In keeping with the journalistic tradition of looking back at the recent past, we present the top 50 stories of the year that were read on The Aquila Report site based on the number of hits. We will present the 50 stories in groups of 10 to run on five lists on consecutive days. Here are numbers 11-20.

In 2023 The Aquila Report (TAR) posted over 3,000 stories. At the end of each year we feature the top 50 stories that were read.
TAR posts 8 new stories each day, on a variety of subjects – all of which we trust are of interest to our readers. As a web magazine TAR is an aggregator of news and information that we believe will provide articles that will inform the church of current trends and movements within the church and culture.
In keeping with the journalistic tradition of looking back at the recent past, we present the top 50 stories of the year that were read on The Aquila Report site based on the number of hits. We will present the 50 stories in groups of 10 to run on five lists on consecutive days. Here are numbers 11-20:

A Response to: “Music at the GA and the PCA”

What all those times of worship at our General Assemblies have had in common every year was enthusiastic congregational singing, from metrical psalms to classical hymns to contemporary songs.  All of that made the recent article, that was so critical of the singing at the Assembly, to be so very disappointing.

Are Evangelicals Selling Their Souls for Israel?

With this in mind, it’s hard to believe the numbers are exaggerated. In fact, the situation could be much more dire. The question Evangelicals must answer is this, “Can Christians continue to support Israel’s wholesale slaughter of civilians without losing their soul?” The question should be answered with all haste because a genocide is taking place right before our evangelical eyes. Evangelicals need to come to terms with the reality that the modern nation state of Israel in not biblical Israel. Zionist Israel is a secular political entity unrelated to biblical Judaism.

The Train is Leaving the Station

Stanley dismissed Biblical texts against homosexual behavior as “clobber” verses and said, “If your theology gets in the way of ministry—like if there’s somebody you can’t minister to because of your theology—you have the wrong theology.” This is not a misunderstanding. This is a trajectory that points to the Unconditional Conference and two speakers married to other men on the platform. This is a clear and tragic departure from Biblical Christianity. The conference has not been held yet. No doubt there will be a good deal of conversation once it has been held.

The Two-Kingdoms Theology and Christians Today

First, the kingdom of God and the institutional church are wrongly equated by 2K advocates.  There is a rough consensus among New Testament scholars that the kingdom of God is a much more comprehensive reality than the institutional church, and this misidentification of the church and the kingdom has all sorts of unfortunate results, such as confusion over the nature of “kingdom work” and the silencing of Christians from speaking to societal issues.

Danger from Within: A Warning from the Book of Jude

We need to be aware of what the main things and the plain things are so that we can set theological alarms in our hearts and minds. Because these false teachers creep into our churches, our ministries, and our Christian schools, we need pay attention and measure everything we hear by the standard of God’s Word.

Shannon Harris Kissed Truth Goodbye

Shannon seemed to be an eager and vivacious woman trying her best to live up to manmade commands without experiencing a life built on Biblical Truth.  As with so many young men and women who have shared this experience, Shannon has chosen to identify as a victim seeking truth and wisdom from within herself. She sees God, if there is one, is a complete killjoy who wants to squash your dreams and thwart your liberty.  Shannon, now free from this bondage, has begun her crusade to liberate everyone else.

A Biologist Explains Why Sex Is Binary

When biologists claim that sex is binary, we mean something straightforward: There are only two sexes. This is true throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. An organism’s sex is defined by the type of gamete (sperm or ova) it has the function of producing. Males have the function of producing sperm, or small gametes; females, ova, or large ones. Because there is no third gamete type, there are only two sexes. Sex is binary.

PCA Minister, Rev. Harry Reeder, Briarwood Senior Pastor, Killed in Car Accident

Briarwood Executive Pastor Bruce Stallings released this statement to AL.com: “It is with a deeply heavy heart that I communicate to you that our Lord has called Pastor Reeder home through a car accident. Please pray for Cindy, Jennifer, Ike, Abby and their entire family as well as our staff and church family as we all grieve this tremendous loss together. But we do not grieve without hope because we know our pastor is with His Savior and has been received by grace with – ‘Well done My good and faithful servant.’’’
12 Rick Warren Knows Exactly What He Is Doing
Rick Warren and Saddleback have done us the service of showing their hand. They want to persuade us to abandon what the Bible teaches and follow them in another direction. How will we respond in New Orleans?

