“God is interested in our willing participation in his plan for our lives, not in micro-managing helpless automatons.” — Tom
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Thursday, October 06, 2016
Getting It Backwards
Christian response on the Internet to the ongoing refugee/immigration
issue reminds me how easy it is to get things backwards.
This is not the first time it has happened, and it won’t be the last.
First, there was a barrage of pro-immigration posts at
various websites that buttressed their arguments with what appeared to be supportive
proof texts: we were to be “Good Samaritans”; we were to “welcome the sojourner”;
we are “all one in Christ”. The writers of these pieces moved swiftly from
cursory proof to immediate and morally-imperative action: “Here’s how you can
help, Christians!”
And some of us did.
Labels:
Interpretation
/
Proverbs
/
Psalms
Wednesday, October 05, 2016
The Crutch
That may seem surprising. A Google search produces a list of
close to 200,000 references in articles, social media comments and blog posts
that begin with words along the lines of “People often say Christianity is a crutch …”
So I’m sure people say it. They just don’t say it to me.
Labels:
Alister McGrath
/
Recycling
/
Sigmund Freud
/
Wish-Fulfillment
Tuesday, October 04, 2016
Impatient Over Their Misery
At least, I’m sure it seems gigantic and
unforgivable to you. And since the awareness of the magnitude of sin in our
lives, its toxic effects on others around us and its absolute repulsiveness to
God is a necessary step in turning away from it, I wouldn’t want to downplay it
for you.
Carry on. Be miserable. Have at it.
Labels:
Forgiveness
/
Judges
/
Repentance
Monday, October 03, 2016
Anointing a Bramble
I think we’re all seeing that on TV right
about now. The conventional wisdom is that America is reduced to scrounging
for its least-worst presidential option, and the pickings are world-record slim.
This is not a new problem. In democratic
countries, politicians are stereotypically less credible than used car salesmen,
TV evangelists and the mainstream media.
People who want to run the show are often the
worst people to actually do it.
Sunday, October 02, 2016
Total Recall
Then again, if I were, how would I know, really?
On one level this
alarms me. Any age-related change to the function of mind or body is a reminder
that “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls”. Or as a friend of mine is fond of saying, “We’re all going there”.
That’s for sure.
Saturday, October 01, 2016
So You Want to Serve God …
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Acts
/
Commendation
/
Missionary Work
Friday, September 30, 2016
Too Hot to Handle: Preaching or Peddling?
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Stewardship
/
Teaching
/
Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Inbox: Mutual Subjection in 1 Peter 3
One of these things is not like the others ... |
Margaret Mowczko’s argument from
1 Peter that husbands should be subject to their wives was addressed in this space in October 2014 and reposted here a few weeks ago.
But Marg has refined her argument since 2014, and I think it’s only fair to update my critique to deal with her
most recent points.
Marg feels I missed her main point (in either iteration of her post).
Labels:
1 Peter
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Inbox
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Margaret Mowczko
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Relationships
/
Subjection
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Submission
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Not Enough Fingers
When everything is falling apart around me, when things are
going south in a big hurry, I find it helpful to ask myself “What is MY role
here? Is there something I should be DOING rather than just standing around
looking concerned? Should I pray, act, consult others or wait (or some
combination thereof)?”
Sometimes that question gets asked very quickly, or skimmed
right over: if there’s water shooting out of a leaky pipe and accumulating on
the kitchen floor, going away to pray and meditate about my next move is
probably not the most useful response. On the other hand, if the issue is the ongoing
decline of my local church and its increasing disobedience to its Head, the
question of what I should do about it deserves some serious consideration in
the presence of God.
Ideally, my stored knowledge of scripture or that of others
is what provides the answer to that question when it is needed.
Labels:
Douglas Wilson
/
Postmillennialism
/
Premillennialism
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Prophecy
/
Social Justice
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Did God Do That?
Just curious.
Some Christians are
determinists. They think everything that happens, no matter how minuscule or
insignificant, is a product of God’s deliberate calculations; in effect, that God
micromanages the universe. In believing this, they feel they are glorifying
God, because they are acknowledging his sovereign rule.
In their view, yes, God
gave you that ticket. You will thank him later.
Labels:
Determinism
/
Free Will
/
Obedience
Monday, September 26, 2016
Truth Under the Bus
Liars gonna lie. It’s what they do.
