“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 71 “He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it” (Prov. 11:26). This passage addresses the activity of a merchant directly. Assumed in the background is some sort …
The Central Culprit Here
When the enemy is at the gates besieging your city, swinging the battering ram, there are many things to dislike about what they are doing. But we would not usually think to describe the problem of the repeated thuds as “boring” and “repetitive.” It is the same way with this postmodern foolishness, but in some …
Postmod or Postmill?
In this chapter of the McLaren saga, I intend to simply address one thing, and so it may not take as long as the reviews of the other chapters. Or maybe it will. If somebody puts the nickel in, maybe I will just go off. This chapter is on why McLaren is “missional.” And of …
What Television Sees
“They were both aspects of the advertised life, an emerging mode of being in which advertising not only occupies every last negotiable public terrain, but in which it penetrates the cognitive process, invading consciousness to such a point that one expects and looks for advertising, learns to lead life as an ad, to think like …
Merry Christmas As Insurrection
On a number of different occasions, we have considered the importance of having our times and seasons defined in relation to Jesus Christ. The only alternative to this is to have them defined in reference to someone or something else, and this is obviously an unacceptable alternative to all faithful Christians. Jesus Christ really has …
Making Your Back Teeth Cold
In his fourth chapter, McLaren asks what salvation means exactly. He then goes on to explain that salvation means God coming in judgment to deliver us from the evil oppression of others, God confronting us with our own sinfulness and forgiving us, and God teaching us. And McLaren affirms that God does all of this …
McLaren the Ungenerous
In this next chapter of McLaren’s he makes a number of good points which, taken in isolation, would simply be good. But in the context he places them in, the direction is quite dangerous. It is kind of like admiring the discipline and marksmanship of a pirate crew. “Yes, quite. That was well done. But …
If You Are Breathing
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! All you people, praise the Lord! Praise God in His holy sanctuary, Praise Him in the high firmament, The firmament of His great authority. Praise Him for His mighty acts in history, Praise Him in accord with His excellent greatness. Do this …
Marley’s Ghost Notwithstanding
This is the third Lord’s Day of Advent, the year of our Lord, 2005. We are not here today, marking the approach of Christmas, because the early Christians compromised with paganism. It is not the case that our fathers tried to sanitize some pagan celebration of the winter solstice. As it turns out, the Romans …
Relief and Anguish
We know that this is a covenantal Table. The cup is explicitly called the cup of the new covenant. But covenants have sanctions; when the covenants of God are abused by faithless men, He does not just sit idly by. At Corinth, Paul explains that some there were sick and some had even died because …