Here is an interesting and valuable article on American Empire, N.T. Wright, the emergent church, and Pauline studies (HT: Justin Taylor). And here are just a couple of random (and brief) observations on the same general subject. I am not going to argue for these; I am just going to say them. 1. It is …
Show Us the Covenant
Our Father and God, You are the God who has promised to show us the covenant. We thank You that we are in the covenant, but we seek more than this—we ask that You would show us the covenant, in accordance with all Your promises. We sit down at this meal, ready to thank You …
All Reformers Are In Over Their Heads
“We are trying to rebuild the ruins of Jerusalem with opponents taunting us about our (admitted!) inabilities in wall-building. They say that if a fox jumps on our wall, that wall will collapse; we wonder sometimes if it wouild take an animal that big” (The Case for Classical Christian Education, p. 235).
True Character Is Measured By An Ability to Oppose a Lynch Mob
“The master thinkers of the Enlightenment inherited a Europe that had been buoyed up by the moral ethos of Christianity for so long that they thought they could scuttle the ark and wash ashore on the next tide. They were sure that reasonable people, with a wink from Voltaire and Rousseau, would walk away from …
Which Should Be Obvious
“When Christ is the Molder of character we have Christian character; precisely, when Christ is the molder of culture we have Christian culture” (Richard Taylor, A Return to Christian Culture, p. 16).
Obedience or Death
Recall that chapter eight of Deuteronomy is structured chiastically. We will now consider the second half of this chiasm. “Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day” (Deuteronomy 8:11-20). Remember the central point of this chapter is …
Westminster XXIV: Of Marriage and Divorce
1. Marriage is to be between one man and one woman: neither is it lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband, at the same time (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:5–6; Prov. 2:17). One man, one woman, one time. Polygamy is excluded because it …
Westminster XXIII: Of the Civil Magistrate
1. God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil magistrates, to be, under Him, over the people, for His own glory, and the public good: and, to this end, hath armed them with the power of the sword, for the defense and encouragement of them that are good, and for …
Cooking and Eating
The Word and sacrament do not compete with one another, any more than preparation and fulfillment compete. Cooking and eating are not competitors, and so we do not set up a false antithesis between the two. It is common in the churches of the Reformation to have the pulpit occupy a central place, as ours …
Deep Comfort
When we gather together like this, under such circumstances, it is easy to fall into one of two errors, both of them serious sins. The first is the sin of complacency. We have heard about grace so much, and paid so little attention to what was actually being said about it, that we take the …