I was just enjoying the passage in Mark where the chief priests, scribes and elders of the Jews — all those folks
who, at the time of Christ, were supposed to be the moral authorities to which
everyone looked for an example — come to Jesus in the temple and ask precisely
where he has acquired authority to clear the temple, driving out the money-changers
and salespeople and overturning their tables.
So Jesus agrees to tell them, provided they
answer this question first: “Was the baptism of John from heaven or
from man?”
At which point the chief priests, scribes
and elders start sweating bullets.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
The Blessed Worldview
How did this end up as the first verse of the very first
Psalm anyway? Think about that for a while.
“Blessed is the man who walks not
in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers.”
in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers.”
A warning about testimony, perhaps? Agreed, it doesn’t look
good when a child of God associates with wicked people, or sinners, or
scoffers. He or she might be thought to be one of them.
Only problem is, the Lord did, right? Sinners, at least.
Labels:
Psalms
/
Worldviews
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Myth, Allegory, Metaphor
Tim Challies has a few relevant queries about the way theistic evolutionists allow their scientific opinions to trump scripture:
1. If the description
of the creation of the world is either just a vague metaphor for what actually
happened or perhaps some kind of allegory, where do we determine that
historical narrative actually begins?
My comments: The can of worms we open when we allegorize
the creation narrative is quite a bit bigger than we may think.
Labels:
Faith
/
Faith vs Science
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Genesis
/
Science
/
Tim Challies
Friday, September 23, 2016
Too Hot to Handle: Spare Some Change?
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Change
/
Church
/
Denominationalism
/
Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, September 22, 2016
I Want to Die
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Baptism
/
Christian Testimony
/
Salvation
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
The David Connection
Little things like the
words of the blind beggar Bartimaeus, who cried out to Jesus, “Son of David,
have mercy on me!” That “Son of David” thing must have been important: after all, the blind guy
kept repeating it despite everybody around him trying to hush him up.
He wasn’t the only
one. That title was something Jesus heard regularly.
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
The Redhead Returns
That statement will
not come as a shock. To believe the human intellect capable of grasping the Infinite
is ignorance and arrogance in near-equal measure. Theologians generally
acknowledge this, and those who have seen God’s glory are frank in expressing it. Job
said, “I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes”. Isaiah cried, “Woe is me! For I am lost”.
That said, John
equates eternal life with knowing the
true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. So while our knowledge of God may be
incomplete, it is absolutely vital that the things we DO know about him are accurate.
Labels:
C.S. Lewis
/
Calvinism
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Narnia
/
Vincent Cheung
Monday, September 19, 2016
What’s Behind the Scenes
The world allures us.
Flesh betrays us. But neither worldly attraction nor physical desire require an active intelligence operating behind the scenes. I tend to think Christians
who blame Satan and his scheming agents for every bad choice they have made are
probably ascribing to the powers of darkness a greater level of interest in their
personal affairs than is really the case. In our fallen world, it is likely that
most of our failures are a combination of our own inclination to self-destruct and the detritus of lives that have done so already.
But not always.
Labels:
Numbers
/
Satan
/
Temptation
Sunday, September 18, 2016
The Lone Voice
Earlier this year I sat
in a gathering of fellow believers listening to a passionate speaker grossly misapply
scripture to his subject (that is, when he wasn’t skipping past the supporting
references in his PowerPoint presentation entirely).
The meeting had to do
with the perceived need for a particular sort of social activism, but that’s
unimportant: the issue could as easily have been anything. The point is,
context was ignored, facts were misstated, commands to national Israel in
specific situations were given universal application, differences between saved
and unsaved were obscured, and so on. Put politely, it was a mess — or
so it appeared to me.
But from the sorts of questions
posed to the speaker after his presentation, I was sure I was the only person
in the entire room who felt that way.
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Quote of the Day (25)
Last Monday, Prime Minister Trudeau addressed Muslims in an
Ottawa mosque. I almost managed to refrain from commenting, but here goes.
Never mind that the particular imam connected with that
mosque happens to be a member of a group considered a terrorist organization. Never mind that the women in Trudeau’s entourage had their heads covered in
deference to Islam in their own country; that’s all fine and to be expected from a Liberal
government.
No, the real kicker was Trudeau’s subject: Canadian values.
