“The Muslim critique of the West—that we’re decadent vulgar narcissist fornicating sodomites—is not without more than a grain of truth. But when the fastest-breeding demographic group on the planet is also the one most resistant to the pieties of the social-democratic state, that presents a severe challenge, at least for the Left. In their bizarre …
Hell Made Immanent
“The concentration and death camps of the twentieth century, wherever they exist, under whatever regime, are Hell made immanent. They are the transference of Hell from below the earth to its surface. They are the deliberate enactment of a long, precise imagining.” (George Steiner, In Bluebeard’s Castle, p. 54).
Partaking
“This sort of covenantal participation is not limited to the godly. Something similar happened to the idolaters of Corinth. They were partakers at a demonic table, but no sacerdotal miracle was occuring there either. But by eating at an idolatrous feast, those worshippers were covenantally identified with the demons behind their idols” (Mother Kirk, p. …
That Doesn’t Sound Like Much Fun
“We must rather wrong ourselves by thinking too well of them than wrong them by thinking too ill of them. This would help exceedingly much to bring peace” (Burroughs, Irenicum, pp. 139-140).
Smooth Words, Hard Hearts
We live in an era which places a high value on hardness of heart. We can tell this by our love of soft teaching. Of course this is not how we describe it inwardly. In speaking to ourselves, when we generally have a most appreciative audience, we have great affection for smooth words, words which …
Hot for Jihad
“Islam is now the principal supplier of new Europeans, and currently the second biggest supplier of new Canadians. So it’s worth mulling over the question John Howard suggests: What proportion of Western Muslims is hot for jihad?” (Mark Steyn, America Alone, p. 15).
Intensity as Sanctity
“Romantic ideals of love, notably the stress on incest, dramatize the belief that sexual extremism, the cultivation of the pathological, can restore personal existence to a full pitch of reality and somehow negate the gray world of middle-class fact . . . The artist becomes hero . . .” (George Steiner, In Bluebeard’s Castle, p. …
Not Water Through a Hose
“There is true blessing here, and it is the result of covenantal identification. This is a blessing that is poured out on the believer by a sovereign God in a providential response to the believer’s obedience. The blessing does not come through the elements, like water through a garden hose. But it does come on …
Weakness and Strength
“Men who are weak and can see but a little way into things must take heed they censure not others who know how to manage business better than themselves” (Burroughs, Irenicum, p. 139).
Sound Doctrine (1 Tim. 1:1-11)
Introduction: As we introduce this first letter in what are called the pastoral epistles, it is important to contextualize it. Reconstructing the chronology of the New Testament, we may conclude that Paul was probably imprisoned in Rome twice. The first is found at the end of the book of Acts, after which he was released, …