Bear with me a moment. I would like to sketch the outlines of an argument showing how a denial of Calvinism will lead (over time) to the canons of political correctness. But before doing that, allow me to define both terms. By Calvinism I mean the doctrine of God’s exhaustive sovereignty. By political correctness, I …
Faithfulness Covers
As we labor to learn how to speak as Christians, we have to take care to learn our lessons from Scripture. This is because sin is always defined by God, and not by our own instincts. We must always define sins of the tongue according to the Word. Scripture says that a “talebearer revealeth secrets: …
As Bad As That?
“We were not trying to maintain that slavery in itself was a positive good, like food, air, or sunlight. Our central interest was in defending the integrity and applicability of the Scriptures to our current cultural controversies, and we affirmed that Christians who apologize for what the Bible teaches on slavery will soon be apologizing …
Proverbial Generalizations
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 58 The book of Proverbs is filled with a number of divinely inspired generalizations. This means that it contains true statements that describe how God generally governs the world. For example, laziness is generally rewarded with lean times, and industry …
A Short List
“The study of history is largely a study of sinning, and usually the sinning is on a grand scale involving armies, navies, courtesans, synods, backstabbing, running for Congress, and more” (Black and Tan, p. 10).
Relational Is Not Necessarily Loving
“Men gather together in small groups in order to learn how to relate to one another on a more intimate level. In other words, they gather together to learn to relate to one another as women relate to each other. ‘Real’ masculinity is described as being sensitive, open, responsive, intimate, caring, and the rest of …
Finally, a Retraction
A week ago last Friday, the Idaho Statesman ran an article by Nick Gier, in which he intimated that we were neo-Nazis, and from which, since that time, he has tried to distance himself. Some nameless individual at the Statesman caught the drift of Gier’s argument (!) and made it explicit in the headline. When …
Marriage As Manifest Glory XXIX
INTRODUCTION: We have already considered what headship is not, and earlier in our series on marriage we considered some aspects of headship. But here we need to take careful pains to understand what headship actually is, so that we might live out this understanding obediently. THE TEXT: For the husband is the head of the …
For Love of the Code, Part Deux
One of my on-going volunteer interlocutors has pointed out that the section of the Idaho Code I cited a post or so ago (requiring Bible reading in public schools) is a four-decades old dead duck, legally speaking. She points out that it was passed in 1963 and declared unconstitutional in 1964. She did not add, …
Blowback
In the very nature of the case, over-reaching on the part of the intoleristas is a necessity. Some of them actually believe their own over-heated rhetoric, and others are foolish enough to think that if the cause is desperate, wildly inflated accusations will somehow help them. In the short run, such tactics frequently work. But …