In the introduction to Calvin and the Anabaptist Radicals, William Balke says two important things — important, that is, to the point I would like to make here. The first is that the name anabaptist results in a classic example of misdirection. “The name ‘Anabaptist,’ or ‘rebaptizer,’ picks out what actually was only an incidental …
Like Raccoons in the Garbage
So this is to follow up on the previous post. Working together is harder than it appears. One of the first things to distinguish is someone who wants to go the same place you do, but has a different view about how best to do it, from someone who wants to go somewhere completely different, …
What Flies in our Own Circles
As one who has been an erstwhile victim of heresy hunts, I am naturally wary of doing unto others as has been done unto me, sometimes twice. At the same time, there are strange doings afoot in the church, and the Bible does talk about taking the situation in hand when situations need to be …
Cutting Off the Buttons
The world around us is an unfolding story. The world around us is not a plastic diorama behind the glass in a museum. The kind of objective truth that the faithful Christian insists upon is not to be found in plastic objects that never move, even if their immobility might be a catechetical aid to …
Creation is Thick, I Tell You
Think of this another way. In the gnostic order of things, the material world is always convicted, damned. It is the problem. In the Christian world tugged on by gnosticism, the material world is not condemned — the orthodox faith forbids this because God made the world, and Jesus rose from the dead in it. …
Math Problems in a Dark Room
I appear to be scratching an itch with this short series, and so here is the same point from another angle. When I was in the submarine service, I recall one time when we were at battle stations during a drill. I was a quartermaster, in the navigation department, which put me in the control …
The Barkity Barkity Midnight Dog
In order to sort some important things out, we have to do some further work on the relationship of giver and gift. I propose to begin by discussing the relationship between created giver and created gift, and then moving up to the much more complicated relationship between the Uncreated Personal Giver and the created personal …
A Full Tank of Gas and Lots of Wyoming Ahead
A week or so ago, I wrote about Piperian Hedonism 3.0. Following that, a friend helpfully pointed me to Chapter 11 of John Piper’s book, When I Don’t Desire God. That chapter is entitled “How to Wield the World in the Fight for Joy.” And that chapter is filled, of course, with Piper’s usual exegetical …
That Takes Some Idiot
James Davison Hunter’s next chapter is a very fine review of cultural changes throughout the church’s history. He plainly demonstrates the importance of many of the active agencies that effect true cultural change — the place of networks, the role of elites, the contribution of wealth, etc. Hunter reviews some of the great shifts in …
Piperian Hedonism 3.0
The first thing to note is that John Piper has done the Church a valuable service in establishing the inescapability of hedonism in the well-tempered service of God. The point is hard for many Christians to swallow, but it is equally hard to avoid. On this subject, I would refer anyone with questions about it …