Last Sunday night night one of our Greyfriars preached a fine message at Evensong on the subject of comfort. God comforts us in all our afflictions so that we might be able to extend to others the comfort we ourselves have received (2 Cor. 1:3-4). This was solid food for thought, as good messages are, …
Replacing the Hall of Idols
The Church and the Kingdom are not the same thing, and let me explain why this is important as we continue to address the question of violence. As Peter Leithart shows in his book Against Christianity, the Church is presented to the world, not as an alternative club for religious people meeting on Sundays, but …
The Kingdom of God is Like an Inner City Soup Kitchen
A commenter named Tapani raised a question about the Eucharist in a previous thread, and I would like to address it by talking about something else first. Systematic theology, rightly applied, is really nothing more than the art of being able to remember what you have learned from all of Scripture as you encounter any …
The Averted War of Malchus’ Ear
In the early eighteenth century, there was a war between England and Spain called the War of Jenkins’ Ear. In the New Testament, there was almost a conflict called the War of Malchus’ Ear, but it was averted because Jesus put the ear back (Luke 22:51). “Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and …
Our Particular Table
Yesterday I gave a talk to the Logos secondary as part of their Knights Festival, as a lead-in to their banquet. The text I was using was Luke 14, and I noticed something there I had not seen before. Jesus is breaking bread with one of the chief Pharisees (Luke 14:1). That is the context …
Spooky Numbers
A friend sent me this link and I almost posted it, and then a few days later I saw it on Mark Horne’s blog and decided to put it up here. The numbers are creepy any way you think about it, but I do wish there were another set of numbers alongside these. I believe …
Justice Is Not Patty-Cake
In his otherwise admirable book on evil, N.T. Wright makes the drastic mistake of leaving the subject of Hell entirely alone. But no matter how many helpful things you say, if you leave the really huge question out, then all you are really displaying is a real loss of proportion. “Well, other than that, how …
Quinquennium Neronis
The infamous Nero actually had a good run initially. He took power in 54 A.D. and until 59 (the same year he had his mother killed), Rome enjoyed a mini-golden age, the best since the time of Augustus. That period of time was one remarkable enough to be named the quinquennium Neronis. But between 59 …
Gravity and Supply and Demand
The law of supply and demand is not a mere cultural artifact. In short, it is not comparable to the decision-making process that the lords of etiquette went through when deciding where the dessert fork should go relative to your plate. A moment’s reflection should tell you that they could have decided pretty much anything, …
The Tyranny of Relativism
I ran across this great observation in the latest edition of The New Criterion. The issue was a symposium on what Pope Benedict called, shortly before his election as pope, the “dictatorship of relativism.” That pregnant phrase almost says it all. At any rate, William Stace said, and I would echo it with bells on, …