“Let us never preach the doctrine of total depravity without also declaring there has been a great earthquake, and that an angel of the Lord has rolled away the stone in front of that imposing doctrine” (Against the Church, p. 110).
The Suitor and His Porn
In these times of ubiquitous porn, one of the unfortunate results is that young women and their parents have to sort out what it all means. In raising this question, I do not mean to imply that young women can’t have a porn problem — some do, but it is not as common, and usually …
A Point of Personal Privilege
Now that a select committee has been appointed to look into Benghazi — and about time — I thought I would raise a point of personal privilege. This is something I want conservatives to quit saying, and I will explain why in a moment. I want everybody to stop saying “four Americans died.” Because of …
Resurrection Corner Stone
“Because Jesus was born again from the dead, everything else can be born again from the dead” (Against the Church, p. 104).
Soteriological Rope
“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 …