It would be easy for Christians to assume that there is not much to say with regard to this commandment — God says not to murder people. But as is true with so many other things, we are most prone to error in the things we think we know. The Word of God says that …
The Privilege of Persecution
There are some things which the natural man is simply incapable of doing. If we are thinking carefully, we should recognize that obedience to the words of Christ in this passage heads the list. This inability of the non-believing is important for us as we consider the passage. Christ gives the last Beatitude, and then …
Smaller Words?
“Words like sovereign, almighty, omnipotent are thought to be too restrictive–they are too tiny to express truth about God fully. This is quite right; they are too small, but the solution is certainly not to be found by opting for smaller words” (AIA, p. 37).
Trinitarian Snobs
GRACE & PEACE “At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 26 As we consider the task of living full, Trinitarian lives we have to avoid the temptation of becoming what might be called narrow Trinitarian snobs. By “Trinitarian” here I mean the art and discipline (guided by …
When Problems Glare
He may not be thrilled with this commendation, but in a recent journal article (Mid-America Journal of Theology), Alan Strange has an outstanding review of Gordon Clark’s What Is Saving Faith? He praises where praise is due, and points out glaring problems where said problems glare. And as Strange notes several times in the article, …
Faith, Dead or Alive?
In my recent conversation with Michael Horton, he raised a question that I did not get a chance to answer in the course of our discussion. He had a problem with the fact that I had said somewhere that “works is the animating principle of faith.” By saying this, I do not mean that faith …
Choices
“The only possible conclusion is that the Church has forgotten the holiness of her God. He alone is true, and He alone is good. If we understood this, we would understand how beautiful His holiness is, and we could not be kept from writing concertos and building cathedrals. As it is, we are content with …
Audio Reading of Post
Racist Progressives
Dear visionaries, A brief interaction with Robert, who thinks that I am forcing my moral standards, feeling threatened as I am, because a gay couple has entered my establishment holding hands. So, I am forcing my moral standards on someone who comes on to my property in order to challenge my standards? Or do you …
Simultaneous Shame and Confidence/Psalm 25
The twenty-fifth psalm is a sustained plea for help, although it contains some things that we might have trouble reconciling. This again is one of the reasons why we need to be trained to pray as the psalmist prays. This is the second penitential psalm, and it is the first that is composed as an …
Separating Friends
We learn from James that the tongue is a destructive force in the lives of men. We learn from Proverbs all the different ways in which this destruction comes. For one example, “A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends” (Prov. 16:28). Whenever a crop of strife arises, we know from the …