“We cannot understand the first thing about the Creation, or the Fall, or the redemption accomplished by Christ until we first grasp the fixed immensity that is nature.”
Virgins and Volcanoes, p. 19
An Administrative Ball and Chain
“Someone might plead necessity, and say that administrative law is too extensive and too complex for a legislature to understand, still less to pass. The reply to this is simple—if a set of regulations is too burdensome for the legislature to pass, then it is too burdensome for us to live under.”
Intertwined with the Gospel
“God made us male and female, and this is the image of God (Gen. 1:27). We cannot talk about men and women without talking about the triune God, Christ and the Church, and the whole point of the gospel. We cannot talk nonsense about men and women without talking nonsense about the triune God, Christ and the Church, and the whole point of the gospel.”
Virgins and Volcanoes, p. 14
Not Even a Little Surprised
“So in the seventeenth century the battle for liberty was between the Crown and Parliament, and Parliament was in the right. In the eighteenth century, the battle for liberty was between Parliament and the colonies, and the colonies were in the right. No one institution or nation or entity is indefectible. Bad men show up everywhere, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if our final liberties were eventually removed by the Czar of All Fourth of July Celebrations.”
Reflected Confusions
“The church is supposed to model for a confused world what a real human society is supposed to look like. The church is not supposed to be a mirror that reflects the confusions of Manhattan right back at it.”
Virgins and Volcanoes, p. 13
Because the Pre-conditions are Absent
“If you want a nation of pot-smoking fornicators to be free, you want something that is not going to happen.”
The Ripest of Mushroom Dreams
“To return to the idea of the painting, our generation is trying to blot out the painter’s signature on His creation and then trying to repaint the whole thing. Once his name is smudged out, and marriage is no longer defined as ‘one man, one woman, one lifetime,’ the sky is the limit. We have polyamorous relationships, open marriages, sex with robots, bestiality, digital sex using a web page, sex with organs that are not sex organs, and so on. We can hump the world if we want. The painting is now ours—or so we fancy in the midst of this current cultural mushroom dream.”
Virgins and Volcanoes, p. 10
Emphasis on Rightly Understood
“The First Amendment, rightly understood, does not prohibit a civil acknowledgment of the Lordship of Jesus. It prohibits the establishment of a particular denomination of Christians at the federal level as a national church.”
A Much Greater Sin
“When a man committed adultery many generations ago, he was disobeying but not trying to redefine. It is like the difference between a thief and a socialist. A thief recognizes the boundaries of property, he just doesn’t respect them when it comes to his own personal behavior. The socialist wants to abolish all such distinctions—in effect, he wants to steal the world.”
Virgins and Volcanoes, pp. 9-10
Bright, But Plastic
“If an action or a behavior is not organically grown by the Spirit in your life, then you have set up a factory to manufacture plastic fruit, and you’re hanging that plastic fruit on your family tree with little wire hooks.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 120