January edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "Resolved to Press on Toward the Goal." The issue looks at the importance of resolving in this new year to honor God in all we do and say. Contributors include R.C. Sproul, Burk Parsons, C. FitzSimons Allison, Sinclair Ferguson,...

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Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith A modern reader perusing Jonathan Edwards' "Resolutions" is likely to think, what about dieting? And, didn't eighteenth-century New England have any gyms that he could resolve to join? Today, losing weight and getting more exercise are about the extent of our resolutions. We...

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Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. It is a sure sign of the fall that we so egregiously miss what we lost. Jesus calls us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness precisely because our priorities are all out of line. Even that for which we...

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Tabletalk magazine exists to help explain important, biblical doctrines and events while encouraging people toward holy living. Each issue features articles from well-known and respected scholars, regular columns, and insightful daily Bible studies.You can now purchase the entire 2008 Tabletalk collection for only $16. Contributors during the year included Alistair...

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Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by Simon J. Kistemaker The word church is fundamentally a Christian word and belongs exclusively to Christianity. Although other religions have terms such as synagogue and mosque, only Christians legitimately call their house of worship "church." There are churches that are named after places and...

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Pastor's Perspective by Robert W. Field Hawaii has often been advertised as one of those classic dreams of paradise. When streets on the mainland clog with snow and temperatures plummet far below zero, thoughts are enticed by Hawaii's warm tropical waves lapping upon beaches saturated with sun. Clouds drift by...

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Generation to Generation by Iain D. Campbell I would be devastated if my Christian teenage daughter became pregnant outside of marriage. It wouldn't be the unforgivable sin, I know, but in a world of enticements we are never out of danger. Today's young Christians are more vulnerable to Satan's attacks...

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Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison What do commercialism, the problem of evil, Chick tracts, American Idol, and Francis Beckwith's recent conversion to Roman Catholicism have in common? Anyone? If you couldn't come up with an answer, not to worry. One would be hard-pressed to find...

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Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul It has been called the Achilles' heel of the Christian faith. Of course, I'm referring to the classical problem of the existence of evil. Philosophers such as John Stuart Mill have argued that the existence of evil demonstrates that God is either not...

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Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons The movie Paradise Now is the 2005 Golden Globe winner for best foreign-language film. Although I have not yet seen the film, I have been intrigued by the film's title since it's release. The story follows two Palestinian childhood...

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The December edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "Paradise Lost and Regained." The issue explores basic elements of Christianity, including the loss of paradise by our first parents and how it was regained by Jesus Christ.Contributors include R.C. Sproul, Iain Campbell, Chris Donato, Robert Field, Simon Kistemaker,...

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by Gene Edward VeithThe theme of this month's Tabletalk is Paradise Lost, which is the title of what most critics would agree is the greatest poem in the English language. John Milton (whose 400th birthday we celebrate today on December 9) was an English puritan revolutionary who helped overthrow King...

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"Faith cannot be without a settled peace of mind, from which proceeds the bold confidence of rejoicing," John Calvin wrote in his commentary on Hebrews in the mid-sixteenth century. This point is most striking, and mostly underplayed by many exegetes. How could Calvin write something so...insensitive? And again: "We hence...

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Click here to listen in as Dr. R.C. Sproul and Rev. Burk Parsons discuss Tabletalk magazine. You'll learn about the magazine's origins, how it's put together each month, how readers use the magazine, and some of the upcoming themes and contributors.Readership for this unique monthly devotional magazine is now more...

Continue Reading A Tabletalk interview with Burk Parsons and R.C. Sproul...

Peter didn't just blow it, he blew it badly. "Though they all fall away...I will never fall away" (Matt. 26:33). Peter's resolution we admire for its confidence and bravery. But it is a statement relying on one's own strength and it is doomed for shipwreck. A few hours go by...

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Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. Thomas Aquinas was a great gift to the church. He stands among the greatest minds the world has ever known. This doesn't mean, of course, that he did not have his flaws, one of which goes to the heart of his intellectual labors....

