Bully's Blog

Oh, