On Saturdays we repost articles from the archives that apply to current issues. The following article discusses whether a missionary should simply adopt a culture’s… Read More »Should a missionary simply adopt a culture’s music when church planting?
Included in faulty ideas of what legalism is are the notions that it is interpreting Scripture literally, making applications for modern living, exhorting submission, and… Read More »Will the Real Legalist Please Stand Up? Concluding Thoughts
The culture of any group of people has a profound influence on the sort of propositions that they are likely to find believable. Here, I’m… Read More »Culture and Truth
I thought I’d post a helpful discourse by Dave Doran in his journal article on “Market-Driven Ministry,” which answers well recent justification of a neutral… Read More »Multiculturalism veiled as "Missional"
If, as I have suggested, Christian conservatism stands upon two primary pillars (a commitment to align one’s ideas with transcendent absolutes that are rooted in God himself… Read More »Conservative Christians will be committed to worship regulated by the Word of God
How important is it that we worship God and him alone? Deuteronomy 13:6-11 is one of those passages that jars our modern sensibilities as a… Read More »Nor shall your eye pity him
Today’s post continues our series on “incarnation hymnody.” Today: the ancient “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” and Charles Wesley’s “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.” ____________________… Read More »Incarnation Hymnody: "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" and "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus"
On Saturdays we repost articles from the archives that apply to current issues. The following article deals with the issue of cross-cultural musical meaning. The… Read More »Can biblical principles about music be applied across cultures?
Christians often imbibe facile and unhelpful definitions of legalism. One of these is the idea that legalism is the act of judging the meaning cultural phenomena,… Read More »Will The Real Legalist Please Stand Up? – Judging Culture
The purposes and positions of Religious Affections (the ministry and blog, not [necessarily] the book) are not obscure; this granted, I expect that our readers… Read More »Sola Scriptura and Form: What I’m Not Saying
book review by Phil E. Suiter, Ph.D. Guiness, O. (2003). Prophetic untimeliness: A challenge to the idol of relevance. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. One… Read More »Book Review: Prophetic untimeliness: A challenge to the idol of relevance
Reflecting on the demise of Crystal Cathedral, Harriet Baber wrote in the Guardian this stinging indictment of American evangelicalism: Of course we don’t expect popular… Read More »Fashion is arbitrary
God’s people, and especially those who would stand before the Christian assembly and lead in singing praise, ought always to be thoughtful about what they… Read More »Incarnation Hymnody: "Of the Father's Love Begotten" and "Silent Night"
Conservative Christians are often accused of legalism. To understand what legalism is, we must first understand what it is not. One common misconception is that… Read More »Will the Real Legalist Please Stand Up? Authority and Submission
In this discussion, I am using the term form, quite broadly, to denote those features of the biblical text that express (in additional to their… Read More »Sola Scriptura and Form: Biblical Form
Christian conservatism stands upon two primary pillars: 1) a commitment to align one’s ideas with transcendent absolutes that are rooted in God himself; and, 2)… Read More »Conservative Pillar II: Nurturing Tradition
I had the the pleasure of meeting T. David Gordon, author of the excellent new book Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns, a few weeks ago… Read More »T. David Gordon endorses Worship in Song
I am always thrilled when someone introduces me to a hymn that is well-written and theologically rich, and for some reason or another has been… Read More »Hymn Highlights: "Jesus Lives, and So Shall I"
Avoiding legalism is firstly a matter of rightly understanding what it is. To begin with, we must reject incorrect definitions of legalism. One such error… Read More »Will the Real Legalist Please Stand Up? – Application of Scripture
In the first post of this series, I offered this thesis: “because the Bible is itself expressed in certain forms, and because the Bible is… Read More »Sola Scriptura and Form: Theology as a Problem