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Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by Joni Eareckson Tada Bureaucracies aren't programmed to be compassionate. It's not in the nature of the thing. Take my friend, David Bowie, in his big, bulky wheelchair. After he became a quadriplegic in a car accident and his wife left him, he moved into...

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Generation to Generation by Douglas F. Kelly As a father of five children, and now a grandfather, I have spent three and a half decades seeking to pass down the Christian faith to the next generation. Let me deal with only one area of this vast work -- one, I...

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Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul Perhaps the most remarkable statement I ever heard a man utter from the pulpit was: "He has a penurious epistemology, which tends to be myopic." I was seated in the balcony of the church when that statement was made, and I could not...

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Pastor's Perspective by John Piper A shared vision for world missions is crucial in the life of the church. Why should world missions be fundamental in the ministry of the church? What do we mean by it? How do we go about it? What is your place in it? Consider...

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Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith Missionaries from Europe and America took Christianity to the ends of the earth and evangelized Africa and Asia. Now, as Christianity declines in the West, churches from the old mission field are the ones defending historic Christianity and are evangelizing Europe and America....

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Help make 2009 a year of enriching and engaging Bible study for someone on your gift list by sending them a subscription to Tabletalk magazine. When you do, we will automatically send one copy of R.C. Sproul's The Holiness of God to you and one copy to the gift recipient....

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Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison Robert Bruce (1551-1631) is not a household name, even among knowledgeable Reformed Christians. He was at one time, however, one of the most important leaders in the Church of Scotland. He was the successor of John Knox and James Lawson...

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Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons It's hard to believe that it was nearly a decade ago that we witnessed the turn of the third millennium. If you recall, on New Year's Day several network TV stations featured live coverage from around the world. It...

Continue Reading The World Upside Down...

The November edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "The Church of Jesus Christ and its Impact Around the World." The issue looks at the global church, rejoicing in the worldwide witness of the Christian faith. Editor Burk Parsons says this: "when we gather together for worship on...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, November 2008...

Generation to Generation by David Osborne The fourth Saturday of this month is legendary for college football fans. It is the annual clash between Alabama and Tennessee (two of the Deep South's most storied football programs). Alabama fans recognize Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's iconic status. The "General," as Robert Neyland...

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Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. The question of canon, like the question of law, is one of authority. We who are Reformed spend a great deal of time and energy speaking about God's sovereign power. God's power is more than worthy of our attention and study. We ought...

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Pastor's Perspective by Robert W. Oliver The apostles who associated with the Lord during His earthly ministry were still dependent upon the Holy Spirit to lead them into all truth. That truth has been transmitted to us in the pages of Scripture. Thus, Peter wrote: "And we have something more...

Continue Reading An Inestimable Treasure...

Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison There are a very small number of books other than the Bible that have affected the course of history. One thinks immediately of books such as Nicholas Copernicus' Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica, Charles Darwin's Origin...

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Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith When Christians talk about the "canon," they are referring to the books that comprise the Bible. But non-theological scholars too are debating the "canon." Not the canon of the Bible, but the canon of the "great books" that comprise our civilization. The question...

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Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul In centuries past, the church was faced with the important task of recognizing which books belong in the Bible. The Bible itself is not a single book but a collection of many individual books. What the church sought to establish was what we...

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Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by Randall Van Meggelen I recently shared with my pastors that I attended a course in which the instructor encouraged the class of music directors to view ourselves not merely as musicians, but rather as "church" musicians. One of my pastors responded by suggesting that...

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Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons About ten years ago I had the opportunity to study under the late Dr. Harold O. J. Brown (1933-2007) at the Evangelical Preacher's Seminary in Wittenberg, Germany. Dr. Brown was known by his students for his oral examinations, wherein...

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The October edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "The Canonicity of Scripture" and examines how the church came to possess God's Word, the Holy Bible. Contributors include R.C. Sproul, Charles E. Hill, Stephen J. Nichols, Robert W. Oliver, David Osborne, Randall Van Meggelen, and Robert I. Vasholz....