Labels:
Justin Trudeau
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Logic
/
Quote of the Day
Friday, September 16, 2016
Too Hot to Handle: He Ain’t Baptist, He’s My Brother
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Church
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Denominationalism
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Faithfulness
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Too Hot to Handle
/
Unity
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Where Would You Rather Live?
Not all choices come out the same |
The remainder seized the opportunity to claim land they had won from unexpected
battles on the far side of the Jordan River rather than wait to receive an
inheritance in Canaan.
This was not the best
idea they ever had.
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Timing Is Everything
“It is astonishing how often a book or article gives false information; and if we rely on such a work too heavily, our exegesis will be badly skewed. Even ordinarily careful scholars make mistakes …”
— D.A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies
Only a day later I happened to encounter a bit of badly skewed exegesis that is, just as Carson warns, the direct result of relying on false information. Naturally, it leads down an increasingly familiar and doctrinally-errant road.
Labels:
D.A. Carson
/
Exegesis
/
Margaret Mowczko
/
Peter
/
Recycling
/
Submission
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Star Trek, Salvation and Sermons
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Authenticity
/
Witnessing
Monday, September 12, 2016
The Commentariat Speaks (4)
“Pretend for a minute you are a 28 year
old, white male, Millennial. Your current girlfriend had an abortion when she
was 19, owes $24,000 in student loans for a worthless degree, and works as a
receptionist for $16 an hour. You owe a little less but have been in and out of
work since 2008. You have a college degree in Computer Science, but most of
your money has been made in manual labor after your job was outsourced, which
is pretty good money when you can find the work. You have no health insurance,
but are paying the Obamacare tax.”
Sounds like an eerily familiar scenario so far.
Labels:
Church
/
Evangelism
/
The Commentariat Speaks
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Recommend-a-blog (21)
Michael Patton is a
writer, blogger and president of Credo House Ministries. He is also, as he puts
it, “waiting to die”.
This is where our
readers usually check out, and I don’t blame you. On this blog, posts that are
obviously about death are among our least-read, a fact that doesn’t surprise me
at all. I suspect this is true across the board: after all, who wants (naturally,
at least) to think about dying? In some ways, even Christians can be as
uniformitarian as atheists: we know full well that we are all “waiting to die”, but a world without me in it still seems difficult to imagine.
I’ll see if I can find a great big gravestone picture to make the post’s subject especially obvious.
Labels:
Death
/
Eternity
/
Memory
/
Recommend-a-blog
Saturday, September 10, 2016
Lost Territory
“Here’s
what God has given you. All you have to do is go and take possession of it.
So what’s holding you up?”
In essence, this is Joshua’s message to the last seven tribes of Israel. Having established
themselves as a nation in Canaan by taking 31 hostile cities in a
relatively short period, it only remained to settle the rest of the people in
their God-given inheritance. No Canaanite king or combination of kings ruling
in the territory nearby was strong enough to push Israel back into the
wilderness and deny them the Promised Land. All they had to do was finish
the job, which would require each tribe to win a series of minor
conquests — skirmishes, really, compared to what they had been through already.
Previously they had
won battles as a nation. Now Joshua would see what the individual tribes were
really made of.
Friday, September 09, 2016
Too Hot to Handle: Digital Christianity
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Church
/
Internet
/
Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, September 08, 2016
The Commentariat Speaks (3)
In a post entitled “Why is God So Selfish?”
a commenter is perplexed about
the things God does primarily for his own glory:
“God
didn’t make this world for us, He made it for Himself. He made it to show off
how strong and powerful and perfect He was. We were supposed to be His little
mirror that He could stand in front of all day and look at Himself. He’s just a
show off, and now all I can think of is that when you pray to Him to ask for
help, is he really helping you because He knows He should, or is He doing it to
show off what He can do?
God just seems selfish to me, and how He wants us all to worship Him, and
practically bow down at His feet, and anyone who does otherwise is sent into a fiery
pit. You know who that reminds me of? Adolf Hitler.”
Uh, yeah, okay. The implicit question here is not an uncommon one; so common, in fact, that even the obligatory Hitler comparison barely registers. Dawkins and Hitchens said worse.
