Theology That Bites Back
The main category for book reviews and cultural interaction.
John Buchan was one of those characters, larger than life. He was an author and a statesman, and profoundly Scottish. He was the son of a Scots Presbyterian minister, and is probably best known today for his book The Thirty-Nine Steps, published in 1915 That book was the first of six Richard Hannay novels—spy thrillers. …
Somewhere in C.S. Lewis, he was writing about how colorful the Elizabethans were, and he said that this was a gift that the English had apparently bequeathed to their American cousins. I think there is something to this, and perhaps it will help us to understand shoot cussing, slang, and other related . . . …
Letter to the Editor: A WBS request:Hello Pastor Doug,I realize by the time you read this letter Reformed X will have moved on to something else to grumble about, but I still haven't ...
“We cannot make a distinction between the saints of the Old Testament and the saints of the New in this respect. They may and do differ with regard to gifts and graces, but individual justification is the sine qua non of being a genuine saint of God. In all this we are discussing, and reaffirming, the traditional Protestant doctrine of the righteousness of Christ imputed to those individuals who are elect. This, plus nothing, constitutes the ground of their final acceptance before God.”
Dear Gavin, Thanks for the nudge. We apparently got distracted from our task. Your letter reminded me that we still have a considerable amount of ground to get to. So we already covered how it is okay to be white. Radical, I know. People who are white should be grateful to God for it, but …
“The kind of faith that God gives as a gift is always alive . . . when God has done this wonderful work, the faithful instrument does not shrivel up and die. It continues to love God and obey Him . . . Faith without works is a dead faith, and a dead faith never justified anybody. Saving faith is every accompanied by all other saving graces.”
“Nor does God justify us because of our faith—rather He justifies us because of Christ’s obedience and work, and this is appropriated by us through faith.”
“Modern evangelicals write books on How to be Born Again, which betrays the fact that they are not grasping the Lord’s teaching in the third chapter of John. Does anyone write books on how to be born the first time? Who would buy it?”
Introduction: I would like to take a moment, dear reader, to explain why ranked-choice-voting is a really bad idea. I am doing this because certain malevolent forces have managed to get the option of approving said ranked-choice voting onto the ballot this November in Idaho. I said that this was a really bad idea, but …
