INTRODUCTION: David seeks to get away from Saul, but he cannot get away from his anointing. He can evade Saul, but he cannot evade the fact that a new Israel is going to start to form around him. David goes into the wilderness and finds a throne. Saul goes to his throne and finds a …
Eating While Forgiven
John tells us that if any man pretends to himself that he has no sin, he deceives himself. We are to confess our sins and, according to His promise, He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But we need regularly to be reminded of several things concerning this. The first …
Tradition and Traditionalism
Whenever a people sin with their fathers, they are carrying on a tradition. The long practice of tradition gives the disobedience a sheen that it would not otherwise have. One writer has helpfully distinguished between tradition, which is the living faith of the dead, and traditionalism, which is the dead faith of the living. When …
What Wind and Tide Do to Certain Convictions
“Hitchens acknowledges that secularist hellholes are wrong . . . The only thing he does not explain — for he cannot explain — is why they are wrong . . . His indignation is therefore a floating indignation. It is not anchored. It is not grounded. It is not fixed. And like all such things …
Screw the Word In
“Screw the word into the minds of your hearers. A screw is the strongest of all mechanical powers . . . when it has been turned a few times, scarcely any power can pull it out” (Charles Simeon, as quoted in Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 226).
Theocracies Everywhere
“All cultures are the incarnational outworking of a religion or combination of religions. When you deny a transcendent God, this does not eliminate the need for a god at the top to make the system coherent. It just means that th applicants for the position of deity are all, to use one of Hitchen’s favorite …
Meaning and Message
“To search for [Scripture’s] contemporary message without first wrestling with its original meaning is to attempt a forbidden short cut. It dishonours God (disregarding his chosen way of revealing himself in particular historical and cultural contexts), it misuses his Word (treating it like an almanac or book of magic spells) and it misleads his people …
Tatterdemalion Refugees and the New Jerusalem
Observers of American high places, American idolatries, tend to cluster in two groups — narrow and true, and broad and false. We need a third operating category, which I would describe as broad and true. Those idolatries would include consumerism, nationalism, paternalism — in short, pretty much all our isms. Those who reject the idolatries …
The Heart of the Matter
Here is an article that needs to be circulated widely. Click here.
Leaving the Planet
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #47 “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of …