We live in a time when most believers have less understanding of the cultural impact of preaching than did some unbelievers of another era. For example, Herman Melville once wrote, “What could be more full of meaning? — for the pulpit is ever this earth’s foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the …
Lies and the Short Term Thinker
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 121 “Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel” (Prov. 20:17). Sin likes to think short term. This is because short term thinking is attractive, with instantaneous rewards, no real reason …
The Inclusivist Snare
John Stackhouse is a professor of theology and culture at Regent College in Vancouver, BC. He is part of the Christian Vision Project, and he writes in favor of “inclusivism” here. Inclusivism, as he defines it, says that there are many outside the Christian faith who are saved because of their demeanor of faith, without …
A Career Move?
I just got an email from my son-in-law Ben, to whom the credit for this insight belongs. He was responding to the current PCA embarrassment and, here . . . let him talk. I was thinking about how for the last generation the thing that has always been presbyterianism’s real strength has been its intellectualism. …
That He’d Been In His Bunk Below
I read on Reformed News that Sam Duncan, former moderator of the PCA, has provided a summary of the FV in preparation for the big doings at the General Assembly of the PCA this week. But before I start in on my war dance, let me just say that you ought to check out Reformed …
Symbiotic Sin
“All of man’s history is not limited to the history of the city and its progress. But they have nevertheless intermingled, and neither can be understood alone” (Jacques Ellul, The Meaning of the City, p. 8).
Not Any More
“Objectivity was bunk and so truth went out the window—and with it went the ability to weed out lies. The education system had been turned from the repository of disinterested knowledge to a vehicle for ‘antiracist’ and other propaganda. Instead of being taught how to think, children were now told what to think. The result …
Mine, All Mine
“Of course the very fact that nowadays we look upon convictions as personal possessions is a symptom of the disappearance of the Christian mind” (Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind, p. 40).
Father Abraham Had Many Sons
“‘Wherefore we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire’ (Heb. 12:28-29). Let those words, reverence and godly fear, roll around in the mind and heart while you sing through some inane song, …
Feeding the Beast
“You will say, ‘These were wont to be very entire friends. How came they to break? What has either of them done? What unkindness has befallen them?’ None at all, only that principle of self was not so fully fed as it desired to be. Upon that they began to be reserved, and so strange, …