“The common assumption is that God drops a rope from heaven, and then the theological debates begin. Pelagians want to shinny up the rope, Arminians want to hang on while God pulls, Calvinists say that God ties the rope to us with one of His knots, and some of our more severe brethren think He …
So Don’t Do That
“And hubristic sectarian pastors have pronounced on the obvious lack of regeneration displayed by someone who failed to dot all five i’s in ‘denominational distinctives.’ That can’t be good” (Against the Church, p. 100).
Too Close for Comfort
“The Bible teaches us that the credibility of the profession of others may be called into question in the heat of lawful, polemical controversy. In the midst of the controversy, the apostle Paul declared that those who wanted to require circumcision of the Gentiles were ‘false brothers’ (Gal. 2:4). He says that they were ‘dogs,’ …
The Deacons of Wrath
So then, there has been a little Internet dust up over the death penalty, involving The Atlantic, Al Mohler, Jonathan Merritt, and Rachel Held Evans. Why should I stay out of it? Not being able to answer that question adequately, here goes. Before getting into the false dilemmas that regularly get posed on this question, …
Nature By Grace
All right. Now it is time to bring a number of threads together. The great American classicist Basil Gildersleeve once said that the American Civil War was fought over a point of grammar. He said that it was over whether we should say “the United States is” or “the United States are.” Other great and …
High Mountain Air
“The real litmus test, if I may be so bold, is to manage to be accused simultaneously of antinomianism and legalism. When you have gotten to the point where any stick is good enough to beat you with, then you really have something. This is like what one Puritan called the bracing experience of ‘living …
Book of the Month/May 2014
These are the best of times and the worst of times, to coin a phrase. For conservatives, I mean. These are the worst of times because a dedicated band of people is doing quite a demolition job on the republic, and it really takes a lot of work to get that much damage done. Impressive, …
Wordsmithy Prompt
Just a reminder that you ought — by this time, at any rate — have already signed up for the 2014 Wordsmithy workshop. In the off chance that you have not, here is a little clickity thing to help you out.
And Little Wool
I really should say something about outrage-fest that has mostly concluded over in the NBA and its environs. Clippers owner Donald Sterling got himself banned from NBA games and practices for life, and was fined 2.5 million dollars, because he managed to insinuate himself onto some audio, the playing of which audio proved to the …
Seven Theses on Submission
Part of the fallout from the Vision Forum mess has been the attempted discrediting of “patriarchy.” Since Doug Phillips definitely taught headship and submission in marriage, and since he sinned in the way he did, it is thought that the whole project should be abandoned in favor of something friendlier to women, like, say, abandoning …