400 Years of Dort: Eight Things You Should Know About the Synod of Dort

1. The full name of the document produced at the Synod (popularly known as the Canons of Dort) is: The Decision of the Synod of Dort on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in Dispute in the Netherlands. The Synod was composed of around 100 delegates, 14 of whom were Remonstrants.

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Rape, Incest, and the Life of the Mother

In this third article, we will examine argument made by anti-life advocates that abortion should be legal in the cases where the child is a result of rape or incest or is a threat to the mother’s health. Before we deal with these objections, we ought to point out that the percentage of abortions as a result of rape or incest is very low, so even if we grant the legitimacy of these abortions (which we do not) the vast majority of abortions would be unjustified.

Abortion and the Definition of Personhood

In this second article, we will consider the definition of personhood and how it relates to the issue of abortion. Anti-life advocates argue that a fetus is not a person, but merely a potential person. Therefore, they need not be afforded the rights and protections due to a person. Anti-life advocates argue for personhood either when the fetus is considered viable (able to survive outside the womb) or when it acquires some characteristic (sentience, self-consciousness, relationality, etc.), but both of these positions have massive problems.

Genocide is a Gray Area

(This post is the first in a series of three.)

“Genocide is not a black and white issue,” “The Bible doesn’t specifically mention it,” “There’re good Christians who disagree about it,” “It’s a complex issue,” “We should leave it up to the individual’s choice,” “We really don’t know whether Jews/Tutsis/Cambodians are truly persons so we shouldn’t be dogmatic about systematically killing them.” I hope these statements shock you as being indefensible and wicked. We have learned all too well in the past century how much harm genocide can do. Yet these statements are all too often on the lips of professing Christians (especially those who lean towards the left on political issues) when it comes to abortion. Why is that? Is abortion really a gray area? Can Christians in good faith disagree on this issue? Before we answer these questions, we must recognize that they have massive implications. If abortion is not a gray area and truly is the murder of unborn persons – then it surpasses Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, the Khmer Rouge, and the Hutu government as the most massive human rights violation of all time. In the United States alone there have been over 60 million abortions since 1973, that is ten times more than the number of Jews killed by Nazi Germany in WWII. This is not an insignificant issue. If one is to argue for the morality of abortion he must be sure, absolutely sure, that it is not murder to kill unborn human beings.

Is it God’s Will to Heal Everyone? A Problem with the Question

This question, common as it is, has a serious problem.

Why You Shouldn’t Sing Most Worship Songs

“We have more songs at our disposal than at any other point in worship history. That means we need to say ‘no’ to most of them.” –  Scott Connell[1]

Ours is an era of ubiquity in Christian worship music. CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International) boasts of having “more than 300,000 songs of worship.” Given the fact that many evangelical churches sing somewhere between 3 and 8 songs each Lord’s Day, between 156 and 416 a year if they don’t repeat any – how are the they to choose which songs to sing? How are they to choose which artists to sing from? Should they sing what the church has always sung? Should they sing what is popular on Christian radio? I have already written briefly on criteria for selecting songs for corporate worship. In this short article I would like to justify being selective in what songs we sing from certain artists. In other words, I want to justify not singing the majority of what any given Christian artist produces, indeed the majority of all worship songs. I shall attempt to show why I think this by using two lines of argumentation, one Biblical the other historical.

Harmony in Cacophony: How to Select Biblical Songs for Corporate Worship

Ours is an age of unparalleled excess in the realm of worship music. Just 60 years ago, many churches only had one hymnal from which to select their hymns for the Sunday morning service. Now, in the digital age, churches have access CCLI, which boasts of having over 300,000 worship songs from which they can select. If those tasked with selecting from ~500 hymns thought that was tiresome enough, I feel sorry for those tasked with choosing from over 300,000 songs! Yet choices must be made, for no church can sing every song. What then are the criteria for selecting songs to include in Sunday worship? Good criteria can dramatically reduce the number of songs to select from and help place the one selecting them on a firm foundation as he prepares to lead God’s people in singing His praises.