No More Authentic Than Your Ancestors
We are a people consumed with the idea that we have courageously exceeded our ancestors’ meager attempts at freedom, honesty, and authenticity. Richard Weaver critiques such notions in Ideas Have Consequences (1948): Every group regarding itself as emancipated is convinced that its predecessors were fearful of reality. It looks upon euphemisms and all the veils of decency with which things were previously draped as obstructions which...
A Word on our Present Persecution
From the culture, media, and public square, we Christians are increasingly experiencing ridicule, hatred, and persecution. Here is a sobering reminder from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Christian who lived from 1906 to 1945, who also received persecution, and was even (many would say) martyred: The messengers of Jesus will be hated to the end of time. They will be blamed for all the divisions which rend cities and homes. Jesus and his...
Crucifixion or the Cross?
David Wells latest offering, God in the Whirlwind, is well-worth one’s time. Here’s just one of the many excellent excerpts: “There is a distinction between the crucifixion and the cross. The former was a particularly barbaric way of carrying out an execution, and it was the method of execution that Jesus endured. The latter, as the New Testament speaks of it, has to do with the mysterious exchange that took place in...
Life With God
Annie Dillard is unconventional, intriguing, and all-in-all enchanting. In her essay “An Expedition to the Pole” found in Teaching a Stone to Talk she subtly likens a deepening relationship with God to an expedition to the North Pole. In this quote she quite rightly observes that God does not demand all of us unless, of course, we want to be close to Him. God does not demand that we give up our personal dignity, that we throw in our...
A People Zealous of Good Works
Thomas Shepard was a Puritan in colonial New England, who lived from 1605 until 1649. He ties the “good works” question to Christ’s blood in this way: Christ shed his blood that he might purchase unto himself a people zealous of good works, not to save our souls by them, but to honor him. O, let not the blood of Christ be shed in vain! Grace and good works are a Christian’s crown; it is sin only that makes a man base. Now, shall a...
The Gospel in Romans 1
Stephen J. Nichols gives a wonderful introduction to Martin Luther’s 95 Theses. In his introduction, he quotes Luther commenting the Gospel found in Romans 1. A beautiful reminder of the glorious Gospel we’ve been commissioned to share. According to the Apostle in Romans 1, the gospel is a preaching of the incarnate Son of God, given to us without any merit on our part for salvation and peace. It is a word of salvation, a...
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