“On the other side of things, we have the ‘exalted tradition’ contingent. The traditions of men are frankly acclaimed as the requirements of God. This may be held with doctrinal consistency, as the Roman Catholics do, or furtively, as inconsistent ‘strict subscriptionists’ within the Reformed tradition do. This is the ‘tradition as monarch’ school. The …
Lost Proportion
“Some think there must be a necessary connection between tolerating some things conceived to be errors and tolerating all things” (Burroughs, Irenicum, p. 26).
Like Dirt When It’s Dry
“Scandal will rub out like dirt when it’s dry. Let it alone, and never try to answer it. The more you meddle with it, the more will the wet mud be spread. Wait till you can use the clothes-brush with real effect” (Charles Spurgeon, Proverbs and Sayings, Vol. II, p. 140).
One of the Truly Great Principles of Scripture
We come now to a law which strikes modern ears as somewhat odd. The law, considered in itself, is clearly a kind one, but the occasion that gave rise to the law is not one we encounter every day. Or do we? At this point, we should discover that the more things change, the more …
The Table and Secret Sin
As we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we must remember that God is dealing with us here. What we do, what we eat, what we drink, alters us. It does not do this through magical means, but it is done through the power of the Holy Spirit, as He deals us covenantally. One of the …
The Church Is Like . . .
You have perhaps heard the old saying that the church is not a rest home for saints, but rather a hospital for sinners. Like everything else that is true, we must guard against holding this truism falsely. We are the covenant people of God, and we should want to live faithfully before Him over the …
Not Having the Right Categories
“Westerners have become accustomed to think of good and bad government in terms of tyranny versus liberty. In Middle-Eastern usage, liberty or freedom was a legal not a political term. It meant one who was not a slave, and unlike the West, Muslims did not use slavery and freedom as political metaphors” (Bernard Lewis, What …
Mud and Stone of This Earth
“But we have also seen that he [Taylor] was a Puritan after all, that like his fellow Puritans he practiced his religion through metaphoric poetry linking earth and heaven. Like them he saw God’s glory immanent in the world and the flesh, and he never presumed to ignore either or to abjure metaphor. Like them …
False Impressions
[Fairy tales are] “accused of giving children a false impression of the world they live in. But I think no literature that children could read gives them less of a false impression. I think what profess to be realistic stories for children are far more likely to deceive them. I never expected the real world …
Tradition is Contrary to Our Historic Practice
“The unthinking fundamentalist wants to reduce the whole problem to a very simple equation — ‘just stick to the Bible.’ His belief is that fooling around with traditions in the first place is what cause the problem. We may call this the ‘tradition as demon’ position. ‘We don’t believe in tradition. We have never believed …