Introduction: It is commonplace for traditionalists to describe the well-balanced life as built on the foundation stones of truth, goodness, and beauty. This structural support seems intuitive ...
Mud Fence Ugly
Letters As November Fades to Black
Letter to the Editor: I must thank you for your work in Collision—your debates helped persuade a Hitchens fan into Christianity. Do you have any advice on learning how to initiate and handle ...
Grace Before the Fall
“Numerous Reformed theologians, from the Reformation down to the present, have seen God’s covenantal dealings with Adam as essentially gracious. It would be tedious to list them all, but I can if I need to.”
Thanksgiving Leftovers
Introduction: In the aftermath of our blowout holidays, it is not uncommon to survey something of a culinary debris field—half-finished pies, cold turkey, a measuring cup full of gravy, half ...
Hagar’s Sons
“There is the Abrahamic and the Sinaitic, clearly but what ws the form of the covenant here? Was it the covenant at Sinai as God actually made it, or was it the covenant of Sinai as construed by those who desired to be under the law (Gal. :21). The Judaizers, by their self-righteousness, transformed an historic manifestation of the covenant of grace into a contemporary covenant of works. This is why they were condemned. Elsewhere, Gordon tells us his rule of thumb for identifying Auburnites—anyone who speaks generally of ‘the covenant’ . . . The problem is that this would include the Westminster Confession, which plainly identifies the Synaptic covenant as a manifestation of the covenant of grace.”
Makes Good Sense to Me
The Genesis of the Affair
“This overlooks the little matter of a ‘may God have mercy on their souls’ judicial statement by the RPCUS, unimpeded by any discussion with the men concerned, which was then heaved by John Robbins, via the Internet, into the middle of the Reformed world, in much the same manner that a couple twelve-year-old boys might heave a dead cat over the fence into the middle of a ladies afternoon luncheon.”
Bat-Guano Crazy
Introduction: Certain topics are guaranteed to generate troll-swarms, and trying to be sensible about Judaism is one of them. I am actually tempted to open up the comments on this post in order ...
Only God Sees the Visible Church
“Doesn’t this reveal that according to this definition the visible church is just as invisible as the invisible church is? When we use a descriptive adjective like visible, it naturally raises the questions, ‘Visible to whom? From what vantage? When is it visible? Who can see it?’ If the answer is that only God can see the visible church, and this is what we have set up by definition, wouldn’t it be good to find a phrase that points to the same group of people, but does not mislead in this way? . . . Let’s call them the historical church.”
Letters Filled With Nothing But Words
Letter to the Editor: Re: The Bottom of the Empathy Hole I come to NQN to see something lit on fire. I was not disappointed! P.S. I detect the smell of empathy burning. jph ...