Related to akrasia, the word akrates is used once (2 Tim. 3:3), and it means incontinent. It is found in the middle of some other bad company — “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers …
A Slander on the Oyster
“I heard one say the other day that a certain preacher had no more gifts for the ministry than an oyster, and in my own judgment this was a slander on the oyster, for that worthy bivalve shows great discretion in his openings, and knows when to close” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. …
Just Me and My Bible
“The danger in the American church is less that we believe the wrong beliefs than that we believe them all by ourselves” (Paul Grant, Blessed Are the Uncool, p. 91).
Vipers in Diapers?
Green Baggins is nearing the end of his chapter by chapter review of “Reformed” Is Not Enough, and thus far I think it is fair to say that he has not found anything that would place me outside the pale of Reformed orthodoxy as he defines it. He has found multiple places where he think …
Penitential Seasons
INTRODUCTION: We are nearing the conclusion of the historic season of Lent, the preparation season for the celebration of Easter. This is Palm Sunday, the day in which we mark and celebrate the Lord’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. As we are trying to orient ourselves by and with a Christian year, instead of the secularized …
Overflowing Excess
A word meaning excess or lack of control is akrasia. It is used two times in the New Testament, once for a husband and wife who are sexually fasting and who are therefore tempted because of their incontinency (1 Cor. 7:5). The second use is when Jesus lambasted the Pharisees because they cleaned the outside …
Protestant Poetic Sophistication
“The reformers loudly denounced the profusion of allegories and the doctrine of the four senses . . . But the Reformers accepted, and indeed exalted, typological symbolism, endeavoring by more and more rigorous means to distinguish this divinely sanctioned symbolic method from arbitrary allegorizing . . . the new Protestant emphasis is clear: it makes …
If It Be Truth
“Be sure you have the truth, and then be sure you hold it. Be ready for fresh truth, if it be truth, but be very chary how you subscribe to the belief that a better light has been found than that of the sun” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 208).
But This Is Actually a Good Thing
“If we dump cool, cool will never take us back” (Paul Grant, Blessed Are the Uncool, p. 53).
Yahweh for Sunshine and Baal for Rain
There are really two basic questions when it comes to questions of theocracy. The first is erroneously thought to be a genuine question — whether or not we should have a theocracy, whether there will be a god who rules over any given culture. The fact that this is even believed to be a coherent …