“It must be emphasized, however, in this discussion on the preached Word of God, that the word of the preacher can only become the Word of God through a sovereign and free act of the Holy Spirit, by whose power alone preaching can be effective . . . ‘God sometimes connects Himself with His servants …
Good One
Heh . . .
A Triune Conversation
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #17 “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11). The Spirit of …
The Actual Point
“If someone were to maintain that God did not know the location of a particular town in South Dakota, and we were to debate with him, the resultant debate would not be over geography” (“Sola Scriptura, Creeds, and Ecclesiastical Authority” in When Shall These Things Be? p. 256).
Where the Rod of Iron Is
“Thus Calvin applies many of the Old Testament prophecies of the rule of the Messiah amongst the nations to the preacher of the Word, for he regards Christ as acting in this world mainly through the instrument of the preached Word” (Wallace, Calvin’s Doctrine of the Word and Sacrament, p. 87).
Timeshare Servants
As Rodney Stark has shown, one of the great contributions of the first Christendom was the development of free markets. And I would want to maintain that one of the great results of the next Christendom will be the restoration and preservation of them. Free markets are the economic expression of the apostolic teaching that …
The Cafeteria at Democracy Junior High
We are one week out from an important election, and from all appearances, it looks to be a rambunctious one. By rambunctious, I mean that the airspace of the cafeteria here at Democracy Junior High will be full of rolls, pats of butter, jello cups, and the occasional green bean. With that in mind, here …
Glib Simplicity
“Someone, and it may have been Gibbon, made merry over the fact that the church at the time of Athanasius was all roiled up over one little iota: the difference between homoousion and homoiousion. Of course, this is like saying that the debate between atheism and theism is really a debate over the letter a. …
A Mark of Presence
“Christ, therefore, uses the preached word as a means of revelation and self-communication in much the same way as He uses the other signs of His presence and grace in His historic acts of revelation. Thus Calvin can refer to preaching as a token of the presence of God, and as a means whereby He …
More of a Restraining Order Than Anything Else
I find it quite striking that as the streets of France are full of people demanding a continuation of their entitlements, the streets of America are full of people demanding that the government knock it off with the entitlements. There are inconsistencies and exceptions everywhere, of course, but the big picture provides a marked contrast. …