“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16 11) Growing Dominion, Part 41 No one needs to teach us the arts of selfishness, and the related arts of rationalization. No one has to have special classes for the toddlers in the nursery in order to teach them how to grab for toys, …
Faith As A Badge
N.T. Wright has some trouble seeing that old scoundrel Pelagius in places where I think we should be able to see him quite plainly. For example, Wright says, “Once we release Paul’s justification-language from the burden of having to describe ‘how someone becomes a Christian’, however, this is simply no longer a problem. There is …
Judge Not
Who do not live in a discriminating age. In fact, we have so little ability left in discrimination that we even think that it is an evil thing to do. But this is a very real problem — and some have sought support from this passage in defense of their error. “Judge not, that you …
Marriage From the Ground Up
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! God of glory, we come before You now in the majesty of Jesus Christ, and are glad to present ourselves to You in His name. You have spoken the universe into existence. You fashioned the earth and the sun and the moon. …
John Paul II
Yesterday marked the passing of Pope John Paul II. As we gather this morning for worship, we do so as convinced, practicing and confessional Protestants, who do not believe that the Reformation was a tragic mistake. We are mindful of the chasm that still separates us from our neighbors in the Roman Catholic communion. Nevertheless, …
Repetitive Food
We come to this Table every week. For some Christians, this repetition means that we will necessarily drift into religious complacency or sloth. This does happen, and so the Word must always accompany the sacrament, to keep us mindful of our responsibilities here. But one of those responsibilities is to be repetitive. The liturgy of …
Becoming Paedo
After I became a Calvinist (around 1988), a series of events conspired to bring me to paedobaptist convictions as well. It happened on this wise. I had come to an understanding of the doctrines of grace while preaching through the book of Romans; when I started the series through that book I did not hold …
A Category Mistake
While chasing a category mistake, N.T. Wright falls into one of his own. In the course of his discussion on law courts and covenants, he says this: “The result of all this should be obvious, but is enormously important for understanding Paul. If we use the language of the law court, it makes no sense …
Orc-talk Instead
“Hatred of tyranny in the petty prohibitionisms came the same way. Sam Gamgee comes back to the Shire very different from the thick-fingered peasant that he was when he left. He came back to all kinds of progress, including industry, zoning changes, and a higher level of health consciousness. ‘All right, all right,’ said Sam. …
Morning Star Ventures
A friend of mine has a venture out of Alaska (through the magic of the web) that is worth checking out. You can find it here.