“The role of artists was not always what it is today. In most cultures, including our own before the new period that began somewhere between 1500 and 1800, artists were primarily craftsmen: art meant making things according to certain rules, the rules of the trade. Arts were accomplished workers who knew how to carve a …
Charismatics Don’t Believe that Prophecy is for Today Either
“More than a few pastors have wondered whether they are being theologically dishonest in saying that the ‘sign gifts’ are no longer operative in the church today. True, the charismatic movement gives us great reason to be suspicious, and it is a pleasure to be prejudiced and bigoted sometimes, especially when Benny Hinn is involved, …
Sixes and Sevens
“If we have attained but to six, and our brethren have attained to seven, let us walk together lovingly to the six. If God shall later reveal the seventh (we will promise to pray and study in the meantime), we shall walk with them also. Why must it now be urged with violence, so as …
Coolness Quotient (CQ)
Finally someone came up with a way to objectively measure this. I was quite pleased. Take the “coolness” test now. HT: David Field
Opening Play of the End Game
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 …