In a previous post, I considered the main questions you need to ask when considering a new Bible: Here, I’ll give a tour of a specific edition to see how it lines up with those main categories. For this review: the Waterproof ESV. Overview Let’s ask the main question first: why waterproof? Answer: Because Bibles […]
Continue reading
Archive by Author
Pastoral Companions: Bible Translations and Editions for Ministry and Discipleship, Part 2
May 12, 2026 
0 Comments
“Write thy own words upon my heart and inscribe them on my lips; So shall all glory be to thee in my reading of thy Word!” — “A Minister’s Bible,” Valley of Vision Series Introduction One of the greatest privileges of vocational ministry is sustained contact with God’s Word. We not only use the Scriptures […]
Continue reading Pastoral Companions: Bible Translations and Editions for Ministry and Discipleship, Part 1
April 22, 2026 1 Comment
“O God of truth, I thank thee for the holy Scriptures, their precepts, promises, directions, light. In them may I learn more of Christ, be enabled to retain his truth and have grace to follow it.” — “A Minister’s Bible,” Valley of Vision Series Introduction One of the greatest privileges of vocational ministry is sustained contact with God’s […]
Continue reading Temporary and Contingent: Affinity Groups in the Already-Not Yet Church
May 13, 2025 1 Comment
(Author’s note: This article is a response to Teaching Elder Kyle Dillon’s recent post “Equality over Affinity: The Case against Ethnic Affinity Groups.” I’m grateful for Kyle’s friendship and for his invitation to compose this response.) How can churches live faithfully in Christian unity, while also respecting the providential contingencies of history and culture? This […]
Continue reading For a Continuing Church: A Review, Part Two
December 13, 2016 1 Comment
Note: Part One of this review offers an evaluation of For a Continuing Church and its main thesis concerning the PCA’s identity. Applying Our Identity As Dr. Sean Lucas convincingly establishes throughout For a Continuing Church, the PCA was formed as a “conservative ‘mainline’ Presbyterian body.” The founders chose to establish broader boundaries for the […]
Continue readingFor a Continuing Church: A Review, Part One
December 12, 2016 2 Comments
Introduction: Identity and Reformation “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”[1] Wisdom, according to John Calvin, requires an accurate self-assessment. That Calvin sets this assertion at the very head of his magisterial Institutes shows that the calling […]
Continue reading Review: Trinity and Organism, by James Eglinton
February 29, 2016 1 Comment
James Eglinton, Trinity and Organism: Towards a New Reading of Herman Bavinck’s Organic Motif (T&T Clark, 2012) Evangelicals in America have an identity problem. The current political landscape demonstrates a divide within American evangelicalism on how to put our values into practice. At the heart of this fissure is a lack of coherent theological ethics – […]
Continue reading From Culture War Burnout to Cultural Faithfulness
August 13, 2015 1 Comment
The question of Christianity and cultural faithfulness has been one of my most passionate and personal questions; it’s also one of the more contentious questions facing the American Church today. The more you read, the more complicated the question becomes. As a friend of mine says often, “Everything is complicated and everything is connected.” How […]
Continue reading Civil War as Theological Crisis: A Review
December 8, 2014 2 Comments
In an earlier series of posts, I reviewed Dr. Sean Lucas’ biography Robert Lewis Dabney. One conclusion Lucas demonstrates from Dabney’s work was the need for more rigorous theological argumentation in making ethical conclusions. This conclusion came from observing the use of Scripture to justify slavery by leaning inappropriately on proof-texts, rather than arguing from […]
Continue reading Robert Lewis Dabney: A Review (Part Two)
December 2, 2014 1 Comment
This is Part Two of a review of Dr. Sean Lucas’ biography of the Southern theologian, Robert Dabney. In Part One of this review, readers were invited to consider the impact of Robert Lewis Dabney’s life and work. This overview of Dabney’s life shows that, like every minister, he was both a saint and a […]
Continue reading
Allkirk Network 