“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 110 “Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger” (Prov. 19:15). Anyone with a minimal acquaintance with the book of Proverbs knows that laziness is not considered a good thing. Not only is it not …
Personal Loyalty
A few weeks ago, I made the point that leaders among the anti-FVers have been extremely reluctant to admit the obvious, which is that I hold to the historic Reformed view of justification and so on. The reason for this, I suggested, was political. In other words, to admit publicly that I had a clean …
A Caveat
As the previous post made clear, I genuinely appreciate a lot of what N.T Wright writes. Not only do I think it is true, but I believe that many in the Reformed world desperately need to learn many things from him. That said, I have been recently looking again at some of the issues we …
Evil and Debt Forgiveness
Today I just finished reading a new book by N.T. Wright — Evil and the Justice of God. I have quibbles and quabbles here and there, but the book as a whole is simply magnificent. If you want a treatment of the problem of evil that functions within the categories of biblical theology, and concludes …
Shoot, Follow the Money
Later this month, John McCain is going to be speaking in Seattle at an event cohosted by the Discovery Institute, an organization that has been behind a bunch of the Intelligent Design stuff. And so, predictably, a lot of advocates of Approved Thought have expressed their disapproval of this most recent outbreak of Disapproved Thought, …
The John Calvin Memorial Archives and Book Stacks
Mark Horne has posted a quotation from Calvin on Deuteronomy. I reproduce the quote below, but the comments on Mark’s blog are worth reading also. For, since the fall of Adam had brought disgrace upon all his posterity, God restores those, whom He separates as His own, so that their condition may be better than …
Four Generations
God has blessed us with lots of family, in all kinds of directions, and we are of course very grateful for it. But there are interesting subgroups as well. This is a recent photo that was taken of our males with the surname of Wilson, four generations of them. Since God keeps covenant and mercy …
An Ear for Natural Cadence
“We must attribute Bunyan’s style to a perfect natural ear, a great sensibility for the idiom and cadence of popular speech, a long experience in addressing unlettered audiences, and a freedom from bad models” (C.S. Lewis, Selected Literary Essays, p. 150).
Just One More Elective Surgery
[Speaking of a radical Islamic political advances in the West] “Designating female genital mutilation (FGM) as an operation that Western doctors may legally perform on Muslim women will probably be first. Some doctors will welcome the extra income for such an easy surgery, just as some of them bank extra income for performing unnecessary abortions …
Deep Structure
“The Christian affirmation is, however, that the Trinitarian structure which can be shown to exist in the mind of man and in all his works is, in fact, the integral structure of the universe, and corresponds, not by pictorial imagery but by a necessary uniformity of substance, which the nature of God, in Whom all …