God gave us a clear indication of how He wanted the world to run — in abundance — by how He created the world in the first place. God placed our first parents in a garden of delight. Our natural and instinctive response to this is that the Fall changed all that. The ground is …
One or the Other
“All idols belong either to nature or to history. The whole creation falls into those two categories, and there is no other place to which man can turn to find a substitute for God. Any idol that is not an artifact of the natural world is an artifact of the social world” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols …
Why Jeremiah Wright is No Jeremiah
In the dust-up following the release of video clips of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s rants, there has been a lot media attention, and the chattering classes have been . . . well, chattering. As I have reflected on this, it occurred to me that I wanted to comment on several reasons why the general indignation …
A Chilling Effect
Well, today Obama denounced remarks made by his incendiary preacher, and I must say I view this with a measure of alarm. Speaking for incendiary preachers everywhere, what kind of message does this send? What sort of chilling effect might it create? If a member of my congregation ever ran for president . . . …
A Package of Oreos and a Gallon of Milk
This next chapter of Schneider’s book was really good. When I perform weddings I routinely resort to the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings. In the first pages of Genesis, before the Fall, God tells us He created us male and female, and after the Fall, Jesus still appeals to that creation order when …
Why Discussions Get Hot Sometimes
“And that explains the vehemence with which attacks on someone’s assumptions are met; they are often attacks on that person’s unacknowledged religion” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 8).
Gnosticism Run Through the Filters
The first chapter of Schneider’s book describes the rise of democratic capitalism, a phenonemon that caused the Church to confront something brand new in human history — the rise of mass affluence. The Church had always had to deal with wealth, and with the wealth of wealthy members, and then had to deal with her …
Freedom Index
Before continuing my review of Schneider’s book, let me make one additional comment on a point I made in my first post. Use of catch-phrases like “capitalism” are often not very helpful because they are used in confusing ways by numerous disparate groups. At the same time, relative freedom from government officials pilfering your resources …
Bit and Bridle in One Hand, Lump of Sugar in the Other
David Bahnsen was kind enough to send me a copy of The Good of Affluence: Seeking God in a Culture of Wealth, which I began to read last night. I have really enjoyed what I have read thus far, and because it has been a while since I blogged through a book, here we go. …
Fox News Indignation
A lot of attention in this last news cycle is being rendered to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Obama. Apparently there have been cameras running when he unleashed some of his loonier sentiments, to wit, that the United States government has been actively trying to kill black people by inventing the AIDS virus. This …