. . . The idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,All centuries but this and every country but his own. W.S. Gilbert, The Mikado Introduction: As I have watched the Twitters over the months ...
The Duty of Natural Affection
When Evil Improves Something
“Think for a moment. Would it have improved The Lord of the Rings if Tolkien had left out Sauron? Or Saruman? Or the Nazgul? Or Gollum? With the disappearance of each villain or antagonist, is the story getting progressively better? Or worse?”
Chestertonian Calvinism, p. 144
Letters That Are Creeping Up on August
Letter to the Editor: Thank you for your tireless work, not only to start a restored method of education, but also to be such a defender of the faith. My question is about the millennium. ...
Well Look at That
“‘Is Wilson suggesting that because parents are Christians, their baptized children also are Christians?’ No, not at all. Baptism is not necessary. The unbaptized children of Christians are Christians. That’s why we baptize them. But I do wonder why John Robbins thinks we should baptize them. I also wonder why he thinks I am out of conformity with the Westminster position, and he is not, for which see below: ‘Before baptism, the minister is to use some words of instruction, touching the institution, nature, use, and ends of this sacrament, shewing . . . that they [children] are Christians, and federally holy before baptism, and therefore are they baptized’ (Westminster Directory for the Publick Worship of God, emphasis mine).”
And Don’t Act Surprised
“However you examine it, the Protestant Reformation in the English-speaking world was the location, the context, and the setting, of a literary supernova.”
Chestertonian Calvinism, p. 125
Like a Pair of Old Jeans
Introduction: Many times those who are listening to the debates over hyper-preterism concentrate too much on the debaters and what they are saying, when they really ought to take a look at the universe ...
Timothy and Epaphroditus
Philippians (9): Sermon Video Introduction: The Christian faith is by no means a solitary business. The grace of regeneration extends to each individual, but because this grace is brought ...
Enough to Take the Breath Away
“Why . . . just the other day I was listening in my pick-up truck to a tape by a gentleman named Dr. Scott Clark, and he said that we Federal Vision types did not believe that Jesus lived a life of perfect, sinless obedience! I was so flummoxed by this that I pulled my truck over to the side of the road, and had to lay myself down on the highway with my feet on the bumper just to get the blood back into my head. Then when the state patrolman asked me what I thought I was doing, I explained it to him, and he couldn’t believe it either. Actually, I made this last little bit up—just a little fib—but that’s okay. We’re all under grace.”
A Rock Pile of Rules
“What is commonly caricatured as the ‘puritanical’ mentality is actually a mentality that can be found in the church of all ages. You can find this mindset in some of the early fathers, you can find it with Syrian ascetics, you can find it in medieval monasteries, and you can find it (after the first generation) among the Puritans. This religious type of person translates every serious call to holiness into terms it can understand, which is that of being introspective, stuffy, priggish, thin-lipped, censorious, prim, prudish, and more. Not only does it translate every serious call to holiness into this legalistic straitjacket, but it is attracted to every serious call to holiness—with the intention of burying it under a rock pile of rules.”
Chestertonian Calvinism, p. 121
Paul and Tamar
We have all had the experience of buying an appliance that we thought we understood, but then when we couldn’t get to work, we found that we had to finally, somewhat sheepishly, resort to the manual. ...