“Whenever the Christian faith is accepted and established in a nation, and a large number of people are members of various churches, one of the first and deadliest temptations is the lust for respectability — a lust which is defined and established by complacent worldly values, and not by the Scriptures. Soon the pulpits of …
God Rest Ye Merry
Advent marks the beginning of the ecclesiastical year. As we approach yet another celebration of Christmas as a people, we need to recall how to celebrate such days as the people of God. If we are not careful, we will stumble—perhaps to the right and perhaps to the left. For the weapons of our warfare …
The Republic of Doug
In his next chapter of A Generous Orthodoxy, Brian McLaren addresses the question of why he is a “post/protestant.” He hangs the discussion on two ways the word protestant can be taken. The first is the common one. “The dominant meaning of protestant relates to the verb it contains: protest” (p. 123). This is great …
The Song of Mary
The Bible teaches us a great deal about our Lord’s mother, and about her great and astonishing faith. But unfortunately, Roman Catholic errors, idolatries and excesses have all created or contributed to a great over-reaction from Protestants, and hence a great loss for us. Often we do not even want to talk about Mary at …
Where The Action Is
“It is a truism of the business world that Coke and Pepsi don’t make soda pop, they make advertising. Nike may pay Indonesian laborers absurdly low wages, but their most important concern is convincing us that it is meaningful, daring, and fulfilling to spend over one hundred dollars for a pair of sneakers. If you …
Pointy Pagan Hats
“I am reminded of the time I was reading Augustine’s wonderful work The City of God, and I came to the part where he was making fun of the pagan priests for wearing their silly mitres for hats. I thought to myself, huh, I thought, and flipped the book over for another look at the …
The Star of Bethlehem
One of the most obvious symbols of the Christmas season is the star of Bethlehem. Countless Christmas cards have portrayed it, our carols sing about it, and we tell one another the story associated with it every year. In this, we frequently just skim over the surface of what we actually think we are saying. …
The Christmas Blessing of Simeon
The Lord has brought us safely through another year, and we are grateful for the time He gives us to meditate on the meaning of His Word, born into our midst for the salvation of lost and sinful men. This is the true meaning of Christmas, in contrast with the false antithesis so often propounded, …
Alternating Alternative
“Thus with the ‘alternative’ face lift, ‘rebellion’ continues to perform its traditional function of justifying the economy’s ever-accelerating cycles of obsolescence with admirable efficiency . . . Ever since the 1960s hip has been the native tongue of advertising, ‘antiestablishment’ the vocabulary by which we are taught to cast off our old possessions and buy …
Satire As Prophecy
“We are Bible people, and we name our churches Bible churches, and we go to Bible studies, although Bibles are increasingly rare at them, and our holy hardware stores make megabucks selling study Bibles for ‘whatever ails ya.’ But the problem with making up titles of such Bible versions to illustrate a point here is …