“But there is little doubt that an oppositional attitude toward traditional social rules is what wins the modern intellectual his spurs, in the eyes of other intellectuals. And the prestige that intellectuals confer upon antinomianism soon communicates itself to nonintellectuals. What is good for the bohemian sooner or later becomes good for the unskilled worker, …
Blinkered Be-Bop
“All our scholars, statesmen, politicians, bureaucrats, philosophers, musicians, painters, and anchormen haven’t a clue. The bugle blows indistinctly, and we all think it is a new form of jazz” (Mother Kirk, p. 205).
Dealing With People Instead of Abstract Logic
“Truer and more gentle is the judgment of that great and peacemaking divine, Martin Bucer, who said, ‘It is our part not to look at what may follow from an opinion, but at what follows in the consciences of those who hold it'” (Burroughs, Irenicum, p.268).
Fiendish Glee
It seems that computers can do a lot of things. This is, I believe, what is called a dented image. So here is the picture that you all can summon up whenever you think that I must have written a particular post with fiendish glee and mayhem in my heart. Suppose, to borrow an image …
Pursuit of Vanity
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 127 “The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death” (Prov. 21:6). Christians know that lying is bad, and that this means lying in business is bad. It does …
Ahmadinejad and Terrorism
Yesterday I saw a talking head on television waxing indignant over Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York. One of the things he was angry about was the fact this man, a terrorist, engaged in killing American soldiers, was able to come over here and say his bit. We have to be careful not to let the …
Real Assurance
Every careful Christian has considered the vexing question of assurance. What is the ground of my salvation? What is the ground of my confidence in salvation? How can I know that I am right before God? “And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him . …
The Low Bottom of the Heart
“Where Tyndale is most continuously and obviously superior to More is in style. He is, beyond comparison, lighter, swifter, more economical . . . What we miss in Tyndale is the many-sidedness, the elbow-room of More’s mind; what we miss in More is the joyous, lyric quality of Tyndale. The sentences that stick to the …
Distinguishable, Not Separable
“My contention is that there should be no such disjunction between the ‘appeal’ and the preaching, any more than there should be between the sacraments and preaching” (Lloyd-Jones, Preachers and Preaching, p. 274).
Civilians Fair Game
“Prophet Muhammad was once asked if it was OK to kill women and children of those who were polytheistic . . . or infidels. He said, ‘I consider them as of their parents.’ In other words, if the parents were infidels, then it was permissible to kill their children” (Mark Gabriel, Islam and Terrorism, p. …