Come Down, Lord!

  Over the last several months, as I have followed the news, I have become increasingly dismayed by the Trump administration and have begun to wonder when the evangelical Church will say “enough.” I began this blog out of a burden for revival, but my first post , and many of the posts that followed, were about COVID and the lockdowns. I was concerned then about what looked like tyrannical overreach on the part of our own government, but I was particularly concerned with what I saw as the failure of so many churches to act on first principles. We had been saying one thing for years, but when put to the test, we did something else entirely. I acted as I did in 2020 and 2021 because I believed, as I do now, that “God defines public worship to include the physical gathering of His people (Leviticus 23:3; Psalm 89:7; Hebrews 10:25);” “that we are explicitly forbidden from rendering to Caesar what is God’s (Mark 12:17);” “that we must obey God rather than man (Acts 5:29);” and “that Chri...

  Over the last sixteen years, I have spent a lot of time in the Puritans. Early on in my pastoral ministry, I resolved to read at least ten pages of Puritan writings a day. While I have not always been consistent, I have made Puritan reading a significant priority. Though I have read other material, the bulk of my time has been given to their works, which have profoundly shaped my thinking on a host of issues. When I have questions, I instinctively turn—not to contemporary voices—but to the Puritans. They aren’t perfect, but they are safe. I have noticed, however, that the ideology and practices of younger generations of Reformed believers have been largely shaped by the influence of popular contemporary figures, many of whom find their platform on social media. This hasn’t been good for the Church. Had our young men been steeped in the writings of their forefathers in general—particularly the Puritans—the Church today would be in a far healthier state. Some were puzzled—even dism...