Visionaries, Rootless relativism and the high moral indignation of a shrill crusade do not go well together. If some things are absolutely wrong (every day of the week, in every century, in every culture), then surely it should be easy for those fundamentalists who are propounding such absolutism to answer some simple questions about it. …
Thy Kingdom Come
Many Christians want to avoid millennial wrangles, and in an important sense, they are quite right. It makes little sense to fight with one another about when the divine peace will come. But other Christians want to avoid debate on the subject because they believe it to be trivial or unimportant. “After all, is not …
Marriage as Manifest Glory XXVI
INTRODUCTION: One of the hardest lessons for an egalitarian age to learn is the necessary lesson of honor. But this honor must not be carnal—we are called to render honor as understood in a biblical and Christian way. This directly affects how husbands and wives are to grow old together. THE TEXTS: “Thou shalt rise …
A Resurgent Temperance Union
As you may have gathered, I am having a hard time getting over the attempt on the part of the Intoleristas to ban our children from participation in the Lord’s Supper. I laughed when I first heard it, and it has been one of my happy thoughts ever since. I don’t know what is going …
One More Round
This morning in the Daily News, Rose Huskey and Saundra Lund offered an op-ed piece on Moscow’s culture wars to the public. I assume that I will have an opportunity to respond in the paper, but since this is a good example of what we are dealing with, I thought a quick response here would …
Love the One You”re With
Dear Joel, I have a little time free, so on to my next installment. This one will be less doctrinal than the others, but there are obviously doctrinal underpinnings. I want to address obedience and the affections. Another way to speak of this is in terms of covenant loyalty. I was recently in a conversation …
Marriage As Manifest Glory XXII
Introduction: Husbands are commanded to love, and we are taught that the kind of love they are to render is the kind that bestows loveliness. But wives are not encouraged by this to simply be passive recipients—they are given a command as well. They are to be subject to their husbands (v. 24), and they …
John Knox Meets Siddhartha
In a recent post to Vision 20/20, one of our adversaries (Nick Gier) listed fourteen ways in which we kirkers differ from other conservative evangelical Christians (what he calls CECs). Normally this kind of superficial analysis would not warrant a response on the merits, but because purveyors of this kind of superficial analysis appear to …
Oh Yeah
Some time ago, I unsubscribed from a community listserve discussion called Vision 20/20, though in calling it a “discussion” my charitable faculties are fully extended. A less strenuous description of it would have to include words and phrases like fulmination, jeremiad, screed, baying at the moon, and other forms of progressivist yodeling. Anyhow, I unsubscribed …
A Persecution Complex
The other day I was coming out of a local building supply, and was headed for my truck. I heard a voice behind me, an inquiring voice, saying, “Douglas Wilson?” That was a correct identification, so I turned around, indicating yes. A middle-aged woman I did not recognize was standing there, about to go into …