Anthony Burgess was one of the delegates to the Westminster Assembly, and was one of the men who helped to write that puppy. A very helpful correspondent wrote in to me to note that in his defense of the covenant of works, Burgess repeatedly denies the idea of merit. He put it this way — …
Heretical Cooties
I recently wrote to Steve Wilkins, saying that it was almost time for him to come up to Moscow again, bringing some of his heretical cooties with him. We were almost out, I said. He wrote back, somewhat too triumphantly I am afraid, with something about him having been declared fully orthodox by the Louisiana …
Rat Farming
I have mentioned before that N.T. Wright is trying to hitch the white horse of the universal lordship of Christ to the wrong political wagon. The public nature of the lordship of Christ is an important doctrine, and Wright has performed a valuable service in reminding the Church of the necessity of that doctrine if …
More on Timeless Truth.
It appears to me that N.T. Wright has a peculiar phobia about timeless truths. Here is Wright again: “God wanted to judge Ahab and so save Israel. And so God delegated his authority to the prophet Micaiah who, inspired by the Spirit, stood humbly in the council of God and then stood boldly in the …
White Horse Inn
I just got a chance to listen to an interview I did for the White Horse Inn with Michael Horton, along with their follow-up comments to that interview. For those who are interested, they can find it here — although it costs a few bucks to download. As far as the interview went, it was …
Common Heritage
Phil Johnson has an interesting entry entitled “Machen Speaks From the Grave,” and I am in sympathy with much of what he notes there. In a era of postmodern and relativistic mush, we ought to be wary of all ecumenical common-causers who think that moralism is the most important thing about religion. But while Machen …
Jesus and the Minimum Wage
If anyone wants to read something by N.T. Wright that would indicate why I find him such an edifying writer, I would recommend Bringing the Church to the World, put out by Wipf and Stock. I am edified by him as much as I am because few contemporary writers make the case against false and …
The Ultimate Letter to Rome
Dear Joel, Once we get past our agreement that perseverance in the faith should be considered a good thing, the doctrine of perseverance creates a large number of questions. Some of the disagreements that arise out of this are extremely subtle, so it is important to define our terms very carefully at the outset. According …
Love the One You”re With
Dear Joel, I have a little time free, so on to my next installment. This one will be less doctrinal than the others, but there are obviously doctrinal underpinnings. I want to address obedience and the affections. Another way to speak of this is in terms of covenant loyalty. I was recently in a conversation …
Some Ping Pong
When I was in junior high school, I used to play a lot of ping pong. Occasionally, in the course of these bouts, one of my friends would hit a lofter — a slow ball about three feet above the table, just on my side of the net. I confess that when this happened it …