“The Enlightenment tradition insists on the primacy of ‘timeless truths’ and says that as long as a student gets the answer right, nailing down that timeless truth, it does not matter if the answer came out of a disheveled, greasy head. It does not matter if the student mumbling the timeless truth is slouching around …
And One Visitor Said, “I Can See the Broken Eggs. Where’s the Omelet?”
“Caiaphas was invoking a mechanism for preserving culture that is as old as culture itself. Whether it is the Assyro-Babylonian myth declaring that Marduk created the world by killing the monster Tiamat; or the Teutonic myth telling how Odin formed the world by raising the corpse of Ymir from the sea of Ymir’s own blood; …
Before I Leave
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! I said to myself, take note of your ways, Don’t sin with your mouth. Bit and bridle go on the tongue, Whenever the wicked are standing here. So I said nothing, Dumbstruck in silence. I held my peace til grief flared up. …
Marriage Slipping Away
Our nation recently passed two significant milestones. This last week, our population passed the 300 million mark. And also, just recently, the make-up of that population has been significantly changing. Five years ago, 52 percent of all households in America were married households. That number has now dropped below 50 percent. This means that those …
Nothing Buttery and the Table
The Bible I preach from is a material book. That is all it is. There is nothing else there. The Bible is nothing but paper and ink. And of course to speak this way is to fall into the fallacy that one writer called nothing buttery. Of course, paper and ink is all it is …
Just Call Me Trevor
In the history of the Church, Christians have certainly divided over inconsequential matters before. Should you make the sign of the cross with two fingers or three? They have also divided over momentous issues, where the gospel itself was at stake. The magisterial Reformation was an example of this. Sometimes issues arise where it is …
He Summons Us By Name
God is the Lord and He intends something in this Table. We are His covenant people, called by His name, and it is our task to intend the same thing. Perhaps we do not know what that is, and are secretly glad for the ignorance. Or perhaps we do know, and have been shrinking from …
Little Exiles
God created us in order that we would get along with one another. When sin entered the world, our fellowship with God was disrupted, of course, but so was our fellowship with one another. Adam and Eve hid from God after their sin, but they were also estranged from one another, which can be seen …
And Where Would We Be Without Music Videos?
“The ‘Fab Four’ first captured the serious attention of critics and intellectuals with their cinematic debut in A Hard Day’s Night (1964), considered a precursor of today’s music videos” (William Romanowski, Pop Culture Wars, p. 218).
What Do You Mean, “Others”?
“What might be called the ‘casual imperative’ has established itself in the American mind as the ultimate desideratum. Whatever else you do in the morning when you dress, make sure you make yourself comfortable. Of course, we should dress for comfort, but the biblical view is that we should also dress for the comfort of …