One of the problems that Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox share is the problem of ignorance of patristic literature. Because of this ignorance, the subject (which is theologically and theoretically important to RCs and EOs) can be used to cudgel (of course in a friendly way) those Protestants for whom the subject does not rise to …
Designer Religion
“The distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture is not primarily moral or even aesthetic, with the one being invariably superior and the other invariably inferior. Richard Rorty’s post-modern philosophical emptiness consists of essentially the same stuff as Madonna’s post-modern philosophical emptiness, and Carl Roger’s psychological narcissism is essentially reduplicated in such magazines as Self and …
Too Much Jelly
“By the thousands, parents are saying, ‘Not with my kid, you don’t,’ and have enrolled their children in private academies, have started to homeschool, take taken advantage of tutorial services, and so forth. However, this growing challenge to secular education has some necessary ramifications in the years to come, for which established evangelical colleges are …
Sky Cow Books
One of the corollaries of the Great Commission is that we are supposed to fill the earth with our books, as the prophet Isaiah intimated. Toward that end, I wanted to draw your attention to the books category on the left margin of this page, where you can find, as Jonathan Edwards would have put …
Christ the Liturgist
We have already discussed the importance of defining the word covenant correctly. We must also define the adjective new in the phrase “new covenant” correctly. A host of errors have sprung from the fact that we have misdefined this simple word new. We are under the “new covenant.” What does that mean exactly? In the …
It Is Not So
After the Lord Jesus established the sacrament of the Supper, He asked His disciples if they had lacked anything when He sent them out. They had been commissioned to go without purse, money, or shoes. When He had done this, He asked, had they come to lack for anything? They had lacked for nothing was …
Worship As Unity
This morning the ministry of the Word will be brought by Pastor Steve Schlissel, of Messiah’s Congregation in Brooklyn, New York. We of course welcome him in the name of Jesus Christ, and declare grace and peace to him, and to his wife Jeannie, and his daughter Rebekah. But he is not here as a …
Nothing But Pushing and Pulling
The Scripture takes a dim view of those who like to circulate juicy information. “A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter” (Prov. 11:13). But we have to do two things here — we have to note the contrast between the talebearer and the man with a faithful …
Lies and Advertising
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 79 “A righteous man hateth lying: but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame” (Prov. 13:5). An important part of business is the practice of advertising and marketing. And for Christians, not only is it important to learn …
Worldliness As Normal
“Worldliness, as we have seen, is that set of practices in a society, its values and ways of looking at life, that make sin look normal and righteousness look strange.” [David Wells, God in the Wasteland (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994), p. 86.]