“On the Prophet’s own admission, Islam stands or falls with the person of Muhammad, a deeply flawed man by the standards of his own society, as well as those of the Old and New Testaments, both of which he acknowledged as divine revelation; and even by the new law of which he claimed to be …
Not Deeply Rooted in the Blues
“It is still possible to find the tough, affirmative spirit of the blues in contemporary forms. But increasingly, that spirit is rejected in favor of antimusical, antisocial antics that would be laughable if they weren’t so offensive” (Martha Bayles, Hole in our Soul, p. 3).
Slightly to the Left of King Arthur
I have added a new category for the blog because sometime in the near future I intend to work my way through David Gelernter new book, Americanism: The Fourth Great Western Religion. I have some other projects going, so this might not go as fast as some other books have. But it is important to …
Keep Your Lid On
If an autobiographical note can be permitted, I spent a number of years in Christian ministry before I came to the Reformed faith. I recall one time when I was witnessing to members of a cult, one devoted to works righteousness, and my presentation of grace successfully provoked the same objection that Paul had to …
Weird Guy
Christopher Hitchens is interviewed in the latest Atlantic Monthly about all the debates he was in promoting his book on atheism. That would include, of course, the CT debate he had with me. Some fun stuff shakes out in this. “What I haven’t had from anyone, in print or in person, is any argument that …
A First Century Church
It is not uncommon to hear modern Christians say that they attend a New Testament church. Making all due allowances for what they might mean, my first reaction is along the lines of why would you want to do that? Drunkenness at the Lord’s Supper? Controversies about bacon, idolatry, and circumcision? Now if the intention …
Why Everything is So Mud Fence Ugly Now
“A breach has been made with the past, which allows us to envisage a new aspect of architecture corresponding to the technical civilization of the age we live in; the morphology of dead styles has been destroyed; and we are returning to honesty of thought and feeling” (Walter Gropius, The New Architecture and the Bauhaus, …
Widows Indeed (1 Tim. 5:1-16)
INTRODUCTION The Christian faith does not encourage us to have romantic or sentimental views of human nature—as this passage amply demonstrates. But as we learn to live as God would have us live, we find that the results are often quite remarkable. The instructions here are primarily about women—and the expectations are, oddly, both low …
What We Know That Ain’t So
It is the glory of a king, Solomon tells us, to search out a matter. The psalmist tells us that the works of the Lord are great, and that everyone who has pleasure in them searches them out (Ps. 111:2). Consequently, we see that science, rightly understood, is a glorious thing. This has particularly been …
I See. I Think.
“Thus Britain is being forced to act on the basis that if it does not do so it will be attacked—by people who claim that terrorism runs totally counter to the values of their religion, but then demand that the grievances of members of that religion are addressed as the price of averting further attacks” …