Paul uses hamartia twice in the book of Colossians. In the first instance, he reminds the Colossians that they had redemption through the blood of Christ, a redemption that amounted to “forgiveness of sins” (1:14). The second use involves more metaphorical subtleties. He says in 2:11 that the Colossians had been circumcised with the circumcision …
Love More Than Books
“Many preachers are utterly ignorant as to how the bulk of the people are living; they are at home among books, but quite at sea among men . . . Read men as well as books, and love men rather than opinions, or you will be inanimate preachers” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. …
Institutionalized Strife
“The alternative to free economic activity is not cooperation but coercion . . . Redistribution is absolutely incompatible with peace. Accepted as a norm for civil life, it means that social strife is inevitable” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 134).
Real Ambition
The message this last Lord’s Day was on ambition.
Christ and Pizza
Frank Turk poses a question that I would like to take just a moment to answer. From his neo-Niebuhrian list, the answer is clearly #3, for the following (briefly stated) reasons. If Christ is not above pizza, then why to do we bow our heads over it to thank God for it in His name? …
Penalties for Do-Goodery
I take it as a given that Christians are called to be a force for good and for decency in the world, and that this good and this decency are best exhibited face-to-face with people you know and live with. The debates that arise when I write about what I am going to write about …
Here’s An Idea
Refugees are now pouring out of Zimbabwe, former Rhodesia, and I have a modest proposal. Let’s have a moratorium on all new proposals about international affairs, proposals designed to improve the lot of others and end injustice forever, until all the people who insisted on the course we followed with Rhodesia (for foundational moral reasons) …
In Relationship
One of the most difficult things for us to do is the task of locating sin properly. One common mistake, one that we have addressed a number of times before, is the mistake of locating sin in stuff. This mistake thinks that sin must be resident in material things—in sex, in alcohol, in refined sugar, …
When God Paints
Sacraments are immediately instituted by God. This means that man does not have the power to multiply sacraments. Those who want to live sacramentally, seeing a sacramental significance in everything, must be careful here. The only way to see the world sacramentally is to jealously guard the two sacraments that God has given to us, …
Velcro Candidate
This is about the time in the campaign season that I start wishing that I could bring myself to vote for McCain, if for no other reason than to irritate the handwringers and Europeans. But alas, I am a man of principle. McCain would only irritate them for about 20 percent of the right reasons. …