As some may recall, a booklet that I cowrote with Steve Wilkins entitled Southern Slavery As It Was was at the center of quite a hubbub last February. What some may not realize is that Canon Press pulled the title from their inventory around the time of that controversy. This was not because we were …
A Handy Guide for Navigating Theological Controversies
For all those interested second-year seminary students who are watching the varied logomachies being undertaken on their behalf by their elders in the gates of Zion, it seems that someone ought to have prepared a handy guide like this long before now. But they haven’t, and you know how it goes. But you can’t tell …
Aleph, Bet, Gimmel, Darn
For those pastors who will be coming to our ministerial conference this fall (on biblical typology), we are offering two intensive language courses in Hebrew and Greek in coordination with the conference. We are doing this because we are convinced (as were the Reformers) that for ministers competence in the original languages of Scriptures is …
Alternative Knowledge?
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 1611) Growing Dominion, Part 12 We have noted the importance of Christians “getting healing right.” Christ is our Savior and Healer, and He brings His salvation and healing not only to us, but also to the whole world. And one of the central ways this …
A Two Party System
I have to qualify my political observations on a regular basis because it is always and everywhere assumed that to speak the truth about the Democrats makes one a Republican. But I am not a Republican. I belong to that school of thought which maintains that we have a two-party system: the Evil Party and …
An Argument God Loves/Psalm 13
In the language of the old proverb, troubles arrive on horseback but depart on foot. This is a psalm offered up in the midst of troubles at the point of despair, and it gives us a pattern or example to follow in similar circumstances. “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how …
Father Hunger
I have been listening to an outstanding talk on fatherhood by Tim Bayly. His message is defending a particular reading of Ephesians 3:14-15. Paul thanks the Father (Pater) from whom all fatherhood (patria) derives its name. The debate has to do with whether patria should be rendered as “family” or as “fatherhood.” Bayly argues, rightly …
The Running Father
Different names have been suggested for the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Some have suggested the Parable of the Self-Righteous Older Brother, but one of the best suggestions comes from a theologian who calls it the Parable of the Running Father. God delights to forgive, and, in forgiving, He frequently throws aside the kind of …
George Orwell, Call Your Office
One of the problems that Orwell had in his classic 1984 is that of a disjunct between the inhabitants of the world he was describing and the inhabitants of the world in which people were reading his book. In other words, while Big Brother held everyone in thrall with propaganda that was believable to them, …
Where Pleasures Flow Forever
Gracious Lord and God, we praise Your name, and rejoice that You have lifted up the name of Jesus far above every name that can be given. You have seated Him at Your right hand, where pleasures flow forever, and You have given Him universal dominion over every nation. We thank You that You have …