“This biblical silence [on masturbation] cannot be explained by attributing a prudish silence to the biblical writers. They were not shy about condemning all kinds of sexual practices — sex with your grandchildren (Lev. 18:10), sex with your stepmother (1 Cor. 5:1), sex with your barnyard animals (Lev. 18:23), and so forth. No, the silence …
Earthy Examples in the Pulpit
“No creature, truly represented, is common or unclean. It is only a sort of Pharisaism of taste which makes it so” (Spurgeon, Eccentric Preachers, p. 38).
That Fortress of Fraud Called Congress
One of the basic decisions confronting the secularists is whether they give priority to secularism, which is a result, or to democracy, which is a method. Democracy might wind up with a government that is not secular in the slightest, and a secular dictator might insist on a secular state despite the majority of his …
Memorial Service for Bessie Wilson
The community-wide memorial service for my mother, Bessie Wilson, has been set for Oct. 14, 2010, at the Nazarene Church in Moscow. There will be a 45 minute song service starting at 1 pm, in which we will listen to or sing some of my mother’s favorite hymns. As one who longed for Heaven, she …
Not Just Butterflies
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #14 “And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that …
One Man, One Woman, One Time
“The first point to note is that when God determined to solve the problem of Adam’s loneliness, He did not do it with a harem” (Fidelity, p. 91).
And Some Want to be More Correct Than the Multiplication Table
“If you will be as dry as sawdust, as devoid of juice as the sole of an old shoe, and as correct as the multiplication table, you shall earn to yourself a high degree in the great university of Droneingen, but if you wake up your soul and adopt an energetic delivery, and a natural, …
Dancing ACLU Lawyers
One of the problems with using Constantine as a marker is that there is a tendency to anachronism, attributing to him any subsequent malfeasance on the part of Christians in power. But the Constantinian settlement was, by and large, a tolerant one. Lactantius, the early church father who tutored Constantine’s children, was an apologist for …
And at the Heart
“True authority and true submission are therefore an erotic necessity” (Fidelity, p. 87)
Whether Fine Foppery or Foppish Finery
“The centre is not here. They that wear soft raiment are in king’s houses, but the King of kings cares nothing for the finery and foppery of ecclesiastical parade” (Spurgeon, Eccentric Preachers, p. 25).