“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 45 The most persistent heresy that the Church has had to deal with, over the course of our centuries, is the heresy of Gnosticism. In countless ways, Christians drift into the dangerous assumption that spiritual means immaterial and that unspiritual …
The Coming Glory
With regard to the slavery fracas, I have said that the only issue is that of biblical absolutism. We must be resolved, as Christians, to have absolutely no problem passages. What this means is that, once the exegesis is done, and we know what the passage actually teaches, we will have no problem with it. …
Timeless Truths?
In his essay on how the Bible can be authoritative, N.T. Wright takes issue with the concept of “timeless truths.” He allows that there is a sense in which the Bible is a repository of timeless truths, but he is generally at war with the concept. “All three methods I have outlined involve a certain …
A Proposal Only
A few weeks ago, I told the story of how I became a paedobaptist. I need to develop one portion of that story just a little further for several reasons. The first reason is that it is just plain interesting. The second reason is that certain details from that story have gotten swept up into …
True Lovingkindness
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Our God and Father, we worship You now, in accordance with Your Word, and in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. We offer our thanks to You, for we are Your people, and You have thrown down Your enemies, to the …
Worship Topples Idols
The fundamental center of all human history is the issue of worship. In the faithful worship of the true God, we contend with the worship of all idols. Idolatrous societies structure everything around their idolatrous assumptions, and their constant ploy is to try to get true worshippers of God to share in those assumptions somehow, …
Becoming Israel
The Lord Jesus arrived in Israel two thousand years ago in order to show Israel a new way of being Israel. Of course this “new” way was the way that God had always intended; the new way was actually the old way. A new commandment I give you, John said, but it is not actually …
Kick It Up A Notch
The psalmist prayed to be delivered from the strife of tongues. Jesus said to leap for joy when we are reviled for His sake. The apostle Paul vigorously defended himself, but only when necessary. That necessity was when he was convinced that the attack on him was in fact a disguised attack on the purity …
Biblical Absolutism
Cal Beisner makes a sharp distinction between biblical slavery as found in the Old Testament and ungodly chattel slavery. In this he is quite right, and this distinction is one that I have made myself a number of times. But he then leaves out another category, which is in fact the only category that is …
Accuracy and Objectivity
The World magazine article was a striking instance of inaccurate reporting. It was inaccurate in two ways, and for two reasons. Mark Twain once said, “Often, the surest way to convey misinformation is to tell the strict truth.” He was exactly right, and this is the fundamental way in which the article conveyed a world …