I finished Jason’s book this morning. His last chapter, on assurance of salvation, was very good. His main interest was to critique the popular three-fold method of assurance (i.e. faith, good fruit, witness of the Spirit) — not because they could not be understood biblically, but because if they are treated as independent “lines of …
What’s It There For?
Jason’s next chapter is “The Bragging Calvinist,” and the basic principles he lays down are very good. He sticks close to the text of Scripture, and shows how bragging in your own autonomous glory apart from the Lord is excluded, and how the new covenant opens up new freedoms in which we may voluntarily submit …
All That
I have very little to say about Jason’s next chapter because it was really very good. If I hunted around I know I could find something to argue with, but that would be a waste of time. This was a very good chapter. He begins with a discussion of Luther’s contrast between a theology of …
The Sanctified Profane
Jason’s next chapter, on worldliness, was a collection of very fine furniture, wonderfully arranged in the wrong room. The chapter was an enjoyable read, and Jason says many important things that many evangelical Christians need to learn and heed. God made stuff, and He wants us to enjoy it. We need to learn how to …
On Not Getting Stuck in the Present
Jason’s next chapter, on “The Destiny of the Species” was really quite good. This was the chapter in which he showed how eschatology drives everything else, which it really does. He, echoing Chesterton and Kreeft, shows how it is the future that defines us and gives us our identity. And the chapter was written with …
Looking Forward to the 17th Dimension
Chapter 9 of Dual Citizens is on the unworthiness of this world when compared with the glories to come. And of course this is quite right, but we still have to sort out the implications. There are a few things that Jason asserts in this chapter that rub my fur the wrong way, but he …
This Scandinavian Howler
It is hard to add something serious to a topic as risible as Obama’s peace prize, but here goes a try at it. President Obama is in a bad jam. He is intelligent enough (and a number of his advisors are certainly intelligent enough) to see the political capital that would be accumulated if he …
Insufferable Light Bulbs
Last night the overnight temperature here in Moscow was 12 degrees above zero, 7 degrees below the previous record for this date. This datum by itself is an anomaly, an outlier, a quirk. But taken together with what sane people all over the world are observing, to such an extent and at such levels that …
Chortle. Snort.
Here are the top ten reasons why I am beyond delighted that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize: 10. Because this means that the Vatican must have verified that reports of the president floating around the top of the Washington monument were reports of a genuine miracle, and were not a deceitful trick by the …
Affected By the Time Stamp
My response to Jason’s next chapter will be a little bit different. In this chapter, he presents the “big picture,” which in his understanding is set forth in the book of Revelation 12. “My thesis for this chapter, therefore, is that in Revelation 12:1-6 the church is given a glimpse of Christ’s victory in His …