Theology That Bites Back
Dear visionaries, Jon opposes the death penalty for various reasons, but one of them is that the innocent have sometimes been punished. But this is no reason for opposing the death penalty — it is an argument for judicial reform. We don’t want the innocent spending the rest of their lives in the slammer either. …
Pillared majesty shapes the halls of God, Each pillar bears the weight of holiness. The floors of the colonnade are emerald green, With marbled streaks of glory. Shekinah smoke is clean like mountain air, And yet so dense that sinners cannot breathe. The central hall ascends to all the thrones, Where elders and their crowns …
Once there was a man whose marriage was on the rocks. It had been on the rocks for some years, but he had just found out about it. This was quite a shock to his system, because for some time he had used bluster, bravado, and bullying to keep anyone from saying anything that might …
As we approach this Table, we have to be careful. One the one hand, we are encouraged to come gladly, putting away all false scruples and morbid introspection. On the other hand, we know that coming to this Table is inconsistent with stark unrepented sin. How can we teach against one error without encouraging the …
One of the stories circulating out there is that the federal vision folks have changed the definitions of words, words like Christian or justification. This is said because it is simply assumed (not demonstrated) that any expansion of a word’s uses must necessarily include an abandonment of previous uses. I was brought up in an …
One of the common mistakes in creating hypothetical scenarios to test where someone “comes down” in the federal vision controversy is the mistake of saying, “How do you preach to the baptized? Do you preach as though they are unconverted, needing constantly to question? Or that they are converted, in need of encouragement?” The question …
Gracious Father, You are the first Sabbath keeper, and we rejoice that You set the pattern in this for us. We know that many of us in our sinfulness have twisted the day of celebration and rest into some kind of dour observance, or, at the opposite extreme, into just another day off. Father, we …
Dear visionaries, Jennifer asked: “And whose truth are you speaking of? Yours, Ted’s, Charles Manson’s, Martha Stuart’s, Joe Blow’s, Jane Doe’s? Are you the sole arbiter of what’s true?” I don’t object at all to this question — because it is the same question I have been posing since I began posting to this list. …
Dear visionaries, Stan responded, “But consider the case of a murder colony . . . the law in the USA would NOT allow such conduct.” Unless, to take one obvious example, the murder colony is called the bombing of Dresden. Stan also said:” “He would have to fight against and oppose almost all wars the …
INTRODUCTION If God is for us, then who can be against us? This is the fundamental faith of all who have suffered persecution for the cause of Christ. We see it throughout history, and we discover it in both testaments. One man and God outnumber everybody. THE TEXT The LORD is my light and my …
