In a recent response to Nick Gier, I wrote that all sins are deserving of death. And in the sight of God they are deserving of death, which is why all of us, being sinners, eventually die. But not all crimes should be treated equally by the civil magistrate. Murder and stealing someone’s lawn flamingo …
Fighting Fundies
My friend John Armstrong has recently written about the need to correct the spirit of fundamentalism. He sees the ditch on the right side of the road (fundamentalism) as presenting a greater danger to evangelicalism than the ditch on the left side (liberalism, postmodernism). Now I happen to think that there are more denominational and …
Marriage As Manifest Glory XXII
Introduction: Husbands are commanded to love, and we are taught that the kind of love they are to render is the kind that bestows loveliness. But wives are not encouraged by this to simply be passive recipients—they are given a command as well. They are to be subject to their husbands (v. 24), and they …
Some Ping Pong
When I was in junior high school, I used to play a lot of ping pong. Occasionally, in the course of these bouts, one of my friends would hit a lofter — a slow ball about three feet above the table, just on my side of the net. I confess that when this happened it …
Sometimes An Excuse Is Just An Excuse
Just finished a book called The Lost Message of Jesus, by Steve Chalke and Alan Mann. The book was a mix — a small handful of good insights, a few places where I was glad they didn’t give that part of the store away, a few sections of thundering naivete, and overall that general bleh …
More of What You Subsidize
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 49 One of the fundamental laws of life, and therefore of business, is that you get more of what you subsidize, and less of what you penalize. In every social context, certain behaviors are rewarded (in some way), and other …
John Knox Meets Siddhartha
In a recent post to Vision 20/20, one of our adversaries (Nick Gier) listed fourteen ways in which we kirkers differ from other conservative evangelical Christians (what he calls CECs). Normally this kind of superficial analysis would not warrant a response on the merits, but because purveyors of this kind of superficial analysis appear to …
Oh Yeah
Some time ago, I unsubscribed from a community listserve discussion called Vision 20/20, though in calling it a “discussion” my charitable faculties are fully extended. A less strenuous description of it would have to include words and phrases like fulmination, jeremiad, screed, baying at the moon, and other forms of progressivist yodeling. Anyhow, I unsubscribed …
A New Creation Spoken
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! God of all creation, we lift up our voices in praise and adoration because You are worthy of all praise and adoration. We know that You have spoken the universe into existence, and when our father Adam rebelled against You, in your …
Little Ones in the Heavenly Courts
This morning the exhortation is for a particular (and very important) part of our congregation—the little ones. I want to begin by asking all the children who are eight-years-old and younger to pay close attention. Step out in the aisle if you need to, or stand on your chair, or have your mom or dad …