Dealing with Dryness

Something that I need to be reminded of regularly: It is not necessary that we should have any unexpected, any extraordinary experiences in meditation [on God's Word].  This can happen, but if it does not, it is not a sign that the meditation period has been useless.  Not only at the beginning, but repeatedly, there [...]

An Encouragement to Study History

Some Evangelicals have a good grasp of the history of evangelical theology.  Unforunately, the majority is sadly deficient in historical knowledge.  Their theology tends to be ahistorical.  They lack a sense of the course of theological history which is their heritage.  They believe what they are taught here-and-now and have no awareness of the there-and-before.  [...]

That Smells Like…

The King James is better than most, translating one particular word here [in Philippians 3:8] as dung.  The word is skubalon, and means in the first place some kind of animal excrement.  And this verse helps show the problem we are in- Paul does teach elsewhere that we are to avoid filthiness in our speech, [...]

Under the Whirling Sword, Under the Cross

The end of Cain’s history, and so the end of all history, is Christ on the cross, the murdered Son of God.  That is the last desperate assault on the gate of paradise.  And under the whirling sword, under the cross, the human race dies.  But Christ lives.  The trunk of the cross becomes the [...]

When the Building Collapses

Timely words for a generation of Christians that often associates God’s favor and grace exclusively with prosperity, comfort, material blessing, and worldly happiness: Job’s words [in Job 13:15] remind us of God’s sovereignty over all of life, including its pain and suffering. God is not the author of evil, of course, but he is sovereign [...]

Dust Off Your Crossbow

For various reasons, satire is studied today as something of a museum piece, in much the same way that a military historian might analyze a crossbow.  The learned and respectable among us have agreed to abandon the use of satire, leaving this particular form of abuse to the buffooneries of late night comedians.  Our academicized [...]

Misunderstanding the Mosaic Law

Hallowed theological tradition suggests at this point that we distinguish among various laws [within the Mosaic Law] by allocating them to one of three categories: moral, ceremonial, and civil.  The “moral” commandments, it is assumed, are eternally binding in the form in which they were originally given, while the ceremonial and the civil ones, finding [...]

Sin is About God, Not Pears (or Sex, or Money, or Fame)

Rhett Dodson, “Our Hearts, Desperately Deceptive“: When [Diane] Sawyer was with ABC’s 20/20, she did an exposé on “Prostitution in America: Working Girls Speak.” It was one of the saddest television programs I’ve ever watched. … Why would beautiful and intelligent young women throw away their lives this way? “Glamour” and “money brings happiness” were [...]