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, October 2008...

Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison Have you ever found yourself so caught up and concerned with the rampant sinfulness of our culture that you forget about the subtle sins in your own heart? If so, Jerry Bridges has written a book for you. Respectable Sins:...

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Generation to Generation by Greg Miseyko Mr. Reagan is "a firm and unbending politician for whom words and deeds are one and the same." This assessment found in East German secret police files provides future generations with a lasting example of integrity. These files must have reached the attention of...

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Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by Phil Newton Over the past decade I've engaged a wide-range of Christians on the subject of elders. Some, in desperation, want to change dysfunctional church leadership structures. Others have grown tired of side-stepping the biblical teaching on elders. Some long to adopt elder leadership...

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Pastor's Perspective by John R. Hutchinson I had just moved to the Washington D.C. area when the call came from a Christian organization on Capitol Hill, asking if I would be the evangelical along with a Jewish rabbi, Roman Catholic priest, and members of Congress in a press conference intended...

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Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith America is mad for liberty. Ours is a free country. We enjoy freedom of speech and of religion, the freedom of the press, and the freedom to bear arms. And rightly so. But though Americans love freedom, many of them have forgotten what...

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Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul "A decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered...." In Luke 2, the well-known passage introducing the nativity story, the title accorded to the Roman emperor is Caesar Augustus. Had this census been mandated earlier under the monarchy...

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Coram Deo by Burk Parsons As I have traveled abroad, I have had to endure all sorts of snide remarks about the United States. I have seen graffiti depicting the American flag with bombs in place of stripes and skulls in place of stars. I have seen disfigured pictures of...

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The September edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Articles by R.C. Sproul, Michael Horton, T. David Gordon, and other authors focus on helping Christians to understand important, biblical doctrines and events while encouraging us toward holy living. Tabletalk Editor Burk...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, September 2008...

That's right, one of the blog world's favorite words: "free." If you are not aware, Tabletalk published a great issue on "The New Atheism" this month. In light of this timely topic, we would like to equip you with extra copies to discuss atheism with those close to you...

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"We will leave the Muslims, Hindus, Mormons, and Jedi Knights to respond for themselves, although we note in passing that it is another fundamental belief of the atheist creed that all religions are essentially the same -- hence the oft repeated statement or accusation that 'atheists do not fly planes...

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Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison One of the first Reformed authors I ever read was Sinclair Ferguson. I was a dispensationalist in transition at the time, and I ran across a little book titled The Christian Life: A Doctrinal Introduction by Dr. Ferguson. I started...

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Pastor's Perspective by Philip G. Ryken Make no mistake: there is an aggressive new atheism in America. The new unbelievers are eager to win people to their cause. Not content simply to disbelieve in God for themselves, they want to persuade other people not to believe in Him either. Some...

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Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by Carl R. Trueman Many evangelical Christians are instinctively suspicious of the whole idea of creeds and confessions, those set forms of words that certain churches have used throughout the ages to give concise expression to the Christian faith. For such people, the very idea...

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Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith The old atheists maintained that belief in God is not true. The new atheists maintain that belief in God is not good. The atheists' problem, though, is that however much they attack belief in God, their own worldview lacks all appeal. They get...

Continue Reading Making Atheism Enchanting...

Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul In this postmodern culture we have witnessed a fascinating revival of ancient Gnosticism. The Gnostics of antiquity were called by that name because they asserted that they had a superior type of knowledge that surpassed the insights found even in the apostles...

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Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of Godby Burk Parsons Since hearing about the supposedly "new" atheism I have been trying to figure out what's so new about it. Its proponents are not saying anything different than their atheist ancestors have said throughout history. In truth, they are simply using...

Continue Reading New Dog, Old Tricks ...

