Reformed Journey

I recently spent some time with a friend and colleague after our flights were delayed and we missed a connection. This gave us time to really catch up properly. And of course, as it usually does with me, the conversation quickly turned to theology. He grew up in a conservative church. Like me, he has spent years on the mission field in some of the poorest countries on earth, where we are surrounded by human pain and suffering. But unlike me, he has come to a very different understanding of it.  His understanding is that God, while he really wants to, simply cannot stop the suffering he sees in the world. God is a spirit, and we are humans, and therefore, there are things he can't ‘physically do’. When I pressed him on this, he told me that he had been deeply influenced by a book called God Can't: How to Believe in God and Love After Tragedy, Abuse, and Other Evils by author Thomas Jay Oord.  In God Can't , Oord argues that God’s love is “uncontrolling”, meaning that, becau...

A More Excellent Way: A Biblical Guide to 1 Corinthians 12–14: Spiritual Gifts, Tongues and Worship  It’s finally here! After months of writing, revising, praying, editing, and more editing, I’m incredibly thankful to say that my book, A More Excellent Way, is now available on Amazon in Kindle e-book, paperback and hardcover.  This book has been a joy to write. I loved every step of the way. It was born out of my desire to see my family and friends open Scripture and see what these chapters in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians really teach. It was shaped by thirty years of life in the Charismatic movement and written with a genuine desire to help Christians think more biblically about what these chapters say about spiritual gifts, tongues, and worship. And now I finally get to share the finished work with you.  For years, I saw 1 Corinthians 12–14 used as a roadmap of sorts for modern supernatural church life, where tongues, prophecy, and emotional “Spirit-filled” experie...

The question of divine healing is something that every believer wrestles with at some point. We pray for the sick, we rejoice when God heals, and we question Him when He doesn’t. In recent years, many teachers have claimed that it is always God’s will to heal, that Christ’s atonement guarantees complete physical healing this side of heaven for every Christian who has enough faith. Teacher Andrew Wommack is one of the more prominent. His 2010 book God Wants You Well has become one of his most popular and widely read. There are members of my immediate family who are not well and yet insist that God desperately wants to heal them, but for some reason cannot. They have been taught (by Wommack and others) that because Jesus healed people, then that must mean that God always wants everyone healed. But at the same time, because they are not healed, it cannot be God's fault. The inevitable conclusion is that it’s our fault. We don’t have enough faith, there is unforgiven sin in our lives, ...

The evil and tragic murder of Charlie Kirk in the U.S last week was a shock to everyone. Charlie, who confessed to being a Christian and argued against “trans rights” and “gay marriage” etc, was shot and killed while speaking at an event at a university in the state of Utah. The news brought a strong outcry from many across both the political and religious worlds. Politicians, not just in the U.S, called the act “senseless” and “disgusting” and insisted that violence has no place in politics or public life.  The conversation on social media has swung wildly between grief and anger, accusations and blame from one side of politics to shameful and evil celebrations and joy from the ‘other side’ over the death of a man they saw as dangerous to their worldview.  It's natural to feel sorrow, shock, and anger when the world around us seems so evil and wicked. How do we as Christians deal with all these strong and intense feelings coming from both sides? Where do we, as Bible believer...

“Christianity doesn’t need just some pontification about some belief, it needs a genuine encounter with God. People can argue doctrine, and I believe in having good doctrine, but they can argue that what this says and that says, but when you encounter God, there's no argument.”                                                                                                                                      Charismatic Pastor Russell Evans. On the surface and at first glance, this actually sounds pretty good. Who doesn’t want to ‘encounter’ God? Who doesn’t want a faith that feels alive and re...

“Why isn’t everyone healed? That’s because they don’t believe it is God’s will to heal everyone. The people who are perplexed are those who do believe it’s God’s will, and yet aren’t seeing every single person—perhaps even themselves—healed. Why does that happen? The answer Jesus gave the disciples to their question of why they couldn’t cast the demon out of the boy is very revealing: Because of your unbelief. Matthew 17:20”                                                      Andrew Wommack, “God Wants You Well” 96.  One recent Sunday, my wife and I visited our son and his family in another town to where we live. We went to their church with them on Sunday morning. Their church meets in a movie theatre, and as we were taking our seats, the music team began to come on stage in preparation for the service.  Among t...

