The most recent version of this post is available here.
“Religions diminish the cost of sin, or like atheism, deny it entirely. Only Christianity is hard-nosed
about our inherent guilt and yet also confident about a complete remedy.” — Immanuel Can
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Thursday, September 10, 2020
Wednesday, September 09, 2020
If It Happens Again I’m Leaving
Doug Wilson is not the only Christian blogging about the
phenomenon of people leaving a church over the issue of compulsory mask-wearing,
but he’s probably more quoted on the subject than most. Responding in a
recent post to questions from believers frustrated by the stand their own
elders have taken over the issue, Doug has (perhaps inadvertently) opened a
larger can of worms than the mask issue itself, which is the authority of
elders to bind the consciences of those under their care over matters about
which scripture is silent.
And the mask issue is certainly that.
Labels:
Church
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COVID-19
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Douglas Wilson
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Elders
Tuesday, September 08, 2020
Inbox: ‘Systemic’ Racism
God gave a plethora of laws to Moses on Sinai, yet they did not make for a perfect society because people are not perfect. Individuals observed those laws from time to time, and in doing so, benefited from them. But on a national level, Israel would not — nay,
could not — follow those laws, notwithstanding the fact that they were
morally excellent, decent, orderly, and
taught lessons humanity absolutely needed to learn, not to mention they
pointed to Christ. So God gave them, man received them, and the result was systemic failure.
Or was it?
Labels:
Government
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Inbox
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Racism
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Repentance
Monday, September 07, 2020
Anonymous Asks (109)
“If God loves the world, why does he make people choose between loving
him back or spending eternity in hell? That sounds more like an ultimatum than
love.”
I agree: that choice does sound a bit like an
ultimatum. The Bible also frames it as a
command.
Why is that? Why is there no third option where God simply
leaves me alone to do my own thing, and I leave him alone to do his?
Surely a policy of benign indifference would be more loving than condemning
millions of people to a lake of fire.
I wonder what simply leaving humanity to its own devices
would look like ...
Labels:
Anonymous Asks
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Choices
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Hell
Sunday, September 06, 2020
Semi-Random Musings (21)
Most of our readers would not be aware that I have been
at the office almost non-stop these last few weeks as a consequence of a
plethora of COVID-related staff absences. That’s not because even a single employee
of hundreds across the globe has contracted the coronavirus — so far as
I know, they are all healthy as horses — but because almost nobody currently
working from home has any enthusiasm about returning to work in the current
environment, and the corporate powers that be are even less enthusiastic about
ordering them to do so. The vast majority of my co-workers seem content to hunker
down in their basements doing not too much of anything until sometime in Spring 2021.
Yeah, sure … that’ll be the end of it. Right.
Labels:
Choices
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Church
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COVID-19
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Semi-Random Musings
Saturday, September 05, 2020
Time and Chance (52)
Just this week, a friend of mine took his three-and-half-year-old grandson hiking through
a local terraced cemetery. As they climbed, they stopped to read a gravestone
together at every level. Recognizing the shape of the recurring word forms, the
little boy soon began to repeat phrases like “In loving memory” and “beloved
wife”.
When the two returned home to tell Grandma what they had been up to, her agitated
response was, “I hope you didn’t tell him what the numbers mean.”
Yeah, those numbers …
Labels:
Age
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Ecclesiastes
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Time and Chance
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Youth
Friday, September 04, 2020
Too Hot to Handle: The Chosen
In which our regular writers toss around subjects a
little more volatile than usual.
The Chosen is a largely-crowdfunded, independent, ongoing video series which debuted on
YouTube in April 2019 with the goal of retelling the gospel stories mainly
from the perspective of their minor characters and emphasizing the
life-changing nature of their interactions with the Lord Jesus. In the words of
Josh Shepherd at Christianity Today, its creators aimed for it to be “faithful to the biblical text while gritty in tone”.
Tom: Hmm. In my opinion, the grit is definitely visible, but not necessarily
off-putting.
Labels:
The Chosen
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Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, September 03, 2020
Who Your Friends Are
“You are those who have stood by me in my trials.”
In my youth I had two friends with whom I was
particularly close. Both were highly talented, creative, driven and smart. It
was only a matter of time until both made good in the world and became
successful, wealthy and celebrated.
But when I met them all that was yet to come. It wasn’t
apparent yet that they were going anywhere. They were in a high-risk career
line, trying to catch that key break that many folks thought might never come.
“Get a haircut, and get a real job” was the advice they heard a lot.
Too bad for the naysayers. Both hit the big time.
Labels:
Christ
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Identity
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Soren Kierkegaard
Wednesday, September 02, 2020
Tuesday, September 01, 2020
A Sheet of Glass
Now and then when I’m unable to write a new post for one reason or another, I’ll recycle something from our archives, generally without comment. But I couldn’t help but notice that this end-of-2014 post about the suddenness with which change comes to our world was definitely NOT inadvertently prophetic. Not one bit. Really.
