Theology That Bites Back
“This is equivalent to Luther’s comment (which may be apocryphal) that he would rather be governed by a wise Turk than a foolish Christian. Quite so, but we must also remember there are two other options as well. Beware of false dichotomies. There is also the option of the foolish Turk and the wise Christian.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 85
“Christian orthodoxy requires us to deny that the mind and the brain are synonymous. For the secularist, the brain is the driver of the car. For the Christian, the brain is the clutch and transmission that the (invisible) driver of the car, a driver named Soul, Heart, or Mind, uses to make the car go. For the Christian, the glow-brain reductionism of the secularist is like taking x-rays of the clutch in an attempt to find out what song the driver is humming and why he is so happy to get to his destination. A great deal of what makes us go will never be reducible to brain scans.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 84
“When the secular counselor gets to the brain, he has found the roof of the cavern. When the Christian counselor gets to the brain, he has found the bottom step of a staircase that leads up to the top of the tower that looks out over the sea.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 84.
“It is quite possible to glean wisdom from a donkey (Num. 22:31), but this is very different from seeking wisdom among the donkeys.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 81
“All truths are God’s truths, this is true. But it is also the case that an all lies are the devil’s lies. And all good lies claim to be true. All gold is God’s gold, and all fool’s gold is the devil’s gold. Speaking of plundering the Egyptians, all gold is God’s gold, and all the gold that Egyptians gave the Israelites was God’s gold, but some of it still wound up in the golden calf.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 81
“An unbeliever can offer to sell me oil that will make my hands slippery. That is within his right and capacity, and we have no reason to object to his attempting to do so. But he has no right to sell me oil that will remove guilt and shame. That really is blasphemy. He has no authorization to sell me love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control—and it does not matter whether he makes such promises through the medium of oils, crystals, joy pills in a bottle, lying on his couch to relate my dreams, or drawing energy from my third chakra.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 80
“Pastors can fail at their assigned task, but it by no means follows from this that the task was somehow not assigned to them. You can only fail a class that you were enrolled in.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 79
“So when wise pastors help their people with challenges such as depression, anxiety, sexual trauma, eating disorders, obsessive behaviors, and so on, they are not doing so as hacks and amateurs. They are trained in the Scriptures, and the Scriptures are sufficient for reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 79
“It does seem awkward and asymmetrical to say that the timeless moral authority of the Decalogue arises out of nine and a half of the commands. Nobody likes seeing the Ten Commandments walk with a limp.”
Concise and to the Point, p. 62
“One of my daughters described the youth ministries of many churches as ‘potato salad at room temperature.’ Sleepovers! Lock-ins! Back rubs! Jesus!”
Concise and to the Point, p. 58
