Sloganeering is not generally a persuasive form of argument: "God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!" Has any American across the cultural divide from conservative Christianity ever changed his mind after reading that on a billboard or poster? Somehow I doubt...
Mark Ward
Whose God Is Their Belly
Ode to Moses
Preaching weekly through Genesis over the last year or so has given me a much deeper appreciation for the literary artistry of Moses. We're in chapter 46, and I see better than ever that the themes of seed, land, and blessing are truly ubiquitous after chapter 12....
Google Reader Replacements
I've been using Google Reader since before Al Gore was born, but now that it's nearing its death (Monday), it's time to switch. I've tried a few alternatives over the past few months, and I'd like to make two recommendations: The Old Reader Feedly Each is nicely...
Flavel and Piper on Antinomianism
According to Flavel, antinomians fail to distinguish, as they ought, between vindictive punishment from God, the pure issues and effects of his justice and wrath against the wicked; and his paternal castigations, the pure issues of the care and love of a displeased...
Excellent, Edifying (and Even Entertaining) Sermon on a Controversial Topic
My thinking—and my soul—really profited from this sermon by Kevin DeYoung. The thoughts were not new to me, since I'd read his excellent book The Hole in Our Holiness, but I had forgotten how engaging (and humorous) he was in person. One of the newest reasons I've...
Moral Esperanto
I shared with you not long ago MacIntyre's opening illustration in After Virtue, an illustration drawn from Canticle for Leibowitz. In it, all scientists are killed in retribution for a nuclear holocaust. Over time, people try to regain the language of science. They...
Walsh and Middleton, “The Transforming Vision,” (IVP, 1984), 62.
There are only two basic categories: the Creator and the created. If we do not worship God, we will focus on something in creation and elevate it to the status of divinity. We will worship a false god. Our intrinsically religious nature will never allow us not to...
Illustrating the Etymological Fallacy
I love words, and I love languages. I'm always running across little interesting tidbits when it comes to words; often those tidbits have to do with etymology. There is a logical fallacy that should immediately come to your mind when you hear that word "etymology."...
Review: Five Views on Apologetics
Five Views on Apologetics by Steven B. Cowan My rating: 3 of 5 stars Once upon a time, a fellow Christian young man, age 20 or so, like me, invited me to go witnessing in the downtown area where I live. We ran into a young lady who was reading Neale Donald Walsch's...