I’ve recently published all my articles on the debate around whether desire and temptation are sin in one e-book. Here’s the introduction to that volume. This little book started life as a series of articles for Faithroot.com in 2024. At the time a little controversy had begun to brew in conservative evangelical circles. Technically the… Continue reading Desire and temptation: Essays on the concupiscence controversy
Tag: Temptation
Cultivating the affections
Psalm 37:4 tells us to Delight yourself in the Lord and he will grant you the desires of your heart”. Such positive encouragement should caution us to a wholely negative view of desire as automatically and only sin. We can have good desires. We may also think of those things as affections, the people, things,… Continue reading Cultivating the affections
Desire and Temptation
Back in early 2025, there was a heated debate amongst reformed evangelicals. Some were quick to insist that not only our thoughts, words and actions but the very root desire and temptation itself were sin. Not only that but they were confident that anyone who disagreed was in, or at least in real danger of… Continue reading Desire and Temptation
What should we do with a brother’s teaching when he falls? Were TGC right to pull Sam Allberry’s articles?
In my previous article in the light of Sam Allberry’s resignation from Immanuel, Nashville and TGC, I referred to the statement that TGC had made. It’s fairly short, so I’ll quote it in full here: “TGC was informed yesterday by Sam Allberry about “an inappropriate relationship with another man a few years ago” and that… Continue reading What should we do with a brother’s teaching when he falls? Were TGC right to pull Sam Allberry’s articles?
Who is winning the war?
This is a question that I asked at our Life Group yesterday. I was referring to three wars. The first was the war in Ukraine and the second the Iran war. It’s tempting to assume that it’s Russia that is winning in Ukraine, they’ve seized significant territory and cause horrendous damage. In Iran it looks… Continue reading Who is winning the war?
Spiritual warfare: The devil, demons and proxies
Iran has exercised a significant threat and influence around the world, far beyond its actual political, economic and military might. The country is a significant military power in its own right. However, much of its influence is indirect through proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas and The Houtis. Similarly, Al Qaeda primarily relied on influencing people to carry… Continue reading Spiritual warfare: The devil, demons and proxies
Having the nature of sin
There’s an interesting little phrase in the Thirty Nine Articles, it appears in article 9 which discusses original sin. In full, the article says: “Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam, (as the Pelagians do vainly talk;) but it is the fault and corruption of the Nature of every man, that naturally is… Continue reading Having the nature of sin
Desire (the YouTube walk and talks)
I’ve been fleshing out my thoughts on Desire and the affections in a series of video talks. You can now watch them all together here.
Why the debate about sin, temptation and desire matters
I’ve had four concerns about the debate around temptation, desire and sin (concupiscence). I wanted to just pick up on three crucial implications from these. First of all, by narrowing the debate down to one application, the impression has been unfortunately given that this isn’t to do with all of us. Rather, it only affects… Continue reading Why the debate about sin, temptation and desire matters
Really alive, really reborn
I revisited James 1:13 as part of my discussion on desire today. It struck me that in that debate, we need to pay attention to what James says about how desire conceives and gives birth to sin which grows into death. That statement should make us sit up and think carefully about what is going… Continue reading Really alive, really reborn
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