Scott Clark, big surprise, has written some more about the federal vision here. But in the course of his litany of ecclesiastical entities that have in various ways rejected the federal vision, he then goes on to say something very important — something that gives the end game away, incidentally. This, I predict, will be …
If Your Eye Be Evil . . .
We are continuing to learn about the sabbath mind as it is exhibited in rest, open-handed generosity, and joy. We are seeing that the sabbath principle is a helm which directs how the entire ship will go. “At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release . . .” (Deuteronomy 15:1-23). In …
The Sacrament is in the Participle
One of the great theological problems that has afflicted the church down through the ages is the tendency to think of the Lord’s Supper in terms of a snapshot, and not in terms of the video. There is no sacrament here on the table. We have bread, and we have wine, but we have no …
Rejoicing When Others Lie
All things work together for good for those who love God and are the called according to His purpose. This assurance from God is a deep assurance in times of natural calamity, but it is even more profound when we are confronted with the consequences of sin and rebellion. This too, is controlled by God …
Tell Me More About This Eternal Life
“In the Koran, he repeatedly redefines Judeo-Christianity’s heaven as an enormous God-owned bordello in the sky. In that heavenly brothel, loyal Muslim men—especially those paying the door price of martyrdom—would find a host of virgins called houris, who would forever satisfy all their sexual cravings (see Koran 38:51; 44:54; 55:55-74; 56: 22, 34-36)” (Don Richardson, …
Metaphors of Bounty
“From this perspective the Reformation can be seen as an infinitely varied, but coherent and extended, metaphor for the bountifulness of God’s grace. If, however, there is anything to be said for this argument, then we are going to have to look in quite a new way at Protestantism, which — we have generally been …
High and Lonely Destiny-ism
“It has been like this since the eighteenth century when the old concept of the artist as craftsman began to be exchanged for a concept that saw him as both a gifted genius and a social and economic outcast” (H.R. Rookmaaker, Art Needs No Justification, p. 5).
Tradition and Testimony
“A modern church cannot base everything it does on ‘Scripture solitaire’ without any reference to the testimonies of the historic Church. For one of the central testimonies which the Church has given, and which the historic Protestants continue to give, is that the sixty-six books of the Bible are the only ultimate and infallible Word …
Some Things Never Change
“[W]e cannot be ignorant that there is a generation of men who are vexed when they hear how near their brethren come to them by way of agreement. It serves more to their advantage to have the distance wide. They would keep open the wounds, yea, widen them” (Burroughs, Irenicum, p. 61).
Why Don’t You Hear?
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! How long are You going to forget me? You are eternal; Is Your forgetfulness the same? How long do You intend to hide Your face? How long will I have to counsel myself? Communing with nothing but my own sorrow? How long …