“Specifically, my concern here is with the biblical, Protestant poetics informing a major strain of English seventeenth-century religious lyric: the chief characteristic of that poetics can, I suggest, be clearly discerned, and the history of the literary impact traced with some precision — from the quickening of Donne to the developing theory, to the exhaustion …
Testimony Rhymes With Me
“So much so-called ‘testimony’ today is really autobiography and even sometimes thinly disguised self-advertisement, that we need to regain a proper biblical perspective. All true testimony is testimony to Jesus Christ, as He stands on trial before the world” (John Stott, The Preacher’s Portrait, p. 64).
Brief Polytheism
“Muhammad also compromised with the Meccan merchants during a particularly intense time of persecution. Formerly he had fearlessly condemned polytheism. Then, under pressure, he accepted the Meccan belief that Allah had a wife, Al-lat, and two daughters, Al Uzzo and Manat (Surah 53:20-23). Later Muhammad repudiated these so called Satanic verses and claimed that all …
Confused Enlightenment
“If there is one thing of which modern man is utterly convinced, it is that he has reached a state of sexual enlightenment . . . Yet, as enlightened as we believe ourselves to be, a golden age of contentment has not dawned—very far from it . . . The sexual revolution has not yielded …
The Siren Call of Weirdness
“A cult mentality is ‘obviously’ exhibited by anyone who does not want to live in the prescribed atomistic and detached way — one who does not want to be just another loose ball bearing rattling around in modernity’s machine. The contemporary standards will beckon with a siren call — any kind of weirdness is accepted …
Improving Strength
“But there is a generation of men who, being wronged, improve their strength by patiently bearing it, yet in making their moan to God in the exercise of faith, in committing their cause to Him” (Burroughs, Irenicum, p. 293).
Our Name is Legion
In the course of His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus cast down many demons. But this incident is one of the more remarkable, as well as one of the most memorable. “And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of …
The Witness
“The third word used in the New Testament for the Christian preacher is the word ‘witness’ . . . Christian preachers are privileged to testify to and for Jesus Christ, defending Him, commending Him, bringing before the court evidence which they must hear and consider before they return their verdict” (John Stott, The Preacher’s Portrait, …
Dar-al-Harb
“Muslims in fact divide the world into two sectors: Dar-al-Islam (the House of Islam) and Dar-al-Harb (The House of War). The only countries considered to be at peace are those where Islamic law (the Sharia) is enforced. Islam does not recognize the right of any other religion or worldview to exist” (Peter Hammond, Slavery, Terrorism …
Refined Beastiality
“An attachment to high cultural achievement is thus a necessary but not sufficient condition of civilization . . . The first requirement of civilization is that men should be willing to repress their basest instincts and appetites: failure to do which makes them, on account of their intelligence, far worse than mere beasts” (Theodore Dalrymple, …