I was just standing up after the last song in the front few rows of the church we had just attended. I stretched as I looked around for people I needed to talk to. Out of the corner of my eye, a lady, whom we knew, who had supported us, approached me with a smile. She was a kind and friendly lady and prayed for us regularly, which, of course, we appreciated greatly. However, we knew her to be a Christian who firmly believed God gave her visions and dreams for other people. She shook my hand and said, “As I was sitting in church, I saw you and God gave me a word for you, God told me……”  In many churches today, across various denominations—not exclusive to the charismatic church—you will hear well-meaning Christians say, “God told me…,” or “God spoke to me about…,” or “God showed me…” While most often associated with Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, this language is also common throughout Evangelicalism, including some Reformed churches.  One of the most influential books p...

The 1.3 billion Catholics in the world have a new Pope. Leo the XIV. In the time of the reformers, he would have been welcomed by the protestants of the day as the Antichrist. As modern-day protestants, we can, and should agree, that at the very least the Pope is the leader of an idolatrous theology, which includes the rejection of justification of faith alone, the claims of papal infallibility and the veneration and/or outright worship of Mary and the saints.  But is Pope Leo XIV the Antichrist?  Because I grew up in a Pentecostal charismatic church, it follows that I had a Dispensational Premillennial understanding of end-time events. This means that the Antichrist was always just over the horizon. He would be a charismatic political leader, possibly from Europe, who would one day sign a peace treaty with Israel, rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, and unleash global deception during a seven-year Tribulation. Scriptures like Daniel 9, 2 Thessalonians 2, and Revelation 13 were i...

“Jesus became poor so you could live in abundance – yes, even financially. This verse [referring to 1 Corinthians 8:9] reminds us that Jesus gave up everything, including His heavenly riches, to meet all our needs. Are you walking in the financial freedom and generosity God has called you to?”                                Charis Bible College Facebook post Tues, 11 Mar 2025.  This post appeared on the Chris Bible College Facebook page above a picture of the verse, 1 Corinthians 8:9, which states, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” The phrases “your sake” and “might become rich” were specifically highlighted.  We will look more closely at this verse in a moment to see what the Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, really meant when this verse was written to the Corinthian...

Healing Now? "It says in 1 Peter 2:24, by his stripes we were healed. You aren’t waiting on God to heal you, God has already healed you. He’s already provided the power, it’s already done, it’s already released. It’s not a matter of whether God will heal you, but you have to reach out and receive, and this is what it took me 20 years to learn."                                                                                                                     Andrew Wommack  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hb4kYFzKNxw 1 Peter 2:24, which the Apostle Peter quotes from Isaiah 53, is a common prooftext for false, word of faith teachers such as Andrew Wommack who attempt to show that Jesus, by dying on ...

Are we instructed to sing the Psalms from the Old Testament in church?  Does Psalms mean the Psalms?  Some Christians teach that the bible commands us to sing the Psalms from the Old Testament in our church services. There are verses in the New Testament that instruct us to sing Psalms. Such as Ephesians 5:19, “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,” and its parallel text in Colossians 3:16, “singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Is Paul teaching and instructing the Ephesian and Colossian churches, and us, to sing the Psalms from the Old Testament? First, let me say that singing the Psalms is obviously an excellent thing. Throughout church history, churches have sung the Psalms, not only as they flourished but also as they were persecuted.  In his excellent book, Worshiptainment, Dr Matthew Everhard gives three reasons for singing the Psalms in...

“Such a good reminder to stay the course; don’t quit hoping and believing. God will always be faithful to you (2 Timothy 2:13). Encourage a friend today by sharing this post with them.  This post, accompanying the attached picture with Andrew Wommack's quote, “If you don’t quit, you’ll eventually win,” was posted to the Charis Bible College Facebook page. Charis is the Bible College run by false teacher Andrew Wommack. Once again, we see Andrew Wommack twisting scripture by taking verses out of context to make people believe the Bible teaches that they will eventually get what they want. The implication is that if they keep 'hoping and believing,' then God will be faithful and they will win-i.e., they will get that promotion, that thing they want, that bill paid, etc.  To make this blatant greed seem biblical, the Bible College attaches a verse: 2 Timothy 2:13. However, is that what 2 Timothy 2:13 teaches? Does this verse teach you'll eventually "win" if you d...