An Overview of “Embracing the Journey”: A Ministry For Parents of LGBTQ Children

In early 2020, Saddleback pastor Chris Clark and his wife, Elisa, co-founded a Saddleback chapter of Embracing the Journey, a ministry for parents of LGBTQ children, with long-time Saddleback members, Doug and Shauna Habel. By the end of 2021, an ETJ newsletter revealed that Saddleback was hosting four ongoing ETJ support groups and one small group.
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Accepting what the Bible teaches on slavery does not mean condoning slavery as it was once practiced in America. Some, such as William Lloyd Garrison, assumed that it did and rejected the Bible altogether. Others didn’t go that far but did begin to regard their conscience as a more reliable guide to morality than the Bible. In other words, they adopted the cafeteria approach to the Bible. The misunderstandings of that era were a significant factor in America’s transition to a more secular society.

Decades ago, I got into a discussion with a lady who believed that women should be ordained as ministers. I told her that the Bible clearly prohibits women from being ordained as ministers. To my surprise, she conceded that this was indeed what the Bible says, but then she confidently asserted that the Bible was wrong about women ministers. She mentioned some other things that she claimed the Bible to be mistaken about, and one of these was slavery. She argued that if the Bible was wrong on these things, then the Bible could also be wrong on women in the ministry. She must have thought that the Bible’s message had been distorted by an outdated patriarchy, and that she as a modern woman was more enlightened than the Bible about the place of women in society.
This lady was advocating what some call a cafeteria approach to the Bible. When you eat in a cafeteria with a buffet, you take what you want and you leave the rest. That is the way that this lady was approaching the Bible. She accepted what she already agreed with, and she rejected what she disagreed with. A problem with that approach is that if one accepts only the statements in the Bible that he already agrees with, then he can’t go to the Bible to find out where he is mistaken. If one accepts only the statements in that Bible that he already agrees with, then the Bible is no longer profitable to him for reproof and correction. According to the cafeteria approach to the Bible, wherever the Bible contradicts a person’s sophisticated beliefs and modern practices, then the Bible must be in error and not the person. The Bible is no longer that person’s final authority. That person has become his own final authority.
Back when I had this conversation with this lady, the liberal’s cutting edge issue was ordaining women ministers. That was a long time ago. The liberal’s cutting edge issue today is ordaining practicing homosexuals. The liberal’s cutting edge issue has become significantly more radical, but the argument is the same. If the Bible is wrong on slavery, then it can be wrong on homosexuality as well. If our society continues its rebellion against God, we can only guess what the liberal’s next cutting edge issue will be. Yet the argument will be the same. If the Bible is wrong on slavery, then it can be wrong on the next issue down the road of rebellion as well, regardless of how extreme that next issue might appear to many today. Many Christians today have difficulty responding to this argument because they do not know what the Bible does and does not teach on slavery.
In the New Testament, the Apostles Peter and Paul gave some guidance to Christian slaves (1 Corinthians 7:21-23; Ephesians 6:5-8; Colossians 3:22-25; 1 Timothy 6:1-3; Titus 2:9-10; 1 Peter 2:18-21). The Apostle Peter’s guidance was for Christian slaves who were enduring hardships under pagan masters. The Apostle Paul also gave some guidance to Christian masters in three of his later prison epistles (Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 4:1; Philemon). These texts gave guidance to Christians without condoning everything associated with slavery in the pagan Greek and Roman cultures of that day.
The Apostles Peter and Paul also supported the concept of the family. That doesn’t mean that the Apostles Peter and Paul condoned everything associated with the family in the pagan Greek and Roman cultures of that day. In the pagan Roman culture of that day, the father had the power of life and death over his children. When a child was born, the father could recognize the child and allow it to live. Or the father could decree that the newborn child must die by exposure. In the pagan Roman culture of that day, the standard for marital fidelity was much looser for the husband than for the wife. The husband could take significantly sinful liberties that were forbidden to the wife. When the New Testament gave guidance on family life, the New Testament wasn’t condoning every pagan Roman family custom of that time. There was much about the pagan Roman concept of the family which the Apostles Peter and Paul and other early Christians rejected as morally wrong.
We should similarly interpret the New Testament’s statements about Christian slaves and masters. There was much about the pagan Greek and Roman concepts of slavery which the Apostles Peter and Paul and other early Christians rejected as morally wrong. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle taught the concept of the natural slave. Some later Greek and Roman writers developed this concept into a more complete theory. In this theory, “[t]he natural slave is a deficient ‘anthropos,’ a human subspecies assimilated to irrational beasts requiring taming and domestication.” A common Greek word for the slave was simply the Greek word for “body.” The ancient pagan Greeks regarded the slave as simply a physical body under his master’s control, as simply an animated tool much like a domesticated animal. Some ancient Romans did have a higher view of the slave’s mental ability than the ancient Greeks. The ideal Roman slave was expected to anticipate his master’s desires and to perform his master’s will without needing to be micro-managed (location 304ff, Slaves in the New Testament, J. Albert Harrill). In both ancient Greek and ancient Roman society, slaves were routinely exploited and abused sexually (location 514, From Shame to Sin, Kyle Harper). The ancient pagan Greeks and Romans had a low view of the slave’s humanity.
This low view of the slave’s humanity was at the heart of pagan Greek and Roman slavery.
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It’s God’s love to feeble me, not my love to him that gives me peace with God. Salvation is entirely by grace alone, God’s sovereign power alone, his effectual work alone, “No other work, save thine,” no human strength, or effort, or perceived ability can break my bondage.

