“Debates with Christians who embrace pop culture are frequently hamstrung by the tenacity with which they insist on discussing the audible sound only, and never the actual meaning of the word. Modern evangelicals have a clear eye this way; they have a true imitative genius. They can copy anything the world produces, down to the …
All Or Nothing
“But because of an immature ‘all or nothing’ mentality in the evangelical world, as soon as anything is pronounced not inherently sinful, everybody rushes off to splash about in their Christian liberty, about which more later. And this is why the evangelical world today is crowded out to the borders with the culturally retarded. Cultural …
Lockstep Conformity
“For example, in the fifties, when something became hot, something on the order of hula hoops, everybody had to have one. And they had to have on because they had to be like ‘all the other kids.’ But snookered by our new consumerist culture, we now see that everybody has to have the latest hot …
No Handles
“‘This is a a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church’ (Eph. 5:31-32). Those who want the formation of this great mystery to be reeduced to a simple checkoff list want something that cannot be. For those who have no hands, wisdom has no handles” (Future Men, p. 147).
How Many?
“Unless wisdom governs, words are like proverbs in the mouth of a fool — like the legs of a crippled man (Prov. 26:7). So it doesn’t matter if it is called courtship, biblical courtship, or covenantal dating. What matters is more intangible. Unless wisdom governs, as I am fond of saying, courtship means that six …
Preconditions
“Fathers who want to control the details of their sons marrying are, ironically, behaving in a way that will make a very poor husband out of any son who puts up with it. When a man marries, he is stepping into headship and responsibility. He cannot do this well if he has never done it …
Sexual Impatience
“All this is serious business, but it should not obscure what is being done. The Christian faith does not say no to a young man’s sexual urges just to be a killjoy. Rather, it is more like a mother telling her son that he cannot have a bag of chips half an hour before dinner. …
Kidding Yourself
“There is no way that young men can watch, and be entertained by, movies which include displays of nudity, steamy sex scenes, and so forth, without being aroused by them. A boy who tells his mother that he can ‘handle it’ is using what astute theologians in former ages used to call ‘a lie'” (Future …
New Hearts or Old?
“We are not born again because we have repented and believed. Rather, we have repented and believed because God has given us the new birth. If our old hearts were capable of repentance and belief, then we would not need new hearts” (Future Men, p. 139).
A Gibbering Ape
“Christian parents (and particularly mothers) must recognize that the temptations to lust comes down to us from our father Adam, from our members which are on the earth (Col. 3:5). They do not originate with the world or with Hollywood. The world can and does enflame these lusts, but the world does not create them. …