Several years ago, Pastor Leithart exhorted us, concerning the public reading of the Scriptures, to seek to listen to the Word rather than to just read along with it. This was done to encourage you to add the layer of simply hearing the Word in worship, and not to subtract the experience of reading the …
Confirm Your Stake in Christ
Our confession of faith, the Westminster Confession, says that sacraments are given by God in order to confirm our interest in Him. The word interest does not mean what we would intend if we were to say that we were interested in spiritual things, that is, we wanted to think about them. Rather our interest …
Compassion Radar in the Private Sector
One other comment is necessary on my interaction with Jim Wallis a few posts ago. He said that the abortion debate had grown “stale,” and that we ought to concentrate on reducing abortions instead of outlawing abortion. As I was thinking about it, this question occurred to me — “where has he been?” He speaks …
What’s Shakin’ Next
I just got my copy of David Wells’ new book — The Courage to be Protestant — and it promises to be a magnificent read. I am not very far into it, but it is the capstone of four great books that came before it. But even though I just started, I was arrested by …
Go Get Your Own Parable, Hayek
This is kind of an odd talk-around way way to do it, but here is a bit more on our discussion of Third World debts and N.T. Wright’s book Surprised by Hope. To sum up my take, Wright wrote a glorious book that had a small atrocious section on global economics. I interacted with that …
The Pope and Climate Change
Careful readers of this blog will recall that I had a little fun at the Vatican’s expense some time ago on the issue of global warming. In the article I linked to at that time, it mentioned that the pope was going to use his speech at the UN (just now past) to press for …
The Roar of God: Amos I
INTRODUCTION: As God gives us the grace, we will now begin to work our way through the prophecy of Amos. Apart from what is revealed in his writing here, we know nothing about the man. Among the minor prophets, he occupies the vanguard in this period of Israel’s history, even though he is placed third …
A Brick Through the Windshield
Ted Olsen at CT asks Jim Wallis some pointed questions. HT: Justin Taylor And I am afraid I have to make a few comments about his pathetic answers. When Olsen asked him about his stance on abortion — “protecting unborn life in every possible way, but without criminalizing abortion,” Wallis responded by saying that the …
Obedience and Life
Lane begins to interact with the Joint Federal Vision Profession here. The place he begins is with the issue of bi-covenantalism. “However, I will seek to prove one example where I believe that the FV statement is thoroughly non-confessional. As we all know, the PCA study committee report roundly reinforced a bi-covenantal structure to the …
Another Road Less Traveled
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 139 “He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come want” (Prov. 22:16). We have seen earlier in Proverbs that the man who lends to the poor is lending to …