“But we moderns have little interest in such redemptions or their results because the Church in our era is slack and effeminate. We do not look at an unbounded northern sky and by analogy see the eternity of God; rather, we look mystically inward to the swamps and standing puddles of our own hearts and …
A Father Forever
In the Bible, personal identity is not primarily a question of some substance inside a man. But each man still has a nature, inherited from his father. So ontology is not a philosophical problem in the Bible, but rather a problem of generation. And when this generation is sinful, the only solution to the problem …
Finite Limitations
“No created intellect can conceive of a single word suitable for God’s most infinite and simple essence. Any word we use to describe God will quickly fall to the ground exhausted–like us, our words fall short of the glory of God. But this does not mean that the use of such words is pointless. We …
Sins and Crimes
Dear visionaries, Just got back from Santa Cruz. The folks down there make all our local Moscow progressives look like mossback conservatives. It is a pleasure to be back. That said . . . Susannah detected a whiff of old Lester Maddox in my defense of the property rights of business owners. George did much …
You Shall Not Commit Murder
It would be easy for Christians to assume that there is not much to say with regard to this commandment — God says not to murder people. But as is true with so many other things, we are most prone to error in the things we think we know. The Word of God says that …
The Privilege of Persecution
There are some things which the natural man is simply incapable of doing. If we are thinking carefully, we should recognize that obedience to the words of Christ in this passage heads the list. This inability of the non-believing is important for us as we consider the passage. Christ gives the last Beatitude, and then …
Smaller Words?
“Words like sovereign, almighty, omnipotent are thought to be too restrictive–they are too tiny to express truth about God fully. This is quite right; they are too small, but the solution is certainly not to be found by opting for smaller words” (AIA, p. 37).
Trinitarian Snobs
GRACE & PEACE “At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 26 As we consider the task of living full, Trinitarian lives we have to avoid the temptation of becoming what might be called narrow Trinitarian snobs. By “Trinitarian” here I mean the art and discipline (guided by …
When Problems Glare
He may not be thrilled with this commendation, but in a recent journal article (Mid-America Journal of Theology), Alan Strange has an outstanding review of Gordon Clark’s What Is Saving Faith? He praises where praise is due, and points out glaring problems where said problems glare. And as Strange notes several times in the article, …
Faith, Dead or Alive?
In my recent conversation with Michael Horton, he raised a question that I did not get a chance to answer in the course of our discussion. He had a problem with the fact that I had said somewhere that “works is the animating principle of faith.” By saying this, I do not mean that faith …