Of course, modern evangelicalism and liberalism are not identical. They have differing histories, traditions, customs, and so forth. As movements, they have compromised with worldliness in very different ways, and oddly enough, that particular difference reveals their internal similarities. Whatever the external distinctions, compromise driven by unbelief always ends up looking and smelling the same. …
Honest Subscription
Hermeneutics, the art and science of interpretation, sounds like a horribly dusty affair. And of course, some have handled the subject along these lines. This is not how it should be; when the question of how a text is to be interpreted arises, we should feel a leaden weight in the gut, and adreneline in …
Those Chapters
I have to say honestly that the book of Romans has caused me a great deal of trouble over the years. At the same time, I also have to say that it is trouble for which I am profoundly grateful. Although these were difficulties which I did not request, a retrospective look is cause for …
The Central Gift
In the ongoing discussion among Christians over the validity of the “sign gifts,” those (like myself) who believe these gifts have now ceased are sometimes tempted to dismiss the question with a platitude and a wave of the hand. “We should seek the Giver and not the gifts” provides a representative sample. But this is …
Away from the Judgment — and Back to the Sin
We too often have a simplistic understanding of sin and judgment. This understanding is true as far as it goes, and is consistent with the teaching of Scripture that a man reaps what he sows. This is obviously true, but Scripture also encourages us to think past this point. It is also true that a …
Sanctified Apathy
The word apathy has all kinds of negative connotations, and rightly so. But I would like to commend the word for at least one positive application if for no other reason than to make us think about how we interact with the culture around us. The word means to “not care,” but it also carries …
Peter’s Boast
Once a correspondent asked C.S. Lewis why he was not a Roman Catholic. Because he did not want to sin against charity, he declined to answer in any detail, but there was an aspect of his response that would be surprising to many of us. “By the time I had really explained my objection to …
Perfectly Legal
Scripture teaches us that unbelievers suppress the truth in unrighteousness. But this language suggests that the operation is not effortless. In order to sin, and in order to persist in it, we have to fight against something that is true about ourselves. We are created in the image of God, and despite the fall into …
Irresistible Life
We already tend to misunderstand the nature of the relationship between God and His creatures, and so it is unfortunate that we sometimes use language calculated to perpetuate that misunderstanding. One term that is misunderstood in this way, in the view of many, is the irresistible grace of the famous TULIP. But is the misunderstanding …
Intelligent Despair, the Foundation of Hope
When Jesus said that He came for the sick, not the healthy, one of the great implications of His gospel is that it is a gospel of hope. The healthy tend to take it all for granted. As it was yesterday, so it will be tomorrow, and so, as far as their condition is concerned, …