The August edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is The "New" Atheism. Articles by R.C. Sproul, Ravi Zacharias, John Blanchard, and other authors look at this new brand of atheism which represents just the latest attack on the Christian faith. Christians would do well to be prepared to...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, August 2008...

Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by Howard Q. Davis In chapter two of Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands, Paul David Tripp relates a story of a church member who called the pastor to get him to help a man. Tripp's comment to the member was, "Isn't God's love amazing? God...

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Generation to Generation by Susan Hunt A friend gave me a plaque that proclaims: "Grandmothers are antique little girls." I don't know what the originator had in mind, but my spin is that the longer we live, the more we return to the simplicity of girlhood. I am convinced that...

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Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. Trouble comes to the people of God. If it is not here now, it will be here soon. Those who promise that the Christian life is a breezy walk through the meadow not only have not taken up their cross and followed Him,...

Continue Reading I Will Sing an Old Song...

Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison When Dutch Calvinists and Arminians squared off against one another in the early part of the seventeenth century, the Calvinists won the opening battle. The controversy, however, soon spread beyond the borders of the Netherlands. Now, four hundred years later,...

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Pastor's Perspective by Bill Haynes Martin Luther, in his Table Talk #403, makes the statement that "an upright shepherd and minister must improve his flock by edification, and also resist and defend it; otherwise, if resisting be absent, the wolf devours the sheep." Resisting and defending require that a pastor-shepherd...

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Right Now Counts Forever by R.C. Sproul During the nineteenth-century potato famine in Ireland, my great-grandfather, Charles Sproul, fled his native land to seek refuge in America. He left his thatched roof and mud floor cottage in a northern Ireland village and made his way barefoot to Dublin -- to...

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Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith On October 10, A.D. 732 , some 80,000 Muslim cavalrymen attacked 30,000 Frankish infantrymen near Tours in present-day France. Those Muslims had already conquered Northern Africa and Spain, and they were poised to sweep over the rest of Europe. Normally, foot soldiers are...

Continue Reading What if the Muslims Won?...

Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons One could perhaps make the argument that the history of the church consists of one division after another. Nevertheless, while history is replete with ecclesiastical divisions, there is a unity that transcends all the worldly clamor and devilish confusion...

Continue Reading God's Truth Abideth Still...

The July edition of Tabletalk is out. This month's theme is The Eighth Century, the period of history that fell midway between the founding of the church and the time of the Protestant Reformation. The daily devotions continue our study of the book of Matthew.We don't post all of the...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, July 2008...

Seek Ye Firstby R.C. Sproul Jr.There is no such thing as the "More Party." They do not run campaigns seeking to unseat sitting officials of the "Less Party." Both "more" and "less" need more context and less ambiguity. We need to know what we are getting more or less...

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International Outreachby Timothy A. DickOver the years, Ligonier Ministries has been blessed with many opportunities to provide biblical teaching resources for the church in various countries and languages. Yet, at this moment in time, unlike any other, we are perhaps on the horizon of a new reformation. We believe...

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by Steven J. Lawson For the last four years, I have spoken at a conference on the West Coast called Resolved. The name is drawn from the Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards and is aimed at college students and "twenty-somethings" in the next generation. As an eighteen and nineteen year old,...

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Pastor's Perspectiveby Terry L. JohnsonDuring the Reformation era, debates raged over what things must be considered crucial to Christian faith and practice, and what could be considered adiaphora (Latin for "things indifferent"). All sides agreed that the doctrines of the Trinity, the atonement, and justification were central. But what...

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Right Now Counts Foreverby R.C. SproulThe nineteenth-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is famous for his declaration that "God is dead." That brief dictum does not give the whole story. According to Nietzsche, the cause of the Deity's demise was compassion. He said, "God is dead; He died of pity." But before...

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Generation to Generationby Niel NielsonRecently, an acquaintance of mine gathered these statistics on the choices available today: 200 cable channels; 255 ways to order a Big Mac; 19,000 possible combinations for coffee at Starbucks and 78,998 for ice cream and toppings at Cold Stone Creamery; and more than 500,000 mathematical...

