“As a matter of fact, the imitation involved in revenge tends toward more violence, for it tends to repay the violence it avenges ‘with interest.’ It tends to escalate the violence. The ancient injunction, ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,’ was an attempt to keep revenge from spinning out of control” …
Yet Another Sabbath
Gracious God and Father of Jesus, we thank You for the arrival of yet another Sabbath. Thank You for the gift of worship tomorrow morning, and for the gift of preparation for that worship now in this meal together. We thank You that the food represents countless hours of human labor and diligence, up to …
Lenny Bruce Tags It
One of our local adversaries, Nick Gier, had a letter in the paper last night entitled “‘Intolerista,’ and proud of it.” He was referencing a recent article in the Spokane paper, which was, despite Nick’s praise, a fairly decent article. There were some mistakes in it, and of course, Nick seized on those mistakes as …
Without A Bucket
I am currently reading three new books by Peter Leithart — the commentary on Kings, the book on Second Peter, which are both outstanding, and the book Deep Comedy, which promises to be the really fabulous one. I am not very far into them yet, but am certainly far enough in to see that Peter …
We Love Them All
Our God is truly good. The only attitude that does not see Him that way is unbelief—the twisted view that there could be another source of good, an alternative take on it, another way. But only God is good. This means that anyone who would be good also must come to Him on His terms. …
But He Invited Both of You
We have been called to liberty, but this liberty is no occasion for the flesh. We are granted full forgiveness, but this is not granted so that we might begin sinning with impunity. How can we who died to sin still live in it? The works of the flesh are plain, Paul tells us. But …
Needed: More Wodehousian Treatments of Local Arts Groups
“In a media-driven culture in which status is granted according to progressive tastes, many otherwise conservative folks are only too eager to participate in local arts groups as a hedge against being called philistines. Some take a real interest in art, even apart from the social aspects, such as the wine and Brie parties at …
Ford and Chevy
“We tend to bond to all the wrong things. Picture a four-lane highway, two lanes headed to heaven and two lanes to hell. Alongside one another, a Ford and a Chevy are driving to heaven, and on the other side of the road a Ford and a Chevy are heading the other way. If the …
Trying to Get the Center to Hold
“When a culture’s sacrificial rituals ‘work,’ they transfer the existing rivalrous antagonisms onto one figure against whom all can unite, an act that miraculously dissolves existing tensions and replaces them with a social bond” (Gil Bailie, Violence Unveiled, p. 88).
Westminster Twenty: Of Christian Liberty, and Liberty of Conscience
1. The liberty which Christ hath purchased for believers under the Gospel consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the curse of the moral law (Tit. 2:14; 1 Thess. 1:10; Gal. 3:13); and, in their being delivered from this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion of …