“Islamic predestination is particularly severe: it simplifies religion and so annihilates some theological difficulties, but at the price of a cruel fatalism” (Serge Trifkovic, The Sword of the Prophet, p. 66).
And Why Not?
“I do not use the word popular as the opposite of high, serious, or good. It cannot be stated too often, or too emphatically, that this usage is both illogical and ahistorical. In every period and place, it is possible to cite works that possess both popularity and artistic merit” (Martha Bayles, Hole in our …
Trinity Fest Nudge
If there are any of you out there who would love to be at Trinity Fest (see large toucan below), but are not going to make it because you are financially strapped, there are some scholarships available that would discount the registration fee. If you are in that category, contact our church office at office@christkirk.com …
Not a Relationship, but a Religion
Revivalism is actually the religion of magical technique. This religion is an ancient one, but the contemporary American form of it is revivalism. The purpose of all such religious technique is to control and manipulate the god who serves those adepts who want to worship themselves under cover of worshiping him. Through certain techniques, what …
The Loss of Poetry
The causes are not easy to identify, but poetry has fallen on hard times. Poetry today huddles in its prescribed little ghettoes – the sentimentalism of greeting cards and cupboard poetry, the small clutch of arcane poetry journals with a circulation of thirteen, self-absorbed adolescents scribbling pages of navel-gazing free verse, nationally-ignored poet laureates, and …
A Pretty Basic Problem
“On the Prophet’s own admission, Islam stands or falls with the person of Muhammad, a deeply flawed man by the standards of his own society, as well as those of the Old and New Testaments, both of which he acknowledged as divine revelation; and even by the new law of which he claimed to be …
Not Deeply Rooted in the Blues
“It is still possible to find the tough, affirmative spirit of the blues in contemporary forms. But increasingly, that spirit is rejected in favor of antimusical, antisocial antics that would be laughable if they weren’t so offensive” (Martha Bayles, Hole in our Soul, p. 3).
Keep Your Lid On
If an autobiographical note can be permitted, I spent a number of years in Christian ministry before I came to the Reformed faith. I recall one time when I was witnessing to members of a cult, one devoted to works righteousness, and my presentation of grace successfully provoked the same objection that Paul had to …
A First Century Church
It is not uncommon to hear modern Christians say that they attend a New Testament church. Making all due allowances for what they might mean, my first reaction is along the lines of why would you want to do that? Drunkenness at the Lord’s Supper? Controversies about bacon, idolatry, and circumcision? Now if the intention …
Why Everything is So Mud Fence Ugly Now
“A breach has been made with the past, which allows us to envisage a new aspect of architecture corresponding to the technical civilization of the age we live in; the morphology of dead styles has been destroyed; and we are returning to honesty of thought and feeling” (Walter Gropius, The New Architecture and the Bauhaus, …