Labels:
Achan
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Glory
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Joshua
/
Psalms
/
The Commentariat Speaks
Wednesday, September 07, 2016
Reading Too Much Into It
While observing that the
vocabulary, syntax and idiomatic language of holy writ retain the
characteristics of individual human authorship, I am confident each of these
things was in every case perfectly superintended by the Holy Spirit of God. Thus Paul
does not write exactly like James, who in turn does not write like David or Moses.
Yet all not only spoke the word of
God, they spoke the very words of God.
Let’s start with that.
Even if I end up somewhere not everyone may like.
Labels:
Interpretation
/
Mark
/
Misunderstanding Scripture
/
Scripture
/
Servant
Tuesday, September 06, 2016
Straight Talk
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Conscience
/
John the Baptist
/
Judgment
Monday, September 05, 2016
Anti-Invictus
“I
will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished
through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience …”
“… through whom we have received grace
and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all
the nations.”
That’s an awfully funny way to put it, don’t
you think? Bring the Gentiles to
obedience. The obedience of faith. Those sorts of catchphrases could put people off.
Labels:
Apostle Paul
/
Obedience
/
Romans
Sunday, September 04, 2016
Inbox: Some Sound Advice
A request for prayer about an upcoming
opportunity with unsaved relatives generates the following response from
a sibling:
“What’s really weird about your note is that apparently [noted evangelist who is much better than I am at such things] wasn’t invited to dinner.Go figure.I guess I’m left to understand that his particular set of attributes and skills are not wanted/needed and the Lord has other plans in mind for the time that require different abilities.”
Okay. Well then. Don’t stop on my account.
Labels:
Inbox
/
Prayer
/
Witnessing
Saturday, September 03, 2016
Excuse Me, May I Borrow Your Spear?
As I’ve pointed out in this space already, this crazy election cycle finds Christian opinion all over the map in ways I’ve
rarely seen before. For every Wayne Grudem explaining why you should vote
Trump, there’s a Thabiti Anyabwile or a Rachel Held
Evans pointing out reasons why another Clinton presidency may be preferable (not
to mention there’s at least one Douglas Wilson holding his nose and calling for
a principled boycott).
Everyone has an opinion, and most of us have reasons for it, however arbitrary and weird they may seem to others. Good. God would like that. “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” The effort to vote intelligently and consistently with one’s conscience is a noble one.
Labels:
Joshua
/
Levi
/
Phineas
/
Priesthood
Friday, September 02, 2016
Too Hot to Handle: Missionaries and Mindgames
In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.
Tom: We’re discussing IndoctriNation: Public Schools and the Decline of Christianity in America, a movie about the evils of the public school system.
The filmmakers tell us most American children from Christian homes are being discipled daily by pro-choice secularists, atheists, evolutionists, politicized bureaucrats, far left unions and oftentimes even child molesters, and that they are the subjects of a “vast program of social engineering designed to eradicate the Christian faith from American life”.
I noted a Franklin Graham quote in the movie trailer, IC, where he seemed to advocate sending our children to school as little missionaries of a sort. What do you think of the wisdom of that approach?
Labels:
Home Schooling
/
IndoctriNation
/
Leftism
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Progressivism
/
Recycling
/
Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, September 01, 2016
Taking 31 Kingdoms
This should not
surprise us. Paul’s “therefore” in verse 1 follows not only the wonderful
doxology at the end of chapter 11, but really follows logically out of the
entire argument presented beginning in chapter 1 with the words, “The
wrath of God is revealed ...”
It’s as if in
chapter 12 he now tackles the question “How should we then live?”
Okay then.
Labels:
Christian Life
/
Joshua
/
Romans
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Inbox: Me and Western Civilization
Living in the post-Christian West will not save you. There is nothing magical about the values embraced by America’s founding fathers that confers grace to the human heart, makes men and women right with God, or causes them to be in any way preferable (from God’s perspective) to their fellow human beings steeped in paganism or in blundering around in religious darkness.
Being born into a society where the Christian message still has a residual influence, however diminished, does not make us Christian. Recognizing and appreciating its benefits does not grant us brownie points for cleverness, though it is clear those who do not value what they have been given are ignorant of history and poorly informed about the many drawbacks of living elsewhere.
Labels:
Immigration
/
Inbox
/
Western Civilization
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Someone Else’s Stuff
Erick Erickson wants
to give away your stuff. [Caution: language in linked post]
Technically, I suppose,
he wants YOU to give it away. But he would also like you to give away your
wife’s stuff, your neighbour’s stuff, your co-worker’s stuff and your
children’s and grandchildren’s stuff. So it amounts to the same thing, right?
