“Sin must be against someone. It is not primarily a matter of being against a rule—for a rule does not exist without a rule-giver, or the specified persons that the rule concerns . . . whenever the law is broken, that means that someone has been wronged, grieved, or hurt” (Mere Fundamentalism, pp. 52-53).
Sin Veers
“Sin is necessarily parasitic. Sin is bent righteousness. Sin cannot exist in its own name, it cannot stand on its own feet. Goodness, being an attribute of God, simply is. Evil is a knock-off, a corruption, a twisting, and a deviation” (Mere Fundamentalism, p. 52).
The Direction of Glory
“A man seeking true glory has his eye fixed on God. A man in pursuit of vainglory is given to the sidelong glance” (Mere Fundamentalism, p. 51).
What Is Actually Delivered
“The striving is always in the direction of Nietzsche’s Ubermensch, and it always seems to wind up as Nietzsche himself did—broken, mad, pathetic. The Ring promises us a king or an emperor with godlike powers, but delivers us Gollum” (Mere Fundamentalism, p. 44).
And What a Failure
“Sin is a glory failure” (Mere Fundamentalism, p. 42).
A Glorious Promise
“The attempts to create a superman have not been few. We see it in the attempt by the antediluvians to breed immortals (Gen. 6), we see it in the ravings of Nietzsche, and we see it with modern unbelievers tinkering around with the human genome. In reply, God says—God has always said—that mankind shall be …
Mark the Design
“God did not create two men, and so homosexuality is excluded. He did not create Adam and three women, and so polygamy is excluded. A helper suitable to Adam was not found among the beasts, and so bestiality is excluded. He did not create two women, which rules out lesbianism. All such images would be …
How God Knits
“And so Adam was put into a deep sleep, into a deathlike coma, and God operated on him. One was broken into two, and the bloody rib was transformed into a woman. One was made into two in order that those two could, in a different manner, become one again. And after they became one …
With a Fine Grit
“In the first moments after matter and energy were created, the world was shapeless and needed to be molded, carved, and then sandpapered” (Mere Fundamentalism, p. 35).
From Absolute Nuffin
“Creatio ex nihilo is a fancy way of saying creation from zip, zilch, nada, nuffin, and is therefore a foundational doctrine. On top of that it is an in-your-face doctrine. If we cannot deny it outright like some militant atheist, we would still like to background it somehow. The mists of antiquity are most convenient …