So when I say that regeneration entails a foundational change in our nature, what do I mean? What is our nature? What we need to remember going into such a discussion is that we are not trying veer off from biblical categories into philosophical ones, but rather wanting to preserve our right to speak as …
Into the Deep Fog Actually
“Modern evangelicals have a ravenous hunger to be hipper than thou. They have a deep and covetous hunger to be cool — and so we have bestselling authors, Grammy award winners, trademark lawyers, Designer Bibles with Study Notes for just about everybody, rock bands with guys filled with middle class white guy angst, earrings, and …
Partners in Celibacy
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #77 “But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry. Nevertheless …
Michael Horton, Gender Stereotypes, and Me
Michael Horton recently offered up a critique of something he called “muscular Christianity,” and because I was (I think) referenced in his article as being among the bad guys, I thought I should say something about it. My first point has to do with the (I think) in the previous sentence. Throughout the article, Horton …
Honoring Fathers
INTRODUCTION:Human flourishing depends in large measure on the faithfulness and happiness of families, and this depends, in its turn, on the honor rendered to the parents by the children. This is, the apostle Paul tells us, the first commandment with a promise. The promise originally applied to the land of Canaan, as it was spoken …
Five More Volleys on Effeminate Worship
A short while ago I posted something about effeminate worship that has since that time excited some comment. The original piece was here, and you can see a couple of responses here and here. This is not so much a point-by-point refutation as it is getting out a wetvac to clear up some misunderstandings. Once …
Bloodshed and Buggery
So Mitt Romney hired Richard Grenell as his foreign policy spokesman, and Grenell is an “out and proud” homosexual. Well, who could have seen that coming? The issue is how these things get mainstreamed. There is a certain kind of conservative who, in Dabney’s immortal phrase, is the shadow that follows radicalism to perdition. It …
Your Worship Service Might Be Effeminate If . . .
For a number of interesting reasons, Christian worship in the West has become increasingly effeminate. Leon Podles outlines some of these historical reasons in his fine book, The Church Impotent. Ann Douglas makes a fine addition to the discussion in her book, The Feminization of American Culture. To emphasize masculinity in worship is not a …
The Difference Between Doubts and Questions
What is the difference between doubts and questions? Many Christians struggle with this problem. Because the two are not properly distinguished, many are trapped in a confusion that can lead to despair. We grow as Christians when we question, even if the questions are difficult, requiring hard answers. But when we doubt, we dry up …
Deacons, Defaults, and Daughters
Allow me to place two apparently unrelated points side by side, and then make a third point with the two of them together. Let me start by pointing to a particular feature of the European debt crisis, and then move on to the stealth campaign for women deacons in the PCA via Manhattan’s Redeemer. Then …