As a Christian, I have
to draw the line at such extravagant generosity.
Monday, August 29, 2016
Inbox: Timing Is Everything
God’s timing is always impeccable.
The gospel spread like wildfire in the
first century precisely because God had put all the pieces in place centuries
prior. As James noted when the apostles and elders gathered in Jerusalem to discuss
the issue of imposing the Law of Moses on Gentiles, “from ancient generations
Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues”.
Ironically, the fact that the whole world
of James’ day had access to an obscure set of Jewish laws was a function of
Israel’s disobedience.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
A Kiss on the Lips
Immediate repentance and a request for
forgiveness can fix that, although asking and receiving forgiveness for some of
the stupid, pointless lies we tell can be humiliating. It rarely works out like
a sixties TV confession where Ward pats Beaver on the head and says, “That’s
okay, son, we all make mistakes; the important thing is being man enough to
admit them” — after which everybody goes for ice cream.
More often the person you have wronged
looks at you like you have three heads.
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Under Construction
Twice each day for the past two weeks, my
morning constitutional has taken me past an older house in the middle of major
renovations. Each day, any remotely attentive passer-by could
observe two to three men on the job along with all the requisite
heavy equipment, trucks and supplies. A radio blasted encouragement as the
construction crew scurried back and forth.
And ... nothing happened. Not a thing. From
the street, there was no observable progress whatsoever.
In a way, it reminds me of many of us.
Labels:
Apostle Paul
/
Maturity
/
Philippians
Friday, August 26, 2016
Too Hot to Handle: Where Would You Like to be Judged?
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Judgment
/
Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, August 25, 2016
The Meaning of Life in Three Rounds
If you get them both in their primes, Solomon has world
class trainers and equipment and the most lavish possible facilities in which
to prepare, along with all the wisdom in the world with which to strategize.
Paul, on the other hand, is almost guaranteed to be convalescing
after any or all of a recent stoning, beating or flailing, as well as taking
his regular buffeting from a messenger of Satan. There’s also an off chance he has
not eaten recently or that he’ll miss a scheduled bout because he’s serving a
jail sentence or pulling a Robinson Crusoe somewhere in the Mediterranean.
In short, on the physical plane Paul is a pushover (though
he does have a disturbing tendency to beat a ten count when his opponents are
sure he’s done and dusted).
On the spiritual plane, though, Solomon is fighting with both
hands tied behind his back.
Labels:
Ecclesiastes
/
Paul
/
Recycling
/
Romans
/
Solomon
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Repackaging God
At least, this is what Moses was told when the angel of Jehovah appeared to him in a flame of fire in the middle of a bush that was not consumed, and it is the name by which Israel was to know him.
Today, God being who he is presents multiple difficulties for his followers. The differences between the culture in which God spoke to Moses and the culture in which we live are vast. The things God is, did, and continues to do often require that we explain him as best we can to others.
But in doing so, we must always be careful that we do not apologize for him. That would be a mistake.
Labels:
That Wacky Old Testament
Monday, August 22, 2016
Mastering the Pastor Disaster
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Clergy
/
Elders
/
Leadership
/
Pastors
Sunday, August 21, 2016
The Pastor of Disaster
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Clergy
/
Leadership
/
Pastors
Saturday, August 20, 2016
Don’t Check Your Privilege
A whole lot smarter than you think ... |
Everywhere I look these days it seems somebody wants to tell
somebody else why their opinion doesn’t count.
Not a parent? You should have nothing to say about child rearing.
Not a veteran? Your opinion about war is uninformed by experience. Lack a
uterus? You can’t possibly have a valid take on abortion.
Tal Fortgang wrote a piece about privilege that ran on TIME’s website back in May of
this year in which he declined to defer to those who claim the high ground (we
can’t really call it the ‘moral high ground’, can we?) on various social
issues. He has encountered a steady stream of abuse for his temerity. His detractors, if I have this correct, consider him too privileged
to hold a legitimate opinion on the subject of privilege.
