Karl Marx famously said that religion was the opiate of the masses. Although his taunt misses true religion, there are many forms of religion in the world that his arrow hits dead center. One of them would be the Pharisaism of Jesus’ day. We often miss the import of the Lord’s teaching, his cryptic sayings, …
Wanting to Outsource the Sacrifice
We have been considering the fact that God in His kindness feeds His people. And as He does so, He does this as a pattern for us to emulate and follow. The Lord offers us His broken body, and this is a figure that we imitate. It is not the case that food just appears …
Logos Bible Software
Not counting the first Texas Instruments computer-like thing, the first PC we owned was an IBM XT. It had ten megabytes of memory on the hard drive, and I recall marveling at how roomy that was. Ginormous capacity, and I thought that I would have to type pretty much forever in order fill it up. …
Imitation of Christ as a Nose of Wax
In the last chapter of the book, Boyd’s pacifism comes out in full force, and he argues for it by answering the most common questions he receives whenever he addresses the themes of this book. Although many things could be said about all this, I want to limit myself to two. First, the way Boyd …
Shasta’s Lesson
“Those whom the Lord will promote are those who have no choice of their own, but are ready for anything, and ready for everything. He who has been fearless in one hour of peril shall have for his reward the privilege of exhibiting still great courage. He who is faithful over a small charge shall …
Not Preachy
“On one level these novels [Narnia stories] are tremendous adventures, and on another they are rich theological treatises that teach truth without failing into the tedious habit of preaching to children. The search for truth is simply part of the excitement” (Michael D. O’Brian, A Landscape With Dragons, p. 125).
Despite an Occasional Verbal Flourish
The second part of Hart’s book is his positive statement of “Divine Victory.” The first section of this second half sets the pieces on the board for us. “To behave or live according to nature is for some of us the very definition of sagacity, sanity, or even virtue” (p. 45). This is what the …
Indisputable Holiness
“Thus, those who are eager to dispute about perfection had better see that their lives are first of all decently consistent with the profession they have made. Brethren, we can be much more holy than we are. Let us attain first to that holiness about which there is no controversy” (Charles Spurgeon, An All-Round Ministry, …
The Rebirth of Christian Story
“Because the Holy Spirit is always pouring out life upon God’s people, we must never succumb to the temptation to think that the false culture has won. Despite its apparent powers, its noise, and its glamour, it is a moribund system that has not much longer to live . . . A regeneration of Christian …
John Robbins R.I.P.
John William Robbins (1948-2008) went to be with the Lord today. He was 59. Although we were on opposite sides of a significant theological divide, I want to express my deep sympathy to his family and friends. He has crossed over another and greater divide, and now dwells with the Lord Jesus, directly partaking of …