Introduction: So last week a marketing video for New St. Andrews set off a firestorm and, true to form, I have a few words of response, contextualization, and explanation. Whenever I am tired of looking ...
The Fingerbone of St. Johnny of Cash
Seriously. No Dead Faith
“But what is the qualitative nature of the faith that justifies? It is a gift of God, lest any should boast, and this means that the faith involved is the kind of faith that God only ever gives. When a man is justified by faith alone, it is never by a faith that is alone—it is ‘ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but works by love’ (WCF 11.2). In short, justifying faith, a saving gifts from the living God, is by definition not dead. Dead faith gets nothing in the stocking but coal. But that ought not to worry us, because God never tried to save any man by giving him dead faith” ().
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 882
When Most Needed
Dropped From Heaven
“Nor does it mean the kind of confessionalism intended by some, where they don’t believe you can possibly understand the Heidelberg unless you can read it in the original Arabic.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 880
Should Have Done Better
“It is difficult, in the middle of a saloon brawl, to distinguish the motives of loyalty, manly principle, stubbornness, and cussedness. That is correct. It is difficult, but I still should have done a better job. I am responsible for not having done so, and I thought I needed to say so publicly.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 877
7 Theses on Educating Your Daughters
Statement of the Issue: In the burgeoning reaction to egalitarian feminism, a reactionary subculture has started to take shape in the conservative evangelical world, one that is willing to disparage the idea of providing daughters with a rigorous education, particularly at the college level. Below I post seven theses that indicate why I believe this …
An FV Retraction
“I have come to believe that there were also a number of critics of the federal Vision who were truly insightful and saw the implications and trajectories of certain ideas better than I did at the time. I was wrong to treat all critics as though they were all more or less in the same boat. There were insightful critics and there were bigoted ones, and I should have given the insightful critics more of a fair hearing than I did, and I should have used the behavior of the ignorant critics as less representative than I frequently did. I believe I was wrong in this also.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 876
Letters Fall Like Leaves on a Pond in a Japanese Haiku
Letter to the Editor: "Despite the fact that he was the reason Roe was struck down, for which we thank God . . ."But there's the rub: The hard-core abolitionists DON'T thank God for this. ...
No Mas, Part Two
“So the views I hold to are a different kind of thing from what is represented in the common understanding of the Federal Vision, and the differences involved are connected to everything. They are a different kind of thing, not a lesser amount of the same thing. Thus when I speak of the objectivity of the covenant—which I will continue to do—this is not a lite version of what someone else might mean by it. Now I do not say this because I am angry or upset with anybody. I say it because I think I have learned something.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, pp. 875-876
Why Your Vote Is No Sacrament
Dear Gavin, As we have been corresponding about identity issues, and particularly the ethnic ramifications of them, it seems that another presidential election has crept up behind us unawares. Naturally someone in your position is going to ask what on earth he is supposed to do. Or, given the larger issues we have been discussing …