Read

Westminster student Beck Otersen addresses the mystery of effectual prayer to a sovereign God.

In our newest tuition free micro course, Dr. Jonny Gibson teaches about keeping faithful in study and life as a pastor.

Julius Kim is stepping into the roles of Executive Director of Korean Initiatives and the President’s Professor of Global Ministries at WTS.

A new biography of Machen adds great historical depth but has some things worth challenging.

Hibbs reflects on Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize Winning book The Road, and how it falls short of transcendent hope.

Newly uncovered details about an old theological controversy with Cornelius Van Til remind us to check our motives for theological criticism.

God does not simply sit down with us over a beer, accepting us just as we are and leaving us entirely unchanged, except for giving us an undeserved inheritance.

A story of political corruption in ancient Israel can help the church respond to elections. Chasing after promises of utopia has always led to oppression and misery.

Our understanding of discipline is too narrow. More than punishing or correcting, discipline is an act of love that shapes us to Christ. And it does far more good than harm in the end.

"Science is only possible because things in this universe work consistently, they change consistently, and we can make predictions because of it. Without consistency the world would be incomprehensible."

What does it look like to yearn for oneness with God, and how do we get there?

J. Gresham Machen, in a historic moment, opposes the passing of a bill meant to uniform public education under the centralized control of the government.

When the ministry disappoints, set your heart on the things above.

Amillennials aren't the doleful type. We know Christ rules, our suffering matters, and the world needs our witness.

"...our dignity comes from the very Author of the universe."

Critical theory shares assumptions with the snake talk of Genesis 3.

"Beauty is everywhere, even in its conspicuous absence."

True courage requires something many people lack: the long quiet labor of understanding, sympathizing, and loving as we speak the truth.

Here are three things you need to know before talking to people who differ from you.

"True creation is more complicated than what AI does."

"The image of God manifests in the harmony of the masculine Adam and the feminine Eve precisely because of the eternal harmony of the persons of Trinity."

Cornelius Van Til could say things that make you re-envision your approach to knowledge and theology. This is one of them, and it brings out our wonder, humility, and worship.

The relevance of belief in God may just be the thing that draws a drifting culture back to Christianity. Apart from relevance, faith is dead in the water.

"Out of this discovery grew her desire to see readers find the same satisfaction in the Lord."

A "Satanic" song performance at the 2023 Grammys has drawn much attention. What does it teach us about secular thought, and how should we respond?

Apocolyptic literature has a message most people miss.

"Insofar as these sub-reformed apologetic methods proliferate, the church will struggle to meet the challenge of unbelief."

