We gave our lives to the church. Leaving the church was something we agonized over. After so much sacrifice, it hurts to just be dismissed as if we never counted.
Book Review—The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church Read More »
I would like this book list to correspond to a sort of roadmap, a progression from, say, a mainline Christian to a full-blown ethical progressive atheist and humanist, who has a sure foundation for morality apart from religion. I’m not all the way there yet, as I have some books on my “to-read” list that
A Deconstruction Reading List Read More »
Tim Alberta’s The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory is a great book. The author’s intended purpose is to investigate the errors that have allowed MAGA extremism to permeate the evangelical church. The book’s overall sentiment can be summarized by this quote from a passage where the author was interviewing Cal Thomas: “When Trump mentioned
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory – Book Review Read More »
The Baptists had insisted that the way Jesus made disciples was by teaching and persuasion, not by coercion. They held that the government has no competence in religion, and when it seeks to enforce faith it creates wars of religion and hypocrites who claim a faith they do not actually hold… Following a thicker Jesus
Defending Democracy from Christian Nationalists Read More »
I just read the chapter on hell in C. S. Lewis’s The Problem of Pain, having been persuaded by Bidwell Presbyterian pastor, Greg Cootsona. I have to say I have always considered C. S. Lewis as a sort of standard for Christian orthodoxy. If there was ever a doctrine I had questions about, if I
The Problem of Hell Read More »
Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! (Psalm 150:3, ESV) αἰνεῖτε αὐτὸν ἐν ἤχῳ σάλπιγγος αἰνεῖτε αὐτὸν ἐν ψαλτηρίῳ καὶ κιθάρᾳ (Psalm 150:3, LXX) gui·tar… Etymology: French guitare, from Spanish guitarra, from Arabic qītār, from Greek kithara cithara (m-w.com) I’ve already had to deal with the issue of a capella worship
Praise him with the κιθάρα… Read More »
The Reformed understanding of things is that we do not have immediate access to God’s being. We have mediated access through God the Son incarnate and through the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments. The goal of our theology is to think God’s thoughts after him, as his image-bearers, as analogues.
A Reformed identity Read More »
The third chapter of Michael Horton’s book Introducing Covenant Theology is a difficult one, but we are encouraged by looking at the opening of chapter four, where he says we have our most difficult work behind us. The chapter is entitled, “A Tale of Two Mothers”, after Galatians 4:21-31. First we have the covenant of
Two Mountains: Sinai and Zion Read More »
I am getting ready to post on another Chapter from Michael Horton’s Introducing Covenant Theology, and I thought it might be helpful to clear up a couple things about covenant theology before we dig deeper into the book. In Reformed theology, we see three covenants in Scripture: Redemption, Works, and Grace. The Covenant of Redemption
The Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace Read More »
Leland Ryken notes: Hamlet’s friend Horatio quips, “I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.” A colloquial version of that would be, “I knew you would need an explanatory marginal note to figure that one out.” “Edified by the margent:” this is an allusion to a statement in the preface
Was Shakespeare a Closet Calvinist? Read More »