Friday, August 19, 2016
Too Hot to Handle: The Judge of All the Earth
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Isaiah
/
John
/
Judgment
/
Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, August 18, 2016
What Lies Behind
In one sense, obviously, not much. It is what it is. We can’t change it, we can’t rewrite it,
and while we can reinterpret it, that may not be a particularly useful exercise
if our current outlook is an honest one.
Still, how we process our past and how our thoughts about it affect us today are significant.
Labels:
Apostle Paul
/
Corinthians
/
Memory
/
Romans
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Transgression and Blessing
That’s not a trick question. There’s no “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” coming, don’t worry.
But it’s a legitimate consideration. A
while ago, I exchanged emails with a brother in Christ who was deeply afflicted
with guilt over things he had done after coming to know the Lord, and concerned
that, given the magnitude of his transgressions, even deeply-felt regret,
confession and a changed manner of life might not be acceptable to God.
Obviously good may come from repentance, but you wonder if any good can possibly come from the sin that (eventually) produced it.
Labels:
Blessing
/
Confessing
/
Forgiveness
/
Psalms
/
Romans
/
Sin
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Dear Dinesh: On Evil and Suffering
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Apologetics
/
Dinesh D'Souza
/
Pain
/
Suffering
Monday, August 15, 2016
A Lie from the Pits of Hell
Is it Rachab or Rahab? Well, it depends on
your English translation of the New Testament, doesn’t it.
For some people, translations are a reason
to get into a major snit. For example, this nice Jewish fellow says:
“The
common teaching in churches is that Rahab the Harlot is listed in the genealogy
of the Messiah. That is a lie from the pits of hell.”
From the pits of hell. Okay, then; that’s
pretty serious. Let’s capitalize the word “harlot” too, just so nobody ever
forgets where Rahab came from.
Labels:
Forgiveness
/
Hebrews
/
Joshua
/
Rahab
Sunday, August 14, 2016
The Hope of Glory
Why can’t we all just get along? |
Their agitation is actually quite understandable,
really. If your view of prophecy is that you are currently experiencing the thousand-year reign of Christ (or that the spread of the gospel should shortly
serve to bring it about), at some point the evidence of your eyes has got to churn
up some serious cognitive dissonance.
Right now, Satan doesn’t look all that “bound” to me.
Labels:
Colossians
/
Postmillennialism
/
Prophecy
Saturday, August 13, 2016
Our Enemies Are By Themselves
A few years ago, an acquaintance in
Northern Ontario was asked to take the funeral of a local man who had passed
away unexpectedly. Nobody could say for sure whether the dead man did or didn’t
know the Lord, so the speaker opted to give a clear gospel message.
When he was done, an older relative of the
deceased, tears in his eyes, approached him to thank him for taking the
funeral. To all appearances, this man was a secular success story; someone who,
while apparently decent and moral, had shown little or no interest in the
things of God for many years.
“I believe every word you just said,” he
told the speaker. “I’ve wasted my life.”
Labels:
Deuteronomy
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Idolatry
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Psalms
Friday, August 12, 2016
Too Hot to Handle: Vote Hillary Because … Abortion
In which our regular writers toss around
subjects a little more volatile than usual.
I’m
going to stop using Rachel Held Evans as a whipping boy … er, girl …
right after this election, I promise. Her leftism and contempt for evangelical
conservatives has become so glaringly obvious that it no longer seems
reasonable to consider her in any way representative of mainstream Christian
thought. More importantly, she is now so predictably modernist that one may as
well discuss the musings of secular humanists instead; their conclusions are
just as wrong, but at least they make a passing nod to intellectual coherence.
Tom: Only promise me, Immanuel Can, that you
will discuss this latest column of Rachel’s with me. Please, oh please. RHE believes American Christians should
push the button for Hillary Clinton in November because … abortion. I kid
you not.
Labels:
Abortion
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Hillary Clinton
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Rachel Held Evans
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Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Turning the Beat Around
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Christian Music
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Corinthians
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Hymns
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Reform
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
The Race Card
In one corner we have respected theologian
Wayne Grudem telling American Christians they should vote for Donald Trump. In the other, respected theologian Thabiti Anyabwile insists they should vote for Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile, out on the ring apron, respected theologian Douglas Wilson is
explaining the rules of engagement to both parties while recommending Americans vote for neither candidate.
He’s also being called a racist on Twitter for the crime of daring to disagree with a black man, but we should be used to
that by now.