Bless your heart.” “Have a blessed day.” “God bless this house.” “Let us say a blessing.” The words bless, blessed, and blessing are thrown around quite a bit in everyday conversation. So, when we read about the blessed ones in the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3–12), the impact of the concept of blessing may get lost in translation. What sort of blessings are in view in the Beatitudes? Are these principles we are to strive for? Are they spiritual realities that are already true? Are they unattainable ideals? Such questions are closely related to the approach one takes to the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7) as a whole. As to the latter question—how are we to read the Sermon on the Mount?—the answer is that the Lord’s sermon does not present an unattainable ideal that only underscores our inherent inability to realize the sermon’s demands. Instead, the Sermon on the Mount presents an ethical blueprint for disciples who make up the messianic community. The sermon provides the great principles that are to guide Christians to righteousness in practice, even as we follow the One who fulfills all righteousness (3:15). It is within this framework that the Beatitudes stand at the gateway of the Sermon on the Mount. As biblical theologian Geerhardus Vos noted more than a century ago, “At the beginning [of the Sermon on the Mount] stand the beatitudes, engraven in golden script upon its portal, reminding us that we are not received by Jesus into a school of ethics but into a kingdom of redemption.” Therefore, to understand the blessings of the Beatitudes, we need to read Jesus’ sermon in the context of the entire canon of Scripture and the full scope of redemptive history. For indeed, the blessings of the Beatitudes are preeminently covenantal blessings. To understand the biblical background to the Beatitudes, we turn first to Psalm 1:1–3: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. Here the blessed one, the one who will flourish and prosper in his life, is the one who meditates on the law of God. Additionally, the term translated “blessed” in Psalm 1:1 in the Greek Old Testament is the same term used in the Greek New Testament for the blessed of the Beatitudes (makarios). Both Psalm 1 and the Beatitudes speak about the importance of God’s law for life. Thus, there is an ethical emphasis in these two texts: to know and to do God’s law is to be blessed. We gain a fuller picture of what it means to be blessed by looking also at the blessings of Deuteronomy. For readers of the Pentateuch (Genesis–Deuteronomy), the language of blessings and curses has a familiar ring. Particularly at the end of Deuteronomy, we read about two paths that lie before the Israelites: the path of blessing and the path of cursing (Deut. 26–28; see also 11:26–28). The warnings against covenantal disobedience are clarion, as are the rewards for covenantal obedience. It is important to recognize that Deuteronomy is addressed originally to God’s covenant people who have been redeemed from Egypt (Deut. 1–4; see Ex. 19:5–6) and who are consequently instructed in covenantal obedience (Deut. 5–26; see Ex. 20–23). It is in this context that we read at the end of Deuteronomy a verse that is particularly relevant for the Beatitudes: “Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph! Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread upon their backs” (Deut. 33:29). These words, which are the last recorded words of Moses, speak of the happiness or blessedness (makarios) of Israel, who are the people uniquely saved by the Lord. Already in the Old Testament, therefore, God’s saving work provides the proper context for understanding what it means to be covenantally blessed and shows that being blessed with salvation also entails the responsibility to live according to God’s law. Consistent with this Old Testament emphasis on the priority of God’s action in redemption before the giving of the law, the Beatitudes are found in the context of Matthew’s gospel, wherein we find that Jesus saves His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). Though the Promised Land may have been filled with darkness, the coming of Christ brought the great light of salvation for those dwelling in the shadow of death (4:14–16). The Beatitudes must thus be read in their wider context. Before we get to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has already been baptized, has overcome the devil in the face of temptation, has fulfilled Scripture in various ways, and has announced the inauguration of the kingdom of heaven. Only after we read of these aspects of the work of Christ are we introduced to the ethics of the kingdom in the Sermon on the Mount. And even here, the opening of the Sermon on the Mount speaks of the blessings of the redeemed (5:3–12). This does not mean, of course, that we are not to strive for the vision that is cast in the Beatitudes; but it does mean that redemption precedes living according to the Beatitudes. It is thus in light of the gift of redemption that we are to hunger and thirst after righteousness, be pure in heart, be meek, and so on. The Beatitudes are at once the blessings of the redeemed and the call for what the lives of the redeemed should look like. And these blessings are not abstract, for Jesus Himself shows us how the Beatitudes look in practice. For example, Jesus blesses the meek (5:5), and He Himself is meek and lowly of heart (11:29; 21:5). Likewise, Jesus blesses the merciful (5:7), and He Himself shows mercy (9:27; 15:22; 17:15; 20:30–31; see Hos. 6:6). Thus, the blessings of the redeemed are also ways that the redeemed reflect the character of their Savior.

Our nativity scenes communicate something we all overlook: a weak and suffering savior who came to the world as an outcast.

Should churches cancel Lord's Day services to celebrate Christmas?

When death haunts our minds, we can stare at the light of our destiny.

A poem on how life follows death

The greatest lie in his is a simple one, but we're still fighting it. It's the lie that God is not really present with us.

A poem on the indwelling of the Spirit

Pierce Taylor Hibbs reflects on the way in which truth changes us, based on Vern Poythress's book, Truth, Theology, and Perspective.

"He held fast to that blessed hope, sustained by the seed of faith, which will blossom most beautifully in the light of glory."

An interview with Doctor of Ministry student Rob Pacienza

Jeff Hart interviews Alfred Poirier on the ministry of reconciliation.

