All Articles For Looyenga, Brendan

members of Faith PRC in Jenison, Michigan Previous article in this series: February 2026, p. 186.   INTRODUCTION In our first article, we described a biblical approach to engaging with artificial intelligence (AI) based on the three-fold theme of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Together these concepts provide a helpful framework for thinking about any new technology we might encounter in our world. We also covered the knowledge component of this framework by defining what AI is, how it came into existence, and how it works functionally. In this article, we will cover the themes of understanding and wisdom in relation...

members of Faith PRC in Jenison, Michigan   * A version of this speech was given to the Reformed Free Publishing Association (RFPA), which gathered for its annual meeting at Southwest PRC on the evening of September 25, 2025. The version printed here has been condensed for clarity, but the full speech can be viewed via the RFPA YouTube channel at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=pbtJO—b_zo. Digital readers can can access a reading list prepared by the authors by using the link here; print readers will have to wait for this issue to be posted on the RFPA-SB website. INTRODUCTION If you have...

Previous article in this series: February 1, 2022, p. 210. One of the great wonders of God’s inspired words in Scripture is that they are often revealed to us in the form of a mystery. These “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” serve to reinforce the faith of those who are given to understand and to harden the hearts of those who reject God and His Son. Such was the explanation offered by Christ when He was asked by His disciples the reason for His teaching in parables (Matt. 13:10- 17). And such is the purpose of the frequent paradoxes...

In the previous article of this series (January 15, 2022), we began a discussion of Psalm 36:9b, which contains the phrase that serves as the title for this series. This profound and enigmatic phrase points us to the first of God’s creatures—light. The prior article explained a few aspects of light from a scientific perspective, which reveals God as the Creator of energy in all of its various forms. This time we turn from the science to the theology of light. The wide variety of scriptural uses for the word “light,” which occurs over 250 times in the King James...

Tucked into the middle of Psalm 36 is this article’s title, which is arguably one of the most profound phrases in all of Scripture. Expressed as a sort of paradox, this phrase conveys a wealth of truth about God, His Word, and our Lord Jesus Christ.1 To grasp its richness, it will be helpful to understand a few things about the nature of light as a creation of God and then to see how light is used as a metaphor for deep theological meaning throughout Scripture. My intentions for the next few articles in this rubric are to explain a...

Just outside the front door of my home is a small ornamental tree that I planted last year. The tree is unusual looking, having a rounded evergreen canopy placed on top of a straight, branchless trunk. In fact, this plant is entirely unnatural, which is why it catches the eye compared to other plants around my home. Instead of being grown as a seedling, it was created by a skilled horticulturalist who grafted a bush-like dwarf pine onto a young white pine trunk. The graft between the two plants is still visible as a bulge near the top of the...

The world of Christian higher education is in trouble. Awash in progressivist theology and cultural accommodation, one institution after another is folding to the demands of faculty and students who want to chart a new course for Christian academia. Perhaps the most visible signal of this change is the normalization of a whole array of sexual behaviors and identities wrapped up in the acronym LGBTQ+, behaviors that only a few years ago would have led to disciplinary action as sin in most Christian colleges. This is no less true for historically Reformed institutions than for those of the broader evangelical...

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. II Corinthians 5:16-17 Who are you? Or, perhaps more specifically, how do you define yourself? Is the first thing that comes to mind your ethnicity or skin color? Or is it the role you have in your family as a husband, wife, parent, or child? Maybe you think first about your career...

Previous article in this series: August 2020, p. 450. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. II Corinthians 5:4 In the last article we considered the vast changes in morality that have swept Western society in the last half century or so. As a prime example of these sweeping changes, we considered how society’s view of homosexual behavior has rapidly shifted from the perspective of sin and shame to that of acceptance and normalization—even to the point of...

“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Psalm 51:5 The last two decades of social development in western nations has seen an almost incomprehensible shift in moral reasoning that is so vast in its reach that it has been rightly called a “moral revolution.” Rather than a gradual slide in private morality, this revolution has come in the virtual blink of an eye and within plain view. What was once taboo—especially in the sphere of human sexuality—is not only permitted but glorified as an embrace of diversity and a vindication of the vulnerable...