Here comes my latest reply to the ongoing discussion at Green Baggins. Lane is interacting with the section entitled “Reformed Catholicity” in the FV Joint Statement. As an illustration of just how much we are talking past each other, Lane says that this “statement in and of itself does not necessarily exclude all works from …
For Some It Has to be Hard
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 155 “A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool’s back” (Prov. 26:3). As much as tenderhearted people might wish it to be otherwise, there are some people who cannot be communicated with …
The Heart of Romans/Romans 3
INTRODUCTION: The gospel is not faith, but the gospel cannot be understood or appropriated apart from a living and evangelical faith. As the Westminster confession puts it, the faith that justifies is “no dead faith” (11.2). Another name for “not dead” is alive, or living. The gospel is objective and outside of us. But the …
Called to Be an Apostle
The message on the first seven verses of Romans is now posted here.
Mercy and No Mercy
One of the great dangers confronting those who would give themselves to mercy ministry is that of forgetting the antithesis. Biblical wisdom always remembers the antithesis, and places it where God has placed it. Forgetting the antithesis frequently consists of selecting a biblical virtue, absolutizing it, and using it to contradict or “balance” other biblical …
Either Way, Not Yet Viral
This is an odd one on a number of levels. The central oddity is why this isn’t found in all the regular news outlets and blogs. If you google “Supreme Court,” “Souter,” and “Obama’s birth certificate,” you will find the information in a bunch of cyber-backwater places. I haven’t found this discussed in any of …
Even If You Can’t Carry a Tune With a Fork Lift
Canon Press has recently released a supplementary product to the Cantus Christi, designed to help folks learn their respective parts. If singing harmony is a new concept for you, this is really slick. You take the CD that corresponds to the part you want to learn, turn the balance knob, and there your part is, …
Simply Disobedient
Apeithes occurs six times in the New Testament, and is rendered by the word disobedient. Zacharias was promised that his son John would be used to turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just (Luke 1:17). When the Lord appeared to Saul of Tarsus, he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision (Acts 26:19). …
Not Even by the Blackjack Dealer of Current Scholarship
The Lord “has not come into His house to be trifled with, and to have His words shuffled like a pack of cards” (Charles Spurgeon, An All-Round Ministry, p. 378).
Guess Which One We’re In
“Sorokin identified three distinct phases through which cultures pass: ideational, idealistic, and sensate. Each phase has distinctive characteristics and in general runs a specific course. Virtually every human society can be found at any particular time to be in one phase or another, or in transition between two of them . . . The ideational …