Critical theory needs to be open to its own criticism.

"This is yet another example of a not-so-subtle maneuver pro-abortion advocates have employed in recent years, involving word games that would have made Wittgenstein proud."

"This is yet another example of a not-so-subtle maneuver pro-abortion advocates have employed in recent years, involving word games that would have made Wittgenstein proud."

"The fight for life has been fought for almost half a century, most of it out of the spotlight, in a committed and arduous battle involving the sacrifice of time, resources, and long-term education..."

"Many grace-filled brothers and sisters speak openly against the SSA identity paradigm. These humble servants are no ivory-tower theologians, hurling theological darts from afar."

Vern Poythress shows how Westminster is uniquely situated to do cultural analysis.

"Christianity is not just a deed complete with a title search to a plot of ground and a house in heaven. It is also a set of directions, a series of indications, for living today."

"Additionally, the matter of public theology at Westminster was greatly clarified by our concern to maintain our position on the sanctity of life in the face of the pro-abortion demands of the Affordable Care Act."

"The opacity of heaven’s glory is ever so slightly made more translucent as the faces of its residents are revealed to me through the window that death provides."

"In other words, Progressive Christianity, at its core, is Liberal Christianity 2.0."

"The trouble for God’s people has always been the same: God’s voice isn’t the only one receiving attention."

The blood of Christ still speaks. It asks us to draw nearer, to the owner of the blood.

If God has spoken, that changes everything. It means you know who you are, why you're here, and where you're going.

Joel Richards interviews Larry Trotter

"Melville not only opened a window to a different time, but to a different man, a man who quite literally sailed stormy seas in hunt of Leviathan and other sea monsters."

"Such lessons can help the reader become more refined and mentally fit for his literary task."

"Everything bears a message from the estate owner."

"Indeed, this is a movie about loneliness and betrayal, about shattered facades and having to salvage what remains in the midst of a reality that tempts one to cynical thinking."

"The pendulum has swung—and today, the “otherworldly” focus has changed to the present."

"To overcome the world ought to be the height of every man’s and woman’s ambition. Then there can be no misery but only joy in the truth of Christ."

"The West, despite owing much of its very existence to Christian faith, is anything but hospitable to Christian faith in the 21st Century. How did this happen? Who has bewitched us?"

"It sounds beautiful—a shoot of color breaking forth up out of the dry ground of a monotone world. It even looks like hope."

New releases due out in 2022

"Serving people by considering God first is an incomparable comfort to those in ministry."

Honoring the emperor looks a lot like the humility of Christ, provided that our conscience is clean according to the word of God.

Honoring others has everything to do with seeing ourselves as servants before the face of the Servant King.

A faculty interview with Jonny Gibson

Secular college campuses have a powerful religion of their own, and campus ministers need to be aware of it.

Dr. Packer's commencement address to Westminster students in 1964

"Many also read imperatives or commands, such as “love the brotherhood,” and immediately “get to work” on fulfilling this divine obligation. But is that what we, as Christians, are called to do?"

The fear of God is the answer to our fear of anything else.

"...children are seen primarily as snow-shoes which make one’s carbon footprint three times as large."

A faculty interview with Dr. Mark Garcia

"...the chaos helped drown out the echoes of his own voice proclaiming, “I don’t know who I am.”

"But the king of questions always steps ahead of the others, strong and silent: Who are you?"

"Contentment is a fickle mistress. She is usually gone and when she is near, she always threatens to leave."

"It was...Christ’s plan...generating generations of his laborers that animated Westminster’s forefathers at Old Princeton."

"Christ’s words to his disciples at the end of Matthew stand firmly upon an ancient and deep revelational bedrock."

“Holy Inhabitance” is the winner of the Edgar Creative Writing Prize, awarded annually at Westminster.

"This far greater vision enables us not just to imagine Westminster’s campus of the future, but to begin building it, brick by brick."

"You are in the middle of a battle..."

"There is no arrival; the journey itself is the end."

The Mariner hath his will, and he cannot choose but hear.