Last week, Matt Drudge linked to an article in The Guardian that informs us “we are
safer, richer and healthier than at any time on record”. In “Goodbye to one of the best years in history”, Fraser Nelson wraps up 2014 by reminding his readers that while it may have escaped
our notice:
- our lives now are more peaceful than at any time known to the human species;
- global capitalism has transferred wealth faster than foreign aid ever could;
- global life expectancy now stands at a new high of 71.5 years;
- traffic deaths are down by two-thirds since 1990; and
- there has never been a better reason for people the world over to wish each other a happy and prosperous new year.
While Mr. Nelson may have overlooked one or two little
atrocities here and there in his glowing report on the human condition, he makes
an effort to substantiate his claim that relatively at least we are doing
pretty well as a species.
Terrific for us, until things change. And change is coming.
Monday, August 31, 2020
Anonymous Asks (108)
“Why do we follow some Levitical laws and not others?”
Whenever we associate living the Christian life with following the Law of Moses, we run the risk of becoming
very confused. Surprisingly, the relationship between Christianity and Old
Testament Judaism is still much misunderstood today, even though the matter was
conclusively sorted out very early in church history. It’s a situation made
worse today by systems of theology that conflate the church with Israel.
But if we have our theology right, we will find Christians do not “follow Levitical laws” at all.
Labels:
Anonymous Asks
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Grace
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Law
Sunday, August 30, 2020
Incidentally …
An idle remark made in passing may tell us considerably more
about its speaker than listening to him lecture for an hour on a prepared
topic.
Likewise, it is often the case that the little “asides” made
by the writers of the New Testament in the process of teaching are as
interesting as — and sometime even more interesting than — the subjects
themselves.
Nothing in scripture is simply there to fill up space. Even
incidental comments are full of important truth.
Labels:
1 Corinthians
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Father
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Godhead
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Son
Saturday, August 29, 2020
Time and Chance (51)
As I have mentioned on more than one occasion during
our study of Ecclesiastes, the list of things its writer characterizes as “vanity”
in his thesis is lengthy. Over thirty different features of human existence are
so described, a partial list of which you can find here,
from hedonism to workaholism to discontentment and entropy.
Labels:
Age
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Ecclesiastes
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Time and Chance
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Youth
Friday, August 28, 2020
Too Hot to Handle: The Peasants Are Revolting
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Politics
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Responsibility
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Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Merged into the Mob
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Collectivism
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Judgment
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
No Standing
The argument may be made that John Glover Roberts Jr.
is the most powerful man in America.
As the 17th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United
States, when Roberts says no, even the current president reluctantly backs down.
For that matter, lower court judges have blocked, delayed or nullified Mr. Trump’s
initiatives over the last four years on any number
of fronts.
Surprising, no?
Labels:
1 Corinthians
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Church
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Government
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Laws
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
Fake Piety
Fake piety is usually fairly transparent. Sadly, the fakely
pious are the only ones who do not know it.
Christians sometimes caution one another to be careful what
we confess, and this is not always a bad thing. A personal testimony full of interesting
and semi-scandalous details can serve as a source of enticement to those who
have little life experience, whose parents have sheltered them from the evils
in the world.
Monday, August 24, 2020
Anonymous Asks (107)
“What does the Bible say about capital punishment?”
The law of God received by Moses at Sinai gave instructions to the leaders of Israel
concerning the conduct of Israelites and the foreigners who chose to travel and
live alongside them. The penalties for religious and criminal violations of the Law
were identical for both nationals and foreigners.
Labels:
Anonymous Asks
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Capital Punishment
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Death Penalty
Sunday, August 23, 2020
Your Church Building is NOT the House of God
I’m hearing it all the time now in public prayer: “We thank
you, Father that we are able to freely gather in the house of God” and other similar thoughts, where the words “house of God” are unquestionably being used to describe the building in which we are sitting.
A similar misconception is given voice by people who insist upon
referring to the auditorium in which a church meets as a “sanctuary”, as in (from
mother to child), “Don’t run in the sanctuary! Don’t make noise in the
sanctuary!”
These are not new Christians. It makes me wonder if they really know what the house of God is or what the term sanctuary means. I think in many cases they do, but have through inattention lapsed into language that is potentially misleading.
Labels:
Christ
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Church
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Hebrews
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House of God
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Priesthood
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Recycling
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Sanctuary
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Time and Chance (50)
Almost a year ago we started this weekly study in Ecclesiastes, and here we are in the
penultimate chapter. I have been poking along a verse or two at a time,
because it seems to me that this 3,000 year old treatise on the meaning of
life deserves our concentrated attention and rarely gets it.
Hey, Christians and unbelievers alike quote from Ecclesiastes all the time. There’s some great stuff in there for funerals. But when
was the last time you heard even a single sermon on the book, let alone a
series? I can remember maybe two in my entire life.
Labels:
Ecclesiastes
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Generosity
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Time and Chance
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