For as long as I can remember, the idea that people are basically good has been taken to be a tenet of theological and political liberalism. The idea that people are basically bad has been presented to me as a tenet of Christianity—and this tenet has been held by both...
Theology
Authoritative Application?
My respected friend Joel Arnold probably does need to leave this country, as he currently plans to do. What he says is downright un-American: Believers have not obeyed God's commands until they are willing to make authoritative and spiritually guided application of...
Stanley Fish Paper Published in Answers Research Journal
I've been kind of super excited about this... I have finally thrown my tiny pebble into the pond! Now I'm just waiting to watch the ripples. Well, it's probably more like this: I have finally thrown my grain of sand into the ocean! Now I'm just waiting to be bitten by...
The Kingdom of Christ
I'm embarrassed to say I did not know this, more embarrassed to admit that I never thought to ask: The move toward a Kingdom theology [among both covenantalists and dispensationalists] ... accounts for the name of the newer form of dispensationalism. It is called...
Sloganeering and Homosexual Marriage
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...
Whose God Is Their Belly
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...
Review: Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense
Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by N.T. Wright My rating: 3 of 5 stars The main value of this book for me was probably the arresting one- to five-liners. Like these: It’s no part of Christian belief to say that the followers of Jesus have always got...
A John Frame Sighting!
Why do I think John Frame's triperspectivalism is so important? Because it provides what I take to be scriptural (or at least scripturally-consistent) lenses; and when I look through those lenses I see with greater clarity. It happens all the time. It just happened,...
The SBC on Calvinism and Arminianism
There are some advantages to a church joining a Christian denomination. You're likely to be part of some group or other, and if you make it official (by joining a denomination) you get the benefits of united action, pooled resources, and due process. There are some...