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Truth and Consequencesby Gene Edward VeithToday's postmodernists use cultural pluralism as a pretext for relativism, as if the existence of many cultures implied the existence of many truths. Many Americans embrace multiculturalism as if they had no culture of their own. In religion, pluralism has given rise to a...

Continue Reading A Good Kind of Pluralism...

Pro Ecclesia: For the Churchby Robert M. NorrisI am not used to being considered a heretic. Yet recently, when a colleague and I visited a friend who teaches theology at a famous British university, we found ourselves faced with this charge! In a conversation that had quickly turned to...

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Tolle Lege: Take Up and Readby Keith MathisonI face something of a dilemma here that I believe C. J. Mahaney might appreciate. He has written a wonderful book in which he seeks to share insight on the practice of true humility and the conquest of pride. However, as he...

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Coram Deo (Living before the face of God)by Burk ParsonsOur enemy's supreme deception is in his attempt to convince us that he doesn't exist. Toward that end, he has launched his assault against us with every weapon in his carefully fashioned arsenal. Perhaps his greatest success is in persuading us...

Continue Reading Don't Be So Open-minded...

by Roger NicoleIn modern English the words apology and apologize indicate regret because some statement or action was offensive and wrong. This is not the case for "apologetics" in theology, for that discipline is intended to manifest "a point of view is right." It is intended for those who differ...

Continue Reading God in the Dock: The Apologetics of C.S. Lewis...

by Sinclair B. FergusonNovember 22, 1963, the date of President Kennedy's assassination, was also the day C.S. Lewis died. Seven years earlier he had thus described death: "The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning." The metaphor inherent in these words is...

Continue Reading Surprised by Joy: The Life of C.S. Lewis...

For sixty years, successive generations have been helped by what C.S. Lewis wrote on the subject of pain and suffering. The sustained benefit is due in large measure to the fact that he brought to the "problem" a solid dose of Christian realism. This medicine may be more important now...

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Truth and Consequences by Gene Edward Veith Dante ranks right up there with Shakespeare and Homer as the greatest writers of our civilization. Though the Italian poet, who lived from 1265 to 1321, embodies the High Middle Ages, he is sometimes called a proto-reformer for his bold condemnation of the...

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by Leland RykenThe most important lessons that we can learn from C.S. Lewis' Narnian Chronicles are the ones that Lewis himself wanted us to learn. It so happens that Lewis said enough about literature in general and the Narnian books in particular that it is possible to read Lewis' classic...

Continue Reading The Imagination of C.S. Lewis...

Right Now Counts Foreverby R.C. SproulC.S. Lewis emerged as a twentieth-century icon in the world of Christian literature. His prodigious work combining acute intellectual reasoning with unparalleled creative imagination made him a popular figure not only in the Christian world but in the secular world as well. The Chronicles of...

Continue Reading The Weight of Glory: The Significance of C.S. Lewis...

Unless you've been living in a beaver's house, you know that Prince Caspian descends on theaters Friday. While the secular, materialist culture at large tries to understand why C.S. Lewis' worldview makes them uncomfortable, we thought we would take a moment to celebrate this unique man's contributions.The January 2008 issue...

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Generation to Generation by Ron Gleason Being a pastor has been the most humbling, challenging, fulfilling, and wonderful calling of my life. It was in the pastoral ministry that I learned -- and still am learning -- that true success is not measured by the size of your salary or...

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Seek Ye First by R.C. Sproul Jr. Every culture and subculture has its own taboos. Not all of them are the same, however. Given that we are all human, how can we explain the divergence of cultural standards? Why is it that one culture will find adultery to be a...

Continue Reading At Least I'm Honest...

Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read by Keith A. Mathison It should come as little surprise to learn that the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement of Christ has come under renewed criticism in recent decades. The Reformers dealt with such criticisms and attacks from the Socinians. Our more recent forefathers...

