“There is a tendency to equate and then invert the behavior of the perpetrators of violence and that of their victims, so that self-defense is misrepresented as aggression while the original violence is viewed sympathetically as understandable and even justified” (Melanie Phillips, Londonistan, p. 72).
Tissue Thin Armor
“The idea that because a man is learned, especially in subjects appertaining to religion, he is therefore secure from the seductions of worldliness is a fallacy” (Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind, p. 60).
Telos and Propriety
“Superior music is inferior in some settings. Inferior music is inferior in some settings. Music that is poorly done within the constraints of each genre is bad music and shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere. Thus, we have good and bad superior music and good and bad inferior music. And surrounding all such distinctions we have the …
PCA at the Crossroads
Please be praying for the PCA. This afternoon they will be considering the Federal Vision issue. Or, more accurately, they will be considering what some people deem to be the Federal Vision issue. Unfortunately, depending on the outcome, there are accurate names connected to inaccurate summaries of doctrine, and so this really is a crossroads …
A Culture’s Prow
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).