Influenced by certain Enlightenment assumptions, we like to believe that we all may reserve the right to not believe certain things. But in Scripture to “believe not” is described as a sin. The verb used to describe this unbelief in Scripture is apisteo. The male disciples had been told by Jesus that He was going …
A Topping Suitable
The discussion horses for my Israel and Hamas post are galloping down the road, reins dragging on the road behind them. So let me get a few band aids on my fingers and then say just a few more things here. Might calm everybody right down, or we might get to see another set of …
Merry Christmas 2008
Stories organize our lives, and the stories that won’t or can’t do that are false stories. The stories that orient us, that place us back where we should have been, the stories that bring redemption, are called true stories. They go by other names if you listen to the tellers of false stories — legends, …
A Star Out of Jacob
INTRODUCTION: One of the most familiar elements of the Christmas story is the star of Bethlehem. But at the same time, it remains one of the most unknown features of the story—because unlike the wise men, we don’t really look straight at it. THE TEXT: “I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold …
Advertising and Flattery
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 158 “A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin” (Pr 26:28).< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> One of the great problems of business is the strained relationship between truth …
Weak Sister Christianity
I have written on the distinction between jus ad bellum, conditions that justify going to war in the first place, and jus in bello, the standards required by God in the conduct of war. We have to keep these distinctions straight because, if we don’t, we are going to muddle just war theory hopelessly. But …
Vile Affections/Romans 5
INTRODUCTION: Recall that we have learned that the wrath of God is revealed in the world, and it is revealed as God “lets go”of a culture, allowing them to run headlong into various suicidal and fruitless practices. In this text, we find a deepening expansion of the point Paul has already made. THE TEXT: “For …
Vegetarianism Involves More Than Liking Your Veggies
Every Christian longs for the day when this sorry world will be put completely to rights. One of the features of that day will be the destruction of our weapons, their transformation to peaceful use, and we will shut down the Naval Academy and West Point, their services being no longer required. As I said, …
Forbear Threatening
We have already consider one word for threatening (apeileo), and we now come to another closely related one (apeile). As before, threatening is something the ungodly do. In one place, the two words are used together, for straitly and for threatening. “But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, …
The Glory of the Obvious/Romans 4
INTRODUCTION: God the Father is prominent in the first three chapters of Romans. God the Son figures largely from the middle of three to the end of five. And then the Holy Spirit is central from chapters five through eight. We have the wrath of the Father, the propitiation of the Son, and the liberating …