1. Thoughtful Christians are embarrassed by those who pretend to be able to read the signs of the times. The simplistic analysis that attributes this tornado to the passage of that piece of tax legislation really is embarrassing. But the presence of people doing it wrong is no basis for a refusal to do it …
Boobquake and the Meaning of History
So there was this Muslim cleric who put his foot in it, clean up to the knee, by saying that women dressing immodestly is the cause of earthquakes. There was naturally a response in this country that called for women to show some principled cleavage in order to test that holy man’s thesis. On Monday, …
Politicians or Prophets?
Continuing the important theme of reading and declaring God’s judgments in history, here is an important argument for why Christians must recover an understanding of why it must be done. “But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you . . . …
Rein In That Renegade
Reading the judgments of God is not something we have to learn how to do in the first place. In the first place, we have to understand what that means and what it does not mean. After that, we must learn to read the judgments of God. It is not the case that we live …
Because the World is a Story
A short time after 9-11 occurred, I had an online debate/discussion with Andrew Sandlin on the question of whether Christians can speak prophetically about the providential meaning of events in our own time. Of particular interest was the question of whether or not we can say that a particular event or disaster was God’s judgment …
9-11 and New Orleans
Four years ago today, two airliners flew into the World Trade Towers in New York City. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon. Another plane, perhaps intended for the White House or Capitol, was heroically crashed in Pennsylvania by the passengers instead. At the time, we declared that all this was a portent of God’s …
Outline of a Response
I am happy to interact briefly with Andrew Sandlin’s most recent observations. I need to highlight the word briefly, because I just want to suggest the outline of a response, and not to produce a massive tome. If I were a postmodernist, it would be described as the “contours of a response,” but it amounts …