“There is a linear aspect to history, and there is a cyclic aspect to it. The linear aspect is fundamental, and the cycles are subordinate to that line. The line, overall, is going up, which means that each repeated cycle represents a new advance—we are better off at the end of the tenth cycle than …
Very Sad, Really
“An airplane in the construction hanger at Boeing does not fly nearly so well as an airplane in the sky, captured by the secularist jihadis, who are going to crash it into the skyscraper of civilization to the defiant cry of ‘Orgasm Akbar!’ Sometimes my illustrations just take on a life of their own. Nothing …
And Some in Aramaic
“Now I don’t mean to indicate that the Christian faith is devoid of self-righteous fussers. Alack and alas! But at least our fussers have actually no excuse. They have memorized the Heidelberg Catechism in the original Greek, and so they should know” (Empires of Dirt, p. 237).
Froth in a Storm
“You would think that an evolutionist would understand that the entire human race is just as meaningless as the froth in a storm on one of Jupiter’s molten seas. Both phenomena put on a show for nonexistent spectators, and then the lights go out” (Empires of Dirt, p. 237).
Which is More Problematic?
“I once had the privilege of debating David Niose, president of the American Humanist Association . . . [Niose] a very nice man, said in the course of the debate that the Bible was a tired and ancient book, with a bunch of irrelevant laws, citing as one example the Old Testament prohibition of eating …
Smaller Than Tiny
“We are all smaller than tiny. We all have a tiny role to play, and the fact that we are tiny makes our duties tiny—without making them unimportant. How God did that, I don’t know, but He did” (Empires of Dirt, p. 235).
Why Cowardice Cowers
“The cowardice that is afraid of success is not biblical faith, and it will be that same lack of faith that, when it comes to the point, refuses to pay the price that a martyr would pay. Faith is willing for earthly success or failure, whatever the Lord has ordained for us. Cowardice is ultimately …
Rotating the Hips
“Biblical faith always swings for the fence” (Empires of Dirt, p. 233).
Not the Same Thing at All
“The impulse to theological perfectionism is a deep one in every theological tradition because imperfect creatures such as ourselves like to believe that God’s perfections are more like a proof out of Euclid than anything else. But God is perfect . . . not a perfectionist” (Empires of Dirt, p. 232).
Audio Reading of Post
Liberty, Not License
“Free societies can function only when the authority of restraint is found in the old fashioned virtues of self-restraint and self-control. Free governments presuppose self-government” (Empires of Dirt, p. 228).