“Earlier critics have noted [Edward] Taylor’s use of images drawn from the sensible world to figure the invisible things of God, and, after some initial disagreement, later critics have agreed that Taylor was neither a closet idolator nor a crypto-Catholic, but an orthodox New England Puritan, a category that recent scholarship has shown to be …
Pursuing What You Love
“This active use of time is of course for pleasure; its impulse is love. Everybody used to know this when the words amateur and dilettante were taken in their original meanings of ‘lover’ and ‘seeker of delight.’ We have turned them into terms of contempt to denote bunglers and triflers” (Jacques Barzun, The Culture We …
Providentially Protected and Preserved
“So we must understand there are two different approaches to textual work. One expresses confidence that God has protected His Word down through history. This is a faith position — faith in God. The other presupposition says that it is up to man, through neutral, scholarly, and scientific means, to determine what the original text …
Unbendable
“Despite the lapses I have mentioned, Job never gives in on the question of his innocence. His lapse does not last, and to the very end he will refuse to admit to any guilt” (Girard, Job, p. 133).
A Response to Rick Phillips
As the Wilkins controversy continues to give off fumes, I would like to refer you to three places before we begin our next installment of comments. The first is to reiterate that Steve’s written responses to his presbytery exam can be found here. The second is a response to that, written by Rick Phillips, found …
Faith Is Mediated
When someone says that God foreordained the conversion of Smith, and that the conversion of Smith was therefore made necessary, a denial of this would include the view that the conversion of Smith was contingent, not necessary, and that God’s foreordination took up some percentage of the whole deal that was less than 100%. In …
A Target Rich Environment
Obviously, since I am in Monroe (still) for the now finished Auburn Avenue Pastors’ Conference, the “situation” in the PCA has been much on my mind. And the guys have talked about it in various ways, and from various angles. As I was reflecting on it this morning, I thought that I should write about …
Auburn Avenue 2007 In the Can
Sorry for the paucity of posts, and the reason for this is that I have been on the road. More specifically, I have been delighted to have been (once again) a guest speaker at the Auburn Avenue Pastors’ Conference. Just finished at noon today. As always the singing was stupenderous, the hospitality top drawer, and …
Flourishing Green
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Oh, bless the man who does not walk, Where ungodly men give their wisdom. Bless the man who will not stand Where sinners stand, Where the scornful sit. His true delight is in the law, His meditation in the Lord, Day and …
Playing Tennis With the Devil
Once there was a young Christian man who had a terrible day. Everywhere he went, and everywhere he turned, there was some temptation waiting for him there, leering. On the way out the door to school, his mother asked him three times if he wanted his gloves, and by the time he got to the …