For the first time in five weeks, I went to church on Reformation Day. Staggered to church would be more accurate. Hard hit by the Covid-19 virus, I spent two harrowing weeks in the hospital, and am recovering with excruciatingly slow baby steps as my lungs grope for oxygen, and as I try to learn how to breathe again. God has been very merciful to me, giving me the best medical and home care, and providing encouragements from so many people who have prayed and continue to pray for my full recovery.
In it all, God is teaching me many things: I’m learning more about God’s sovereign good pleasure; I was in good physical shape, healthy immune system, a great candidate for a mild case of the virus and quick recovery—so I thought. God had ordained a more difficult path for me. I’m also learning more about the frailty of life (in the early days of my hospitalization, my doctor said honestly that my case could go either way); I’m learning the comfort of being known and loved by Christ and being safe in his arms, come what may (during one particularly long wakeful night, it occurred to me I was going to die, but in that realization, I had an overwhelming sense of the presence of the Comforter, that I was safe in the arms of Jesus—and I was not afraid), and I’m learning what it means to be utterly dependent on others, to be able to do nothing for myself, to acknowledge with the psalmist that I am poor and needy—I have no strength, only weak knees and feeble hands.
And then my first Sunday back in corporate worship we sang one of my favorite hymns from one of my favorite hymn writers, Scots Presbyterian Horatius Bonar. First published in 1861, Bonar’s hymn, theologically undergirded and adorned by this gifted poet, laid hold of my heart afresh.
Not what my hands have donecan save my guilty soul;not what my toiling flesh has bornecan make my spirit whole.Not what I feel or docan give me peace with God;not all my prayers and sighs and tearscan bear my awful load.
One of the great advantages of having no strength, of having weak knees and feeble hands, is that my physical condition aligns with my spiritual condition. The fact that my hands have not done, nor are able to do, anything to “give me peace with God,” makes more sense to a man whose entire system has been ravaged by this virus, leaving me a wheezing wreck of an invalid. But we persist in thinking that there’s some work required of us, some contribution we feel able to make, some change of posture, or affection. Aren’t we supposed to seek him, come to him, choose him? Aren’t we supposed to love God? Surely we can’t expect to have peace with God unless we first love him. Bonar points us away from our delusions:
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