“True baptism is of the internal man, by the Holy Spirit, and if that is missing you do not have a Christian inwardly. You do not have a true Christian, but rather a wet member of the visible covenant. The only thing we control (with the variations we have in our rituals) is how wet …
When Itching Ears Tingle
“YHWH makes our ears to tingle (1 Sam. 3:11; 2 Kings 2:12; Jer. 19:3). He did it at Shiloh. He did it to Solomon’s temple. He did it to Nehushtan. He did it to Herod’s temple. And the holy prophets of old used the kind of language in declaring the righteousness of such judgments that …
The Greatest Iconoclast
“We should know that God is the great maker of icons. As the Creator of a world full of His image-bearers, He has made billions of them . . . And this is why it is necessary for us to confess that God is also the greatest iconoclast. As the Judge who governs a sinful …
Working Doesn’t Work
“Unconverted Protestants have figured out their own ways of offending God. Someone who is born again knows that God cannot be ‘worked.’ He knows that it is not our task to assemble before the Almighty in order to blow smoke at Him — whether or not thuribles are involved” (Against the Church, p. 15).
Done With Anything Else
“The Bible teaches that the basic division in liturgical worship is not between high and low or between traditional and contemporary, but rather between acceptable and unacceptable. And the only thing that can make it acceptable is pure, unfeigned, evangelical faith in Jesus. Anything else is on its way to the Bad Place” (Against the …
More Than Structure
“I cannot tell, by examining these parallel liturgies, which tradition contains prayer to graven images. I cannot tell, by examining these liturgies, which ones allow the service to be led by a lesbian minister. In short, by looking at these liturgies, I cannot tell whether God accepts them as ‘acceptable worship’ or not. But whether …
At or Through
“In all the sacred things we are against, we find the same error coming up again and again. Are we using the liturgy as mural or a window? Are we staring at it, or are we looking through it?” (Against the Church, p. 12).
The Unexamined Service Is Not Worth Offering
“Our liturgies shape our faith; our liturgies are a confession of faith, and they are frequently a most unexamined statement of faith. We should be against anything that is shaping us unless we are being taught by Scripture at the same time” (Against the Church, p. 12).
Going Deep
“All who love the church must be against it. If you simply love and promote the church, one of the first things you will lose is the church. This is the very first lesson we need to learn in following Jesus, right? You have to lose things in order to save them” (Against the Church, …
No Mas
“In the meantime, we do not need for the bishop to process up the central aisle like the shiniest and baddest black crow in the gutter. We do not need another message from Doctrine Man with ten rivets in each subpoint. We do not need the worship leader to take us through yet one more …