1. What is eschatology? Eschatology is the study of the last days; a person’s eschatology is his view of the last days. The word is less frequently applied to the doctrine of heaven and hell. 2. The last days of what? The answer to that question divides Christians into various schools of thought. 3. What …
What “Is” Truth?
“So let’s start our book review ruminations by pointing out that when we start putting “truth” in quotation marks, we must start with the truth that “truth” must be in quotation marks. And where does that leave us? Not only do we have ever-increasing punctuation problems and hard, pointed questions from our tech proofers, we …
Postmodernism Is, As Derrida Might Say, Le Dead
I am continuing to slog my way through McLaren and Raschke, left hand raised high so I won’t get any on my watch. And I have come to the settled conclusion that postmodernism is dead. Why do I think this? What is the evidence? The proof is conclusive — we can tell that postmodernism is …
Just Asking For It
“They [IVP] published Truth is Stranger Than It Used To Be, The Openness of God, and Christian Apologetics in a Postmodern World, all books which invite warm and enthusiastic invective in the full-throated Johannine tradition. All three books exhibit exegetical skylarking in excelsis. So why not have at it? And let me just say for …
Deconstructing the Constitution
Dear visionaries, Here is the problem. The oath taken by those who serve in the military involves defending the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, whether foreign or domestic. We are certainly going to war in Iraq, and we are doing so in order to accomplish “regime change.” This is a traditional war, …
Foundations of Marriage XII
Introduction: So now we come to the particular duties of wives. We have to remember the same distinctions we covered when talking about the duties of husbands. That is, we have to remember the difference between being and doing. Wives must be careful not to rush off to work through a list of do’s and …
Licorice Altoids
A reader from a far place pointed out my very own howler. I take the liberty of quoting him at length. Mr. Wilson, While I am no fan of Mr. Gier, his scholarship, or his writings I feel obliged to defend him on one point. In a recent entry in your blog, you compared his …
Nations Raised
“As the gospel makes its way through a treacherous world, we have seen the righteous fall many times, and before the Lord comes again, we will see them fall again. But whenever the righteous fall, those who lament must be sons of Abraham. They must serve the God who calls those things that do not …
Root and Fruit
“Our problems are spiritual, and the solutions are the Word and sacraments. The charge was not “go ye, and elect right-of-center congresspersons.” Now certainly the gospel has an effect on all of culture, as it should. But results are not causes; apples are not roots” (Angels in the Architecture, p. 203).
Howlers
In a revision of an earlier indiscretion in print, Nick Gier continues to dub us the “Moscow Taliban.” This device of calling conservative Presbyterians Talibanesque was (in Gier World) quite a witticism, and one which Gier felt obliged to give credit for, and so he acknowledged Mark Potok, from the world’s richest civil rights organization. …