This morning I received a really fine set of questions about my posts on Brian McLaren and the emergent church from a graduate of NSA, one who really grasps what we are seeking to do here, and who wondered at the similarity between McLaren’s critique of modern evangelicalism and our own critique of it. The …
Entrepreneurs and Counsel
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 66 “Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety” (Prov. 11:14). Entrepreneurs have a delicate task before them, and often entrepreneurs are not really suited to perform that delicate task. The strength …
True Certainty
Absolutism is a two-edged sword, and yet we would prefer to have it be a more comfortable one-edged sword. Epistemic certainty is an Enlightenment idol — men who want to know absolutely have fallen to the ancient temptation offered in Eden, which is, ye shall be as God. Only God knows absolutely. But the fact …
Why Prophets Die
“They had two basic problems here. First, they had no sense of proportion. They would pay Judas money to betray the Messiah, but then when Judas returned the money, they had profound scruples about which account they put it in! We just paid this guy to betray Israel’s hope and glory, and he brought the …
The Apostle Paul
The apostle Paul has been slanderously reported as being the second founder of the Christian faith. After two thousand years, he is no doubt accustomed to the slanders by now—he was the kind of man who attracted slanders—but this particular slander has been more effective than some of the others because of the grain of …
Not On the Ballot
Here in Moscow we are having our city council elections tomorrow. And of course, I would urge all Christians who are living within the city limits of Moscow to do their civic duty and get out there and vote. For those who are readers of this blog residing elsewhere, it is quite possible that there …
Old Friends On The Road
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Lord, You have favored this land, You have brought back the captivity of Jacob, Restoring the exiles. You forgave the iniquity of Your people, And You have covered up all their sin. Think for a moment. You took away all Your wrath, …
Why Didn’t Jesus Stay?
We cannot be reminded too often that the very center of our faith is a grotesque murder. Not only was Jesus murdered, but He was murdered in a miscarriage of justice—the murder was perpetrated by the very authorities assigned by God to prevent that kind of thing. We must not be permitted to gloss over …
Forget It
We noted last week that the cup we drink is the cup of the new covenant. One of the fundamental terms of the new covenant is the glorious promise that God will remember our sins no more. This, therefore, is the cup of God’s forgetfulness. What of the bread? We are told that the bread …
Speeding Up in the Wrong Direction
“And the next taunt (for that is what these are) goes right to the heart of modern evangelicalism, in which evangelistic zeal excuses just about anything. But, the Lord points out, you can only export what you are manufacturing. If you have a stupid religion, then evangelistic zeal just gets you more of it. If …