The next chapter of Dreher’s Crunchy Cons was really, really good. I say this because he went after some pet peeves of mine with a meat axe. The chapter was entitled “Home,” but a more informative title would have been something like “The Architecture of Home.” “Drive through a historic district of any town or …
Cultural Impact of Worship
For good or ill, the church leads the way in our culture. Long before feminism became the force it is in our general culture, the feminization of the church was already old news. Long before subjectivism became a way of life for most Americans, Christians had been groping around in the closets of the soul …
I Know My Baptists
Well, I am done with By Faith Alone — done with the book, that is, not the doctrine. I want to deal with the last three entries in one post all together because I don’t really have a great deal to say about each one. John Bolt, a professor of systematic theology at Calvin Theological …
One or the Other
“In the spring of 2002, I met many Arabs who believed simultaneously that (a) September 11 was pulled off by the Mossad and (b) it was a great victory for the Muslim people” (Mark Steyn, America Alone, p. 17).
True “Soul”
“We are told, in tones of punitive hysteria, either that our culture is doomed—this being the Spenglerian model of rational apocalypse—or that it can be resuscitated only through a violent transfusion of those energies, of those styles of feeling, most representative of ‘third-world’ peoples. Theirs is true ‘soul,’ theirs the beauty of blackness and eros. …
The Cup is the Covenant
“A lot of ink has been used in the discussion of Christ’s statement that the bread was His body. Comparatively little has been said about His statement that the cup was the new covenant. Thus we will not have a full understanding of the Supper until we recover an ability to think in covenantal categories” …
Why Not Now?
The next chapter in By Faith Alone is entitled “Covenant, Inheritance, and Typology,” and is co-authored by R. Fowler White and Cal Beisner. Their argument is ingenious, intricate, and, I believe, entirely unsatisfactory. What they are seeking to do is understand the covenant of redemption, the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace in …
Like Gideon’s Men
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! The Lord said to my own Lord, Sit here, at my right hand. And as You sit, and as You reign, I will make a footrest from Your foes. The Lord shall send the rod of strength, From out of Zion comes …
The Kingdom of God is a Fine Automobile
The doctrine of the kingdom of God is like a fine automobile. Some parts of it are lush, and polished, and comfortable, with climate control, and windows that go up and down with the press of a button. Other parts of it are cold and metallic, greasy, heavy and far too . . . doctrinal. …
Blessed are the Uncool
This is a table of thanksgiving, joy and forgiveness. Everyone here should be here in a spirit of gladness and overwhelming gratitude. But suppose you are not? What then? The temptation is to shrink away, to hold back. This is easier when churches celebrate the meal intermittently, but when we have the Supper every week, …