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Pastor's Perspective by Robert S. Rayburn Pride is the idolatry of the self. It is the nature of pride as competition with God -- the displacing of God by the self at the center -- that has led many Christian thinkers through the ages to regard pride (superbia) as the...

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Pro Ecclesia: For the Church by George Grant The heroine of My Fair Lady, Eliza Doolittle, captured the sentiment of most of us when she complained, "Words, words, words -- I am so sick of words. I get words all day through, first from him, now from you. Is that...

Continue Reading The High Call of Service...

Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God by Burk Parsons We all certainly agree that all virtues are heavenly and that all sins are deadly. Nevertheless, certain virtues are more heavenly than others, and certain sins lead to death more quickly than other sins. While some sins are private...

Continue Reading War and Peace...

The May edition of Tabletalk is now distributed to subscribers. This month's theme is "The Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Heavenly Virtues" and the issue includes articles written by R.C. Sproul, Thabiti Anyabwile, Robert W. Carver, Chris Donato, Ron Gleason, George Grant, Ken Jones, Jonathan Leeman, Robert S. Rayburn,...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, May 2008...

Ligonier Ministries has begun working with a unique translation effort called Gospel Translations. It's a partnership between several ministries. We appreciate our friends at Sovereign Grace, Desiring God, and 9Marks who have spearheaded this effort.As Philip Jenkins has written, Christianity is growing in the Global South. Our concern is that...

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Pro Ecclesia (For the Church)by R. Albert Mohler Jr.The Bible consistently affirms education as a central responsibility of God's people. In the Old Testament, the Jewish people were reminded that the education of their own children was an essential part of their responsibility as God's covenant people. In Israel, a...

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Pro Ecclesia (For the Church)by Richard D. PhillipsSince we live in a fallen world, our greatest strengths have a way of giving birth to our greatest weaknesses. This is why some churches that emphasize a strong Bible-preaching pulpit are less vigorous in ministries of mercy. One inner city Presbyterian church...

Continue Reading What the Needy Need...

If you are a reader of contemporary theological works and you have not already encountered the name "N.T. Wright," you will. Wright is the Anglican Bishop of Durham, and he is one of the most prolific biblical scholars of our day. I first encountered Wright's name years ago while doing...

Continue Reading When Wright Is Wrong...

Generation to Generationby Joshua Harris When I turned twenty-one, my dad gave me this simple advice: “Find men that you want to be like and then sit at their feet.” As I launched into manhood, he was reminding me that the lessons I needed most wouldn’t be found in a...

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Pastor's Perspective by Kim Riddlebarger Of all the Reformation-era catechisms, perhaps none is as well-loved as the Heidelberg Catechism. In the opening question and answer, the personal and distinctive tone of the catechism becomes evident. “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” This is not a theoretical...

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Right Now Counts Foreverby R.C. SproulThe Latin word credo means simply "I believe." It represents the first word of the Apostles' Creed. Throughout church history it has been necessary for the church to adopt and embrace creedal statements to clarify the Christian faith and to distinguish true content from error...

Continue Reading Norma Normata -- A Rule that is Ruled...

This is from Burk Parsons' column "Coram Deo: Living Before the Face of God" written to introduce the April 2008 edition of Tabletalk. He is the editor of Tabletalk magazine and minister of congregational life at Saint Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Florida.*****One dutchman, a theologian. Two dutchmen, a church. Three...

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The April edition of Tabletalk has now reached our subscribers hands. This month's theme is on The Three Forms of Unity, those formative documents produced during that revival of the Gospel we call the Protestant Reformation. The daily devotions continue our study of the book of Matthew.We'll post some of...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, April 2008...

Most readers know Tabletalk magazine for its helpful, topical articles as well as the daily Bible studies. In 2008, the editors have started posting the magazine's columns as well as R.C. Sproul's popular "Right Now Counts Forever" article. Here are the links to the March edition:Coram Deo (Living Before the...

Continue Reading Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, March 2008...