1. Those whom God effectually calls, He also freely justifieth (Rom. 8:30; 3:24); not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the …
What Is A Highbrow?
“Harper’s Magazine examined the three categories at mid-century. ‘What is a highbrow?’ the writer asked, followed by three replies. ‘A highbrow is a man who has found something more interesting than women,’ Edgar Wallace, a writer of crime novels and thrillers once said. Harper’s writer thought that too vague, but that Columbia professor and author …
Confession of Sin and Growth in Holiness
“Confession of sin is a sine qua non of personal holiness, but it is not the same thing as personal holiness. Growth in grace is not the immediate result of a negative process. If a houseplant is knocked over, and the pot is broken, the plant must be repotted if it is to continue to …
Federal Scapegoating
“If the entire community were not already subsumed under a single head, that of the surrogate victim, it would be impossible to attribute to the sacrificial substitution the significance we have claimed for it, impossible to establish a social basis for the institution. The original act of violence is unique and spontaneous. Ritual sacrifices, however, …
A Fourth Decade of Psalms/Psalm 38
Introduction: This is a striking psalm, and is listed among the penitential psalms. It begins with virtually the same words as Psalm 6, the first of the penitential psalms. But the repentance shown by David here is quite distinct from what many Christians call repentance, and this is something we really need to deal with. …
Buckets of Blog Water
Some time ago, I posted a note on my invitation to a debate over Auburn Avenue issues. I did that here. And now, on The Puritan Board, there is an ongoing discussion of that invitation. The consensus appears to be that a debate with me would be a bad idea, with a few folks questioning …
Like Toothpaste
” . . . in the aftermath of a controversy over The Birth of a Nation in 1915, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the cinema a ‘business pure and simple’ and not an art form to be protected by the First Amendment. The movies, then, could be regulated as a consumer product” (William Romanowski, Pop …
The Real Scoreboard for All Programs
“In other words, if the athletic program is not helping the kids understand God, man, sin, and salvation, then the program is failing, regardless of the win/loss record. But the same thing is true of the ‘classroom program'” (The Case for Classical Christian Education, pp. 165-166).
The Guilt Sponge
“The city of Athens prudently kept on hand a number of unfortunate souls, whom it maintained at public expense, for appointed times as well as in certain emergencies . . . The rite is therefore a repetition of the original, spontaneous ‘lynching’ that restored order in the community by reestablishing, around the figure of the …
Give It A Rest
Editor, I have a proposal for your newspaper, and for Mr. Ralph Nielsen. In his most recent screed, Ralph said that he declined a public debate with me because he is not a trained speaker, and he prefers the written word. Good enough. This, therefore, is my proposal. The Argonaut should publish 500 words from …