One other comment is necessary on my interaction with Jim Wallis a few posts ago. He said that the abortion debate had grown “stale,” and that we ought to concentrate on reducing abortions instead of outlawing abortion. As I was thinking about it, this question occurred to me — “where has he been?” He speaks …
Go Get Your Own Parable, Hayek
This is kind of an odd talk-around way way to do it, but here is a bit more on our discussion of Third World debts and N.T. Wright’s book Surprised by Hope. To sum up my take, Wright wrote a glorious book that had a small atrocious section on global economics. I interacted with that …
The Roar of God: Amos I
INTRODUCTION: As God gives us the grace, we will now begin to work our way through the prophecy of Amos. Apart from what is revealed in his writing here, we know nothing about the man. Among the minor prophets, he occupies the vanguard in this period of Israel’s history, even though he is placed third …
Enough Troubles
Hamartano is used a number of times in 1 Corinthians, but hamartia doesn’t come up until chapter 15. Paul first tells believers to flee from fornication because every other sin is outside the body, while sexual sin is a sin against one’s own body (6:18). But to marry is not to commit a sin (v. …
Badly Informed Clerics
Now that I have finished Surprised by Hope, let me reiterate that it is an outstanding book, and just what the doctor ordered for all my conservative friends who are standing in the pond of dualism, up to their chins. But I should also say that I agree completely with the questions/concerns raised in the …
Heavier Than Wet Sand
INTRODUCTION: In this series, we are considering the temptations presented to us by desire, envy, competition, and ambition. Last week we looked at desire—the quarry from which many sins are hewn—and is a word which, thankfully for the writers of rock ballads, rhymes with fire. We now turn to the thing that our spirits’ desires …
Brad and Nicole
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen. At the beginning of the history of our race, the Lord gave us dominion over all the creatures. He told us that they were our responsibility, and this cultural mandate has never been revoked. Not only has it not been revoked, but in the …
Nice and Nasty Sharia Bits
The real problem with Rowan Williams’ acquiesence to Sharia-creep in the UK is not so much the fact that he did so. He is the archbishop — that kind of thing is his job. Theodore Dalrymple points to the “opacity of the language that he habitually employs” and correctly identifies the problem with it. “There …
The Learned Wooliness of Archbishops
In Matthew Henry’s Method for Prayer, he says this: “For our own land and nation, the happy islands of Great Britain and Ireland, which we ought in a special manner to see the welfare of, that in the peace thereof we may have peace . . . Lord, thou hast dealt favourably with our land; …
Christ the Lord of Song
Our motive for all that we do is to be the glory of God — even if it is something as mundane as eating or drinking (1 Cor. 10:31). How much more should we be seeking the glory of God when we are in the act of worshiping Him? Certainly, most Christians would agree that …