People from history are strangely and frustratingly complex. Few are as wicked as the devils; none as pure as the angels. This gives us good reason to be equally careful in erecting statues to honor them as in tearing them down. Jonathan Edwards was such a complex individual. His theological genius is hardly challenged today, […]
Wednesday, 01 July, 2020 by Matthew Everhard
I cannot wait to hear the sounds of children laughing and playing again in the Narthex. I cannot wait to share hugs with a dozen surrogate grandparents who dote on my kids as their own. I can’t wait to shake the hands of the greeters without worries of hand-sanitizer scarcities running through the back of […]
Tuesday, 02 June, 2020 by Matthew Everhard
According to Scripture, Mathuselah was the oldest living human being on record. Genesis 5:27 tells us that he was given some 969 years to live in all. Imagine what one could do with all that time: the books you could read, the essays you could write, the degree programs you could pursue, the home repair […]
Thursday, 07 May, 2020 by Matthew Everhard
When I transferred my ordination credentials from the EPC to the PCA, and moved from Florida to Western Pennsylvania, I began my new life and ministry in the historic Ascension Presbytery. In doing so, I took up residence in a cultural milieu quite different from the Bible Belt. The Pittsburgh area is, after all, significant […]
Wednesday, 22 April, 2020 by Matthew Everhard
There are two possibilities — and only two — about our lives. Either everything matters or nothing matters. On the one hand, it is possible that nothing matters. It does not matter what you eat or what you drink. It does not matter whether you go to college or live in your mother’s basement. It […]
Sunday, 12 April, 2020 by Matthew Everhard
Keep Up Your Biblical Greek in Two Minutes a Day: Volume 1 / Volume 2 Keep Up Your Biblical Hebrew in Two Minutes a Day: Volume 1 / Volume 2 by Jonathan G. Kline Hendrickson, 2017 370 pages each (hardcover), $39.95 each When I turned forty years old, I crested the hill of my physical […]
Sunday, 01 September, 2019 by Matthew Everhard
I have been searching for joy my entire life, and I believe I am not alone. If pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) is correct, then we are all on the same quest. The reason is because we were created for joy. Yet the quest to find it—that is, true spiritual happiness—often leads us to […]
Saturday, 01 September, 2018 by Matthew Everhard
It is taken for granted’in mainline circles, at least’that traditional belief in hell is a relic of the past. More liberal Lutheran and Reformed denominations imagine that the doctrine of God's everlasting punishment is not only unnecessary but actually contradicts a proper view of God and his gracious love as celebrated by their confessions. Since […]
Thursday, 01 November, 2012 by Matthew Everhard
I recently had the sad experience of watching two dear members leave our congregation; and after two hour-long phone calls, I was able to get to the root of the issue: my recent sermons on the doctrine of election from Acts 9. Though I tried my best to dissuade them against leaving the fellowship, they […]
Tuesday, 01 November, 2011 by Matthew Everhard