Dispensationalism arose within the last 150 years; it is a system of interpretation for reading and understanding the Bible. Central to its uniqueness is its separation of Israel and the church: that God has a different plan for salvation for ethnic Israel (the Jewish people) and the Christian church. 

How to maintain the best of Presbyterianism’s standard of thoughtful, learned preaching and teaching while reaching an increasingly diverse culture is one great challenge facing our church today.

The office in its New Testament form was recovered to the church at the Reformation but has had a spotty history since. The church has sometimes valued the office and profited greatly from its ministry. At other times, the office has once again virtually disappeared.

No matter that certain principles are held in common, all Presbyterian churches do not practice precisely the same church government, and some of these differences are substantial. These distinctive features derive from the different history of the churches, as well as their different political and social environments.

One of the most interesting and consequential of these distinctively American features of our Presbyterianism is the popularity of the so-called two-office view of Presbyterian church government. Historically, Presbyterianism since the Reformation has been a three-office church government (ministers, ruling elders, and deacons).

There is a virtue in Presbyterianism greater than any of these. I am speaking of the way Presbyterian church government embodies and practices the unity of the church.

The Presbyterian church government, like all other Christian polities, is only as good as the men who occupy its offices.

Does the New Testament actually prescribe a form of church government that Christians are duty bound to practice still today? Does the New Testament material regarding church government taken together amount to a commandment that we are obliged to obey? 

What is Presbyterianism? The term itself suggests government by elders or presbyters. But Presbyterians aren’t the only Christians whose churches are ruled by elders, just as Baptists are not the only ones who practice baptism.

How does being Presbyterian shape our life as a church and our lives as individual Christians? In what ways does it distinguish us from other Bible-believing Christians?

There is a lot of risk in starting a business, mainly because it is hard to see how profitable a business will be until you actually do it. But buying a business means acquiring a business you already know is profitable. As it turns out, roughly 10,000 boomers are retiring every day in our country, and many of them built successful businesses.

One of the great challenges around this issue is that Christians are people of compassion. We read multiple times in the gospels that our Lord saw people and had compassion on them. We hear about adolescents who are depressed or even suicidal, experiencing gender dysphoria, and our hearts go out to them

Is it a sin for one to be a Christian and to be gay? Should a person with same-sex attraction be single, or is it okay to be in a committed relationship?

What I am arguing is that the essential unique calling of a man is to be a guardian, and the essential unique calling for a woman is to be a helper. Both of these callings are focused on the flourishing of other people.

What is unique about being a man? The unique purpose entrusted to the man in this joint endeavor is to guard. Women, children, and communities depend on him to do this wisely. When a man fails to play this role, he compromises his manhood and the whole community suffers.

As a church, we must think deeply about the question of gender and form a sound and biblical anthropology in response. It is not just a question for pastors and counselors and cultural theorists; this question will touch every life and likely already has. And we must be prepared to think through it biblically.

So if men and women are both made in God’s image and share all these commands from God—how are they different? Is it just their anatomy?

The default position of the Christian is to be a law-abiding citizen. But we recognize that there are limits to our obedience, specifically when the magistrate’s commands become unlawful

What adolescents need more than anything is Christ. If there is one time of our lives where we need the grace of Jesus telling us “This is who you are!”—high school is it.

The Sermon on the Mount was not given as the ethic of an individual but the ethic of a new city that Jesus is building.