“The Christian faith is public, and not private. It is the salvation of the world, and the world can no more evade that salvation that a deserted lawn chair on the beach can resist a tsunami — even if the Styrofoam cooler comes over to help. Do you want to stop the salvation of the …
Playing Tackle
“Our investigations reveal that the austere world of black and white careful analysis, epistemological invective, doctrinal sarcasm, and eschatological jihad has obscured our sunny selves from public view. This is not necessarily a bad thing because our sunny selves can also take some getting used to. But we still thought a small book was in …
An Agenda For Politics
“But do we have an agenda for politics? Yes, we do. The Christian faith is public. Like all other sinful things in this world, Jesus Christ offers politics salvation. But when Jesus Christ invites anyone or anything to Himself, He bids him come and die. So this cannot be salvation through self-effort, self-righteousness, or self-importance. …
Covenant and Judgments
“This is a truth we also acknowledge. In one sense, the antebellum South was a Christian nation, but it was a Christian nation that invited, and received, a genuinely severe judgment from the God who is not mocked. This judgment from a holy God included all the atrocities of Sherman, and sinful men must always …
When Will It Be Obvious Enough to Point Out?
“The point is to identify the desperate spiritual problem we are confronting, to call it by its biblical name, and to call for repentance. Jesus speaks of those who are in the grip of a self-important self-righteousness, which is the chief characteristic of our Intoleristas, and He says that their fundamental problem is that they …
What The Minister Does Not Do
“The church has an important role to play in witnessing the vows, and a minister may with propriety declare the vows to have been made, but the minister is no priest and marriage-maker. The couple does not stand before him to be transubstantiated” (Federal Husband, p. 110).
Weddings and Self-Expression
“So in the sixties we all began to do our own thing — write our own vows, invent our own little ceremonies, and generally march around in our own little circle. Since then we have settled down somewhat, but we still have the idea that the wedding belongs to the couple and not to a …
On the Prowl for the Lord’s Will
“How should a young man seek a wife? What should his criteria be? First, a few important pointers on what not to do. Do not hand out photocopies of this chapter at the college and career class at church, announcing in a loud voice that you are ready for the marital state and are earnestly …
Crows Strutting in the Gutter
As we try to understand the disintegration of culture around us, including the prevailing drift of pop culture toward that which is grimy — on the assumption that it is therefore more “authentic” — we have to do some hard thinking about the relationship of flesh and bones. Particulars matter. The way something is enfleshed …
Lowlife Authenticity
Too many parents try to understand the ins and outs of popular culture by trying to study particular artifacts of that culture. But the real thing to get to is the driving engine. What makes it go? What are the foundational presuppositions? If you teach your children to identify those rightly, and to respond in …