“So if one man wants to drive to the East Coast in a Ford, he has more in common with a man who wants to do the same thing in a Chevy than he does with another man driving to the West Coast in a Ford. Couple this with the fact that it is possible …
That Unthinkable 2020 Election
So let us review where we are. For my entire adult life (and I understand the pattern started earlier than that), the received wisdom has been for Republican candidates to run to the right and govern to the middle. Virtually everyone did this, whether because that was where their heart actually was, or because they …
Preaching, Not Rearranging
“Ezekiel was told to preach to the bones, not to line up all the femurs in a tidy confessional row. As Lloyd-Jones said about some ecumenical endeavor or other, ‘Putting all the ecclesiastical corpses into one graveyard will not bring about a resurrection” (Empires of Dirt, p. 199).
Usually Stone Cold
“What happens when the fire goes out a generation or two later, and the altar is still there? The natural response is to try to fix things by decorating the altar, bringing in embellishments and bronze gewgaws galore. But without the fire, a decorated altar is still a cold one” (Empires of Dirt, p. 198).
Check the Back Seat
Another Swing of the Battering Ram
“What are we doing? We are besieging strongholds, and the citadels of unbelief will fall. Every sermon is another swing of the battering ram, every baptism is an engine deployed to overthrow the devil, and every administration of the Supper is an inexorable offer of wine for the forgiveness of the world and bread for …
Running to Win
“All the nations of the earth will stream to Christ. It is unbelief to place the fulfillment outside the course of history, to hold that the promises to the nations will only come to fruition when the nations are no more . . . What I am trying to do is persuade Christians that we …
Woke with the Wim-Wams
Apparently being woke is a thing now. I heard yesterday that there were even some woke Calvinists out there, and the seventh angel sounded his trumpet. After that some plaster fell off the ceiling. Let us define our terms. Being woke means that you have grokked to your complicity. Let me start over. Being woke …
An American Westminsterian Christendom
“As noted, the American form of the Westminster Confession redrew the boundary, not requiring establishment, but requiring that the state recognize and protect ‘the church of our common Lord.’ The fact that the American revisers urged us to see that Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Episcopalians all served a common Lord, and were entitled to civil …
Abettors with Letters
School Shootings: I watched the CNN Town Hall regarding the recent school shooting in Florida and I came away from that feeling even more troubled and burdened. We blame things like mental illness, lack of adequate gun control, failure to follow up on tips, etc. but in this “debate” and seemingly every other one no …