“I am a product of this evangelical culture. I am conversant in it and, in some ways, at home in it. But after Jimmy Carter made it okay for everybody to be ‘born again,’ North American evangelicalism exploded and became a huge mountain range of cotton candy, and of course, that kind of thing makes …
The Keystone Kops Delta Force
This past week has been a slammed one for me, and so I had gotten behind on my current events. I was vaguely aware of the fact that trouble had erupted in Ferguson, Missouri, but that was about the extent of it. Having just now gotten somewhat abreast of affairs, I wanted to make just …
The R2K Crucifix Problem
Carl Trueman recently wrote A Church for Exiles for First Things, which you may read here. If you would like, a good response from Joel McDurmon can be found here. But my response to Carl will be a tad shorter than Joel’s — just enough to register a few basic concerns. First, it is undeniable …
55 If You Are Lucky
“The long and winding road between now and the Last Day is thousands of miles long, but it is a road down which no living man will be able to kick any cans farther than fifty yards” (Against the Church, p. 164).
The Willies and the Fantods
One of the things I do from time to time is draw lessons for the United States from the history of Israel in the Old Testament. I know that this must exasperate some good folks, making them dance beside their computers in frustration, exclaiming to their ceiling fan that I clearly don’t know that America …
Converging on the Intersection
“Suppose the Great Eschaton is ten thousand years off. It remains a stubborn but persistent fact that my launch into that Eschaton is no more than fifty years off . . . The eschatological scythe harvests every individual long before it harvests the world” (Against the Church, p. 163).
The Word Count of Righteousness
I am currently reading a (very good) book on preaching by William Willimon. The book is entitled Proclamation and Theology, and Willimon is a bishop in the United Methodist Church. He plainly got to his position of influence there because of intelligence, learning, grace, and wisdom. But. He is in a liberal denomination, surrounded of …
Say It With Ink
I have been busy of late, and so haven’t gotten to a plug of what my friend Steve Jeffery recently said about tattoos. But I am now in a position to remedy my shortcomings, and so here is the link. While I am at it, I shall also include a New Yorker cartoon for your …
Like a Fist
As Iraq continues to spiral toward chaos, and is doing so in the Facebook era, the one thing we should want to avoid is directionless or aimless outrage. Anger under such circumstances is certainly appropriate and necessary, but like a fist, it needs somewhere to land. I am writing primarily about the treatment of Christians …
Taking All the Texts Together
“Covenant faithlessness in no way removes or erases covenant obligations or connections. There are multiple texts that show that the baptized faithless are connected to Christ in an important and very real sense. This is why it can truly be said that I believe in the objectivity of the covenant. But there is another sense …