Bully's Blog

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“Modernity has for many moderns been a singularly joyless place… And no wonder: Continue reading

In his ground-breaking and fascinating The Handwriting on the Wall, [1] James Jordan writes:

God intends to teach Nebuchadnezzar what true wisdom is, by giving him advisors who have genuine knowledge of good and evil, men who call evil “evil” and good “good” (Isaiah 5:20–21). In Daniel 2-5, we shall repeatedly see the false wisdom of the Chaldeans fail, and the true wisdom of God’s people triumph.

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Doug Wilson writes:

“When it comes to child-rearing, between the Old and New Testaments there is total and complete continuity on the subject of godly parenting. There is no discontinuity. It needs to be emphasized again that there is continuity in the promises of God with regard to parenting. Not surprisingly, this has ramifications for the subject of infant baptism” (To a Thousand Generations, p. 10).

I am currently reading this book. Lots of good stuff in there, even for a Baptist. BUT…

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Spotted by Burke Shade:
Does the Bible Matter In the 21st Century? by Vishal Mangalwadi

“The West became great because biblical monogamy harnessed sexual energy to build strong families, women, children, and men.”

“In his quest to change oppressive regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, President George W. Bush argued, ‘Everyone desires freedom.’ True. Everyone also desires a happy marriage: can everyone therefore have one?

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“Recall the phrase: ‘Poor planning on your part does not constitute a crisis on my part’.  The less mature are always attempting to enroll others in their disquiet, their ‘crisis du jour’. A perceived catastrophe on the part of certain members of the congregation does not constitute a calamity for a well-defined leader.”

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Ah, America. Being the land of freedom isn’t all bad. Some of the extremes are good. Doug Wilson writes:

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“Reports of Christianity’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.”

“If your eschatology sees something other than the progressive growth and universal influence of the Kingdom of God in time and history, the success and triumph of the Great Commission, then you’d better stop drinking the Kool-Aid.” George Shubin

That was my friend George’s comment after reading this article by George Weigel from First Things.

For 27 years, the International Bulletin of Missionary Research has published an annual “Status of Global Mission” report, which attempts to quantify the world Christian reality, comparing Christianity’s circumstances to those of other faiths, and assaying how Christianity’s various expressions are faring when measured against the recent (and not-so-recent) past. The report is unfailingly interesting, sometimes jarring, and occasionally provocative.

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(Michael Jensen has published an interesting article:)

Hence are we called atheists. And we confess that we are atheists, so far as gods of this sort are concerned, but not with respect to the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance and the other virtues, who is free from all impurity. Justin Martyr (103-165), First Apology VI

I should like to propose a thesis that may seem somewhat unlikely for a Christian theologian: namely, that the atheists are right.

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or The Disunited State of Samaria

“…and they are seven kings;
five have fallen,
one is,
the other has not yet come;
and when he comes,
he must remain a little while.” (Revelation 17:10)

Time for another weird one. Although it’s probably only weird to the conservative evangelical Bible scholars among us. [1]

Albert’s post on marriage the other day allows us to see the context of the sin of the Samaritan woman. James Jordan observes that this woman was most likely a victim of this unjust system, hence the other Samaritans’ readiness to believe her testimony.

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A blog post from my friend Albert Garlando, republished here with his permission.

Marriage, Divorce and the Gospel

Jesus is interrogated by the religious ‘mob’ concerning his views on divorce (Mark 10:1-12). The mob are trying to get him to make a call on the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 24:1-4) provision for divorce and remarriage. The 1st Century rabbis did not agree in their own interpretations of this, so they pestered Jesus about it.

Their big question was: “What makes divorce OK?”

True to form, Jesus’ response is, “You have missed the point and are asking the wrong question.”

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