“A common error among Christians holds that if the sexual act is completed, then the couple are married ‘in God’s sight.’ Many destructive complications occur in contemporary culture because we have adopted the idea that people can be married in God’s sight without being married. It is hard to say where this idea originated, but …
Oxymoronic Adultery
“No double standard exists in God’s law. If a woman were an adulteress she could be executed for it, and if a man were an adulterer he could be executed for it. So the double standard on the part of Christ’s adversaries here is evident. They catch a woman committing adultery all by herself, and …
Romance No Foundation
“Romance is believed to be ‘the thing’ which ties a marriage together, and it is further thought that young people understand the dynamics of romance far better than their elders. Now the emotional attraction and attachment we have for one another is a gift from God. But romance has the same function as the curtains …
Not a General Requirement
“Headship in marriage does not mean that women submit to men; it means one woman submits to one man. Her submission to her husband protects her from having to submit to other men. Prior to marriage, her submission to her father protects her from having to submit to other men. There is no overall biblical …
Slip Out the Back
“At the very least, this system [of recreational dating] is as much a preparation for divorce as it is for marriage. Whenever the other person starts to wear a little thin, you just slip out the back, Jack” (Her Hand in Marriage, p. 11).
Just and General
“Generalizations are legitimate if they honestly describe an overall pattern. Generalizations are consequently not refuted through particular and individual counter examples. Honest Pharisees lived at the time of Christ, and they were not an embarrassment to Christ’s scathing denunciations of their religious sect as a whole. Indeed one indication of a Pharisee’s honesty would be …
Corruption and Stewardship
“Rarely will followers of Christ set overt corruption as their goal; rather, they want to be conservative, consolidate gains, learn fiscal realism, and be ‘good stewards.’ Of course, nothing is wrong with good stewardship — other than the fact that is a phrase which frequently stands in for bad stewardship” (For Kirk and Covenant, p. …
Surrendering Slowly Is Not Fighting
“This is the same phenomenon which caused one wit to observe that if the liberals in our Congress were to introduce a bill to burn down the Capitol, the conservatives would counter with a bill to phase the project in over the course of three years. When one group wants to drive us over a …
Prevailing Winds at the Back
“A certain type of man is always able to trim his sails to suit the prevailing winds, and he takes pride in the fact that he is adept at it. He does not know where he is going, but he is making good time” (For Kirk and Covenant, p. 169).
Extreme Obedience?
“It is not really possible to love God too much. It is not possible to take his Word to extremes, because His Word prohibits that use of it. If a man is careful to keep his conduct, motives, attitudes, and manner within the boundaries set by Scripture, how could we object to him without objecting …