Introduction When a man leaves his father and mother, and takes a wife, one of the purposes God had for this was the creation and nurture of godly seed. As we mentioned when we considered this, it is one purpose of the marriage union, but it is not the only one. We come now to …
Discerning the Body
N.T. Wright wants to say that justification is not so much a matter of “getting in” as it is a question of understanding who “is in.” The problem I have with this (and a great deal of the NPP discussion) is that phrase “not so much.” It creates an adversarial either/or set up where none …
Express Warrant for Paedobaptism
With regard to the baptism of infants, I no longer accept the requirement for “express warrant” that I used to hold to when I was baptistic in my convictions. The “express warrant” hermeneutic winds up prohibiting way too much — worship on the Lord’s Day, women taking communion, and so on. At the same time, …
Security Guards and Bouncers
I appreciate Frank Turk’s comments and input from time to time, and would commend his discussion of my recent posts on the minimum of orthodoxy required to get one through the pearly gates. I commend them, not because I agree, but because it is a pleasure to interact with someone who at least gets what …
Canadians and Kurds
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! O praise the Lord, all you nations, You Gentiles and tribes to the end of the earth. Praise Him, all you people, Canadians and Kurds, Americans and Armenians, Brazilians and Englishmen, Chinese and Russians, Poles and Japanese, Praise Him all you people. …
Let It Go
Understanding Scripture is not just a question of understanding a particular passage, but also of understanding its place in all Scripture, and the balance we are called to have in the face of what might appear to be conflicting instructions. In Matthew 18, Jesus teaches us how to confront sin in our midst (and the …
Eating the World
When we consider the image of the loaf before us, we need to remember the imagery that is brought to bear by all of Scripture, and not just the passages that deal with the Lord’s Supper directly. For example, in Corinthians, the apostle Paul teaches us that we are the one loaf of bread, and …
Arrogance Out of Moscow
As I mentioned in a previous post, we are currently in Portland for the ninth meeting of presbytery of the CREC. God has blessed us greatly, and one of the items of business was the division of our presbytery into two, Anselm Presbytery in the west and Augustine Presbytery in the east. We also had …
Hypocrisy on Stilts
The problem of Pharisaism is not solved by dropping the phylactery that is “wider than yours” and picking up the Bible that is “more underlined than yours.” You cannot solve spiritual problems of the heart simply by rearranging the furniture. We are born casting sidelong glances, and the solution to this is repentance, not really …
Hollow As A Jug
I am over in Portland for the presbytery meeting of the CREC, at which we have been doing lots of cool presbyterial stuff. Anyhow, I posted what I did this morning on affected authenticity, and went off to presbytery. When I got back this evening there was a small mountain of comments, etc., which I …