Wow. This part is almost more fun than the
actual election.
Labels:
Douglas Wilson
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Politics
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Racism
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The Gospel Coalition
Tuesday, August 09, 2016
Programming or Persuasion?
My father loved my
mother and vice versa. They were not perfect — nobody is — but they
consistently modeled their Christian faith for their children. As a result, I
and my siblings grew up conscious there was at least one worldview out there
that produced a positive real-life outcome for those who held it.
Some people think that’s
programming.
Labels:
Children
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Memory
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Witnessing
Monday, August 08, 2016
Flipping the Switch
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
1 John
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Deuteronomy
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Forgiveness
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Repentance
Saturday, August 06, 2016
Inbox: Measuring the Wind
WD writes, “How does the Spirit work in a
person’s life and how can one know He is?” An excellent question.
It’s also a question I wouldn’t dare try to
answer in a single blog post, even if I thought myself an expert on the Holy
Spirit’s guidance, which I don’t. But our reader’s question has been lurking at
the back of my mind as I’ve worked my way through William Trotter’s little
pamphlet on worship and ministry in the Spirit.
As much as impressions may be powerful
things, I remain cautious about attributing to the Holy Spirit anything that is merely
subjective, mystical or personal.
Labels:
Church
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Corinthians
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Holy Spirit
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Inbox
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Ministry
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William Trotter
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Worship
Friday, August 05, 2016
Too Hot to Handle: The Christian Globalist
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Globalism
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Nation
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Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, August 04, 2016
The Happy Ending
“If you want a happy ending, that depends, of
course, on where you stop your story.”
— Orson
Welles
Such a
great line. If anyone knew how to tell a story, the legendary director did.
Life,
however, does not neatly and naturally subdivide itself into an introduction,
three acts and a tidy conclusion. We do not script our entrance or our
exit, and we exercise minimal control over events occurring in between.
And all of
it is very much open to interpretation.
Labels:
Corinthians
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Judgment
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Self-Examination
Wednesday, August 03, 2016
Nobody Knows Where to Look
Try this on for size:
“The Russians are accused of trying to influence an American election. And how did
they propose to disrupt our normal way of doing things over here? The
answer is obvious when you think about it. They
determined that they would tell the truth. When something
like that erupts in the middle of a presidential campaign, nobody
knows where to look.”
— Doug Wilson
Who knows what the Russians are trying to
do, or if they actually have anything at all to do with the latest WikiLeaks infodumps? This is the craziest American election to occur in my lifetime, one in which
interests are so wildly polarized that even the social and electoral havoc brought about by external meddling sounds like good news to some Americans, at least in the short term.
But more to the point, Wilson is right:
truth is a terribly disruptive element.
Labels:
Douglas Wilson
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Elections
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Truth
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WikiLeaks
Tuesday, August 02, 2016
The Commentariat Speaks (2)
“Christendom is cancer. Pure and evil cancer. It is not a religion of white people. It is an Arabian religion which was imported. There was a fantastic interview with a
Swedish woman on Red Ice Radio talking about the old gods and how they fit Sweden better because they gave role models to the people: a mother goddess, a warrior god and so forth. Christianity gives us a father figure and nothing else.”
Yes, you did read that correctly.
Labels:
Faith
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Religion
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Self-Existence
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The Commentariat Speaks
Monday, August 01, 2016
What We’re Here For
I don’t know how many
people remember Rocky (1976), the boxing
drama about a loan shark’s debt collector from the Philadelphia slums who gets
a shot at the world heavyweight championship. It was released forty years
ago, after all.
I saw it as a kid and
don’t remember being particularly impressed by the story or enthralled by the
characters. I found it all a bit grimy, if I recall. What stuck with me
about the Rocky Balboa character, though, was that he just wouldn’t stay down.
Oh, he takes a beating
alright.
Labels:
Apostle Paul
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Corinthians
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Suffering
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Action, Meet Consequence
Actions have consequences. My body and
yours will not last forever because “in Adam all die”. The default mode of human existence is death, and every week, month and year on our march toward futility, decrepitude and (in some cases) eternal judgment drives home that reality.
Thanks, Adam. If it’s any consolation, I
have no evidence from my own experience that I’d have done a better job as
federal head of humanity.
Labels:
Children
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Deuteronomy
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Exodus
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Ezekiel
/
Judgment
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