But who gave any of us permission to be an eschatological pessimist? Not Jesus Christ. He said that all authority in heaven and on earth was His, and that our job was to disciple the nations. He wasn’t giving us something to shoot for; He was giving us something to do” (Mother Kirk, p. 42).
Some Caricatures Really Lived
“So closely does Michael Wigglesworth approximate the unhappy popular conception of our seventeenth-century forbears that he seems more plausible as a satirical construction than he does as a human being. In their descriptions of a Puritan so obsessed with himself, with his own quest for salvation, that he suppressed or ignored all purely human experience, …
A Culture’s Life Cycle More Than Cultural Life Choices
“It has been shown that, normally, the rise and fall of great nations are due to internal reasons alone. Ten generations of human beings suffice to transform the hardy and enterprising pioneer into the captious citizen of the welfare state” (John Glubb, The Fate of Empires, p. 24).
Famous for Being Famous
“Judging by the time and space allotted to them in the Press and television, football and baseball are the activities which today chiefly interest the public in Britain and the United States respectively. The heroes of declining nations are always the same—the athlete, the singer or the actor. The word ‘celebrity’ today is used to …
Looking Up in Faith
“This doctrine of the triumph of the gospel encourages, and the fact that we need encouraging should be evident . . . A modern Christian has been watching the news on his nineteen-inch color TV set, in the living room of his home. He switches the set off and comments to his wife that the …
Austin Outer Limits
Been out of town for a few days . . . we were down in Austin, TX for a wedding. A wonderful time, great friends, a really fun town. One of the things we did during our off-hours was visit the Whole Foods Market there in Austin. I understand that it is a mongo-big chain, …
God of More Than Ether
“Instead of praising some neoplatonic God for revealing to her the vanity of earthly things, Bradstreet sang hymns of praise and gratitude to an anthropomorphic God Who often answered petitions for such worldly gifts as health and long life” (Daly, p. 103).
Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign
“In line with the postmodernist slogan that everything is a text, advertisers have turned the world into a gigantic billboard, making commercials out of everything from sporting events to shopping carts” (Gene Edward Veith, Postmodern Times, p. 178).
Not Of Him Who Wills, Or Who Smiles for the Camera
“Before the foundation of the world, the Father chose a people for Himself, and He did so without any regard to any choices, merit, or boyish good looks on the part of those chosen” (Mother Kirk, p. 38).
God’s Word in the World Metaphor
“As an orthodox Puritan, Bradstreet could not adumbrate the French symbolists by arguing that her words created meaning; the meaning of the sensible world was in the things of the sensible world themselves. It had been put there by god before all time; it was seen and uttered by the poet. To follow the latter …