Theology That Bites Back
“I could multiply such qualifications, but to do so would be tedious. And besides, the people for whom such qualifications are made appear to be steadfastly refusing to read them. They can ignore them faster than I can type . . . I can only conclude that the members of the committee must have spent a good deal of time winding their rear ends and scratching their watches.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, pp. 782-783
“I have noticed before that one of the things that the fundamentalist mindset does well is identify the logical trajectory of an idea fifteen minutes after it is first stated. In contrast to this, there is a sophisticated and nuanced academic mindset that likes to fiddle, discuss, analyze, count, and try on different readings of, whatever idea it is in the discussion. The weakness of this latter approach is the the discussion gets frequently wrapped up in everything except what the actual point of the discussion is. It is like a guy who is very concerned to count the reading lights above every seat on the airliner, but who doesn’t know where the plane is going.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 779
“If there is one thing you can count on a discernment blog to do, it is to show very little discernment. Discernment blogs are often little more than ‘bottom-of-the-monkey-cage’ blogs, which can usually be found at flingpoo.com.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 778
“This situation reveals how much the conservatives have been out-maneuvered as they have been playing Machen-and-the-liberals in their mama’s backyard with little wooden sticks.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 778
“This means that it has to delight my soul that God loves those on the other side of our particular theological divides more than I have ever loved anything or anybody. It needs to delight me that we will all spend eternity together, as it does. As so I pray God’s blessing on the resurrection celebrations of all God’s children, and I pray for a double blessing on the celebrations of my adversaries. This resurrection life is a powerful thing, and gets into everything . . . even our disputes.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 777
“If the Reformed tradition were the Mississippi River, these river boat pilots have managed to get their vessel grounded just south of Wichita. As I put it in a recent comment elsewhere, I really don’t understand why the C students think they get to grade everybody else’s papers.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 776
“One use of the law cannot be made the over-arching essence of that law—because that would make it impossible to employ the other uses.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 774
“So, saving faith yields, trembles, and embraces. It yields obedience, it trembles at threats, and it embraces promises. But its principal acts are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification. These are indeed its principal acts, saving faith does other things. It hunts down the red law passages and yields obedience to them. It comes across passages which threaten divine displeasure, and saving faith trembles at these red law passages also.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 774
“They think that nuda lex is totus lex, which is a staggering confusion. They have confounded a use of the law which the definition of the law. They have confused a part with the whole.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 771
“Therefore, the Reformed tradition (the real one) holds that when describing what the law is, in all its parts and relations, we are talking about totus lex. And totus lex has a subordinate and honored place within the covenant of grace. Then Reformed historically have not held to a kind of radical dualism with law over here in stark opposition to grace over there.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 771
