In Psalm 28, David asks the Lord to separate His people out from the wicked. He asks the Lord to deliver them from the judgment that is coming upon them. When he concludes this psalm, the way he puts it is striking. “Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them …
Whacking the Nations With Nerf Rods
Boyd’s third chapter is on “Keeping the Kingdom Holy.” The wrong note is struck right at the beginning with a quotation from Bonhoeffer, who says “Jesus concerns Himself hardly at all with the solution to worldly problems . . .” (p. 51). Hardly at all? How could a mission to save the world not involve …
Still Shunning the Centurions
In his second chapter, Boyd discusses the Kingdom of the Cross, setting it in stark contrast to the Kingdom of the Sword, which he addressed in the first chapter. If I were to critique his argument in a phrase, it would be with the phrase false alternatives. Quoting Rosser and Yoder, Boyd says that the …
Leaving Out Normandy
Boyd’s first chapter, “The Kingdom of the Sword,” actually had quite a few good observations in it. He was very good in describing the way vengeance escalates, and how a particular civil order can confuse itself with the kingdom of God, and how Jesus told His followers that they were not supposed to function the …
Decorating Camels
I have begun to work my way through Gregory Boyd’s book, The Myth of a Christian Nation. This is not something I would ordinarily do unless I had some higher, selfless, and altruistic reason for it, that reason being an opportunity to fisk it here. So, here we go. The Introduction tells how the book …
So Don’t Be a Food Fusser
“The feet-on-the-stove stance of this book is a deliberate attempt to cure myself, and anyone else who will listen, of the nasty habit of worrying the world to pieces like a terrier with a rag . . . If some true believer in the gospel of haste comes along and asks us why we are …
Although That Understanding Is Coming Back
“Ritual sex and human sacrifice are stolen moments of power over, and temporary relief from submission to. They are, we know by hindsight, a mimicry of divinity, but pagan man did not know that. He experienced it as power sharing, negotiating with the gods. To placate a god by burning his children on its altars …
Amos for Americans (Part One)/Amos XI
INTRODUCTION: We have spent a good bit of time considering the applications of the prophet’s words to his original audience, to the Israelites in the northern kingdom of Israel. Lord willing, we will spend two weeks considering how those words may legitimately be applied to us as Americans. This is not a topical sermon so …
The Walnut of Doom
I just recently realized that we still have some copies Right Behind around here, and what’s with that? Unfortunately we don’t have any more copies of Supergeddon (“A Really Big Geddon”), but we do have some copies of, as I mentioned, Right Behind. What is that? you wonder. Is it connected at all to the …
Fully Qualified
I was watching Barack Obama talking about something or other on the news tonight, and two things struck me about it. First, given the history that America has with race issues, the fact that Barack could be occupying the position he occupies right now is really remarkable. And the second thought is the reason for …