“If there are only two final destinations, Heaven or Hell, and there are, and if it is possible for baptized Christians, who have been communing since they were ‘so high,’ with all their external papers in order, to go to Hell, and it is, and if God is sovereign over all history (which includes every …
Ukraine Your Neck, But Still Can’t See
“And Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him. Therefore he said, …
Explain What Happened, Not What Didn’t
“Salvation first, then the theology of it. Joy at the foundation, and then the building. Jesus first, then the discussions” (Against the Church, p. 34).
Rand Paul, National Review, and a View From the Cheap Seats
I first subscribed to National Review when I was in high school, which would be somewhere northwards of 42 years ago. IÂ have been a faithful subscriber since that time, and — disagreements and all — it remains my favorite magazine. They are still genuinely conservative, although it should be said at the outset that …
Teacher Pay
My posts on funding Christian education have drawn more attention than I was anticipating. Next week I want to write in greater depth about teacher salaries, but wanted to make just a few quick comments here. First, it should be taken as a given that a Christian school should remember that it was the Lord …
Child Communion
“When we want the children ‘tracking’ as we commune, we are wanting them to participate in the joy — the way my one-year-old granddaughter claps after everybody sings ‘Happy Birthday’ to one of the cousins. What we want is ‘Yay, here we are with Jesus again!’ not an infant’s contemplations of Turretin’s rejection of consubstantiation …
Mammon Academy
So let us continue a bit more on the funding of classical Christian schools. We are moving into the second generation of ACCS schools and, believe it or not, our biggest challenge in that second generation is going to be Mammon. This might be hard to believe because we are living in the seventh year …
All or Nothing
“It will not do to say that the new covenant has full continuity when it comes to the privileges of the covenant, and no continuity when it comes to the responsibilities” (Against the Church, p. 31).
There’s Always Something
“Historic evangelicals, at their best, are unaccredited teachers in the schools of the prophets. At their worst, they are sons of Zedekiah, selling little miniature horns of iron on the teevee for $9.95 plus shipping and handling (1 Kings 22:11). Institutional Christians, let us call them, at their best, are like Jehoida (2 Kings 11:17). …
Queer Theory for the Tea Party
Let us abandon for a moment the idea of culture war, and shift the image over to a game or a sport. Many conservative believers think we are in a straightforward contest of strength, something like sumo wrestling, when we are actually in a chess game with a master who is consistently five moves ahead …