“Because He is the Maker of heaven and earth, we did not come about as the result of primordial forces working manfully away on a pile of primordial goo” (Angels in the Architecture, p. 100).
Creedal Authority
“The Bible tells us that other spiritual authorities exist, but that they are fallible and penultimate. Further, these lesser spiritual authorities are not just ‘allowed,’ they are inescapable. The question is not whether we will have them, but which of them we will have. We do not understand that when we have removed all traces …
Casual Creeds
“To use a phrase from Matthew Arnold, we are ‘light half-believers in our casual creeds.’ In a mad pursuit of cisterns that will hold no water, we have come to love the dust on the inside of our empty jars” (Angels in the Architecture, p. 97).
Getting It Right
The Word rebukes our sidelong glances at the world. Not that kind of laughter. The Word rebukes our choreographed repentance. Not that sancitmonious smarminess. “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, …
Gladness
“The godly are characterized by gladness. The doctrines of godliness are the doctrines of gladness. If it does not come at the last to gladness, then to hell with it” (Angels in the Architecture, p. 75).
Justification and Taste
“In this futile world, in this world where vanity reigns, we can know that the grace of God has burst through to us by one indication only: “Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works” (Ecc. 9:7). A man who stands …
The Reformational Creeps
“It is easy for modern Christians to think of Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli standing around a cauldron at the beginning of some reformational Macbeth, coming up with the doctrines of predestination and depravity. The lightning flashes, the murky brew belches a loathsome smell, and one can readily tell by the pricking of his thumbs that …
Truth and Laughter
“The truth of the gospel leads inexorably to laughter. Those who want to glower as they cling to truth want something that can never be. Whatever it is they have in their hands, it must not be the truth, unless it is perhaps just a fragment of it. The dour Calvinist, the cranky sabbatarian, and …
Rejecting the Numinous Gods
“Our idea of holiness is greatly truncated today; we limit it in thousands of scrupling and schoolmarmish ways. We have lost any understanding of the numinous. We do not know what it would be like to walk through a grove of ancient trees sacred to the holy and terrible gods, and then be converted to …
Smoke in a Gale
“The psalmist asked the God of Israel to rise up and scatter His enemies; whenever the Power of His right hand is pleased to do so, those enemies are driven before Him like smoke in a gale. The Church today is a stranger to victories because we refuse to sing anthems to the king of …