When we emphasize that Christ died as a propitiatory sacrifice, a blood sacrifice, we are emphasizing something right at the heart of the gospel. And shrewd evangelists have known for centuries that preaching the cross this way is essential to effective evangelism — a process quite distinct from what passes for evangelism these days, a …
Try a Little More Fabric Softener
When a relationship goes south on you, and the whole thing seems inexplicable, the place to turn for wisdom is James 4. Where do these out-of-the-blue conflicts come from, for pity’s sake? And of course, all the initial trouble-shooting diagnostics you run ought not to be trying to figure out what went wrong with the …
Bertie Comes Through
Things are in a parlous state when Bertie Wooster understands economics better than all the smart johnnies running the Western world . . . Orlo Porter, an old school acquaintance and ardent leftist, speaks to Bertie, and Bertie thinks sense to himself: “‘He has a big house in the country with a stable of racehorses, …
Grabby Grabby
In this our financial crisis, an archbishop has stepped forward to thunder out a message of selective repentance. The meltdown has led him to observe, and it was a pretty fair shot too, that a lot of people out there were worshiping a lot of money. Look where that got us, hey? But then he …
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 …
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 …