Bringing Marriage Back to Earth – Brian Tallman: "Common critiques of contemporary marriage in the West often include the recognition that marriage has become too sentimentalized. In light of Calvin’s comments, I wonder if the church isn’t guilty of making marriage too spiritual. That’s not to say that there aren’t Christian ethics that relate to marriage. Of course there are. Moreover, that isn’t to say that there aren’t opportunities to model and display the gospel in marriage. There are. But even when Paul speaks of the great mystery of marriage because it refers to Christ and His church, his proof text is Genesis 2:24: 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh,' a text universally considered to be referring to the institution of marriage in general and not Christian marriage specifically. Marriage—Christian marriage and non-Christian marriage—point to the gospel."
Swimming the Tiber? – Mark Jones: "In understanding why evangelicals turn to Catholicism, we must confess that churches today in the Protestant tradition have much for which to answer. Many evangelical churches today are, practically speaking, dog-and-pony shows. Not only has reverence for a thrice holy God disappeared in our worship, but even the very truths that make us Protestant, truths for which people have died, such as justification by faith alone, have been jettisoned for pithy epithets that would not seem out of place in a Roman Catholic Mass or, indeed, a Jewish synagogue. Our polemics against Rome will be of any lasting value only when Protestant churches return to a vibrant confessional theology, rooted in ongoing exegetical reflection, so that we have something positive to say and practice alongside our very serious objections to Roman Catholic theology."
Make Your Election Sure | Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at Ligonier.org – "We cannot know for certain the true state of anyone’s heart besides our own. Some profess faith and persevere until their deaths. Other professing believers later fall away, revealing that they never truly had faith to begin with (1 John 2:19). Until Jesus returns, the visible church is a mixed body; not all of those who profess faith actually possess it (Matt. 13:24–30)."
The Googlization of Bible Study – "Now, I don’t need that chew time. If I have a problem I simply Google it. And it’s making me dumberer. If I have an intellectual problem I tip my hat to Mr. Google and get an answer. Very quickly. I read through some sort of answer and then move on. The problem with this, though, is that I have an answer but I do not own that answer. "