Someone recently mentioned to me that my cultural commentary of late has not seemed very postmilly. Where did all my optimism go? Many years ago members of my family were assembling for breakfast, and I believe the demeanor of all of us was somewhat somber, particularly my mother. This inspired my father, seated at the …
Savior of the World #6
Introduction: The gloomy old reprobate Ambrose Bierce said this about the book of Revelation: “A famous book in which St. John the Divine concealed all that he knew. The revealing is done by the commentators, who know nothing.” It is indeed unfortunate that we by our sloth have made a revelation into one of the …
Eye Has Not Seen
Introduction Mission is not something that the church is to do on the side. Mission is what the church is. Every Christian church is a mission church. Every Christian is in some sense, at some level, a missionary. But we must understand this rightly. We should not take it to mean that every Christian must …
Savior of the World #4
Introduction: 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 unimportant. “After all, is not ‘the …
Savior of the World #3
Introduction: As Scripture instructs, we must be adult in our understanding. But we must also cultivate what Luke records in the books of Acts when he says that the early Christians ate their bread with gladness and simplicity of heart. We may be refreshed with both when we come to understand the water of life. …
Savior of the World #2
Introduction: Far too many Christians take a phrase from Luther without the faith of Luther. They do believe that this world is “with devils filled,” but have no knowledge of the “one little word” which fells the evil one. That one little word is cross. Christ is the Savior of the world—not only because He …
Savior of the World #1
Introduction: Many Christians veer into one of two errors in their view of future history. Either they plunge into a very exciting study of the “end times” and become consumed with the book of Revelation and newspaper reports about the European Union, not to mention the killer bees, trouble in the Middle East, and so …
Such That the Culture Notices
So it appears that I owe N.T. Wright an apology. For years I have read him as a postmillennialist who wouldn’t admit it, one who inexplicably wouldn’t use the standard terminology. But it now seems that this is not accurate at all — he is more like an amillennialist who won’t use the standard terminology. …
The West Is Dead. Long Live the West.
The other day I read Robert Capon complaining about a kitchen knife that was as dull as dialectical materialism. Marx got his version of that from Hegel, modified it so as to make the commies responsible for the deaths of tens of millions, thus making the consequences of dialectical materialism anything but dull. Hegel — …
Even Postmillennialists Get the Blues
Before I became postmillennial, I noticed something odd, and since then, some of the oddities seem even more so. Some of the most cogent cultural criticism I have ever read has come from postmillennialists, who described in excruciating and exact detail how and why our culture is falling apart. And yet, back in the day, …