Tag: Chrestomathy

“Just as, in the South, you can say anything you want about anybody, just as long as you add the little exculpatory tag, ‘Bless his heart,’ (He’s a lying skunk, bless his heart), so in Christian circles, you can come sneeveling around with slanderous accusations circulated by anonymous and lying cowards, just as long as you say something suitably pious as an attachment to the slander. ‘I read on covenantsludge.com that Doug Wilson has coats made for his wife out of Dalmatian puppies, but we must always remember to pray for him even as we report this to the saints, with grief in our hearts, considering ourselves lest we also be tempted.’ A little like trying to fix the problem of the dead rat behind your fridge with a little air freshener.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 579

“The row at Antioch grieved the Spirit, and the hypocrisy of Peter and Barnabas grieved him as well. But the fact that Paul confronted the hypocrisy for what it was did not grieve the Spirit, even though it made Paul a participant in the disruption And someone like Paul could be grieved that it was necessary for him to do what he had to do, but not be at all grieved that he did it. It was a shame that it became necessary, but it was, at the end of the day, necessary.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 579

“Those members of the Louisiana Presbytery who thought Steve was out of compliance with the Westminster Confession should have filed charges, and then made their case. Instead, they waited until the dogpile was safely mounded before they jumped on it”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 575

“Liberalism broadens the boundaries of the covenant in order to have a schmooze-fest. ‘We’re all saying the same thing, really!’ ‘We are all climbing the same mount by different paths.’ Conservatism narrows the boundaries of the covenant in order to stay faithful to Christ and the gospel, but they lose catholicity, which is an aspect of the gospel. FV is proposing another alternative. Elijah recognized Ahab as a fellow Jew, but that didn’t make them pals.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 567

“But always remember—where there’s smoke, there’s a smoke machine.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 560

“Truth is absolute, but it does not ‘keep’ in the way some people assume. The truth as God knows it is obviously timeless, but the truth as it is entrusted to us is affected by the attitudes and faith of the trustees. Truth is wine, and certain keepers of the cellars do what they do in such a way that it makes them guardians of vinegar.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, pp. 539-540

“Somewhere in the meanwhile, a memorial from another presbytery and complaint from within the Louisiana Presbytery made their way to the PCA’s Standing Judicial Commission, from which there is no appeal, and out of which few return to the sunlit lands.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 537

“There is a vast difference between a law/gospel hermeneutic, which I reject heartily and with enthusiasm, and a law/gospel application or use, which is pastoral, prudent, and wise.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 532

“The Scripture is what it is, and it contains both promises and imperatives. For the one who reads the Scriptures in evangelical faith, he sees all the imperatives in the context of a larger grace. For the one who reads the Scripture in unbelief, he can sound out the promises, but they are always trumped by what he thinks is the larger demand of ‘do this and live.’ The former contextualizes everything as a subset of God’s grace. The latter contextualizes everything as a subset of law. For the believer, even the Ten Commandments can be understood as gracious. The preamble reminds the Jews that these words were coming from the one who brought them out of the house of bondage. For the unbeliever, even the message of the cross is foolishness, an intolerable demand. So that, in a nutshell, is what I think is going on with law and gospel.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 529

“In the old days, defenders of the faith used proclamation, argumentation, and apologetics. These days, the defenders of the faith use all the bureaucratic levers they have hidden under the desk . . . In the old days, the prophets of God would thunder the word. These days, they resort to Machinations and Back Room Deals.”

The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 529