“For some that naïveté is a function of having decided thirty years ago to translate all discussions of theology into the metric system, just to keep life simple. If ten won’t divide into it, then it can’t be part of the dikai-word group. For others the reason for the naïveté is more obvious—graduate school is still a fresh memory. They are just out of the egg with bits of shell on their heads.”
A True Alpha
Like Annie Oakley
“Shooting reformational solas into the air is not the same thing as defending the faith.”
Empathy as the Headwaters of Cruelty
Introduction: Is it really the case that our November car here has no brakes? Is it really the case that this switchback grade we are currently careening down has no guardrails? The answer ...
Works as Grace After Reverse Engineering
“The non-elect reject God’s grace. That is the distinguishing mark of the non-elect; they cannot live by grace through faith. But they are surrounded with the apparatus of grace—Word, sacraments, promises, fellowship, and so on. Grace is everywhere—except in their hearts. So what they do (and they always do it) is construct a covenant of works out of the materials around them. This is the high rebellion of reverse engineering. This is why people can come to the Lord’s Table as though they were doing a good work, or they sign a card at the revival, or the memorize the Shorter Catechism. They can take pride in a confession of unworthiness. Who among us has not known a Calvinist who was proud of his knowledge that creatures cannot take pride in anything?”
Novembletters
Letter to the Editor: Saying, "I believe in democracy" or "I believe in a multi-ethnic state", etc. is the equivalent of saying, "I believe in love." However, "love" is a noun of indistinct ...
I Usually Don’t Come Close
“The current plan is to review [By Faith Alone, Johnson/Waters] thoroughly in this space. By ‘review it’ I mean that I intend to take it apart brick by brick, and if the past is any indicator of the future, I intend to snap any flawed brick in two, and throw at least one half of that brick at the moon.”
The Joy Juice of Democracy
Introduction: When the apostle John told Christians to keep themselves from idols (1 John 5:21), he said this because there was actually a possibility that they might not do so. There have been times ...
Christ and Moses
“A man under conviction of sin can be just as worked over by the Sermon on the Mount as by the Ten Commandments. That doesn’t make it appropriate to state as a hermeneutical principle that Christ now has to be Moses. This is why I prefer to speak of use, rather than hermeneutic.”
The Bubble Bath of Orthodoxy
We “also speak in numerous places, of a decretal election, settled and sealed before all worlds, in which the elect of God are named and numbered, and with a number that cannot be increased or diminished. But there no sense bring that up here—it would only serve to confuse people who have settled into the warm bubble bath of orthodoxy and wish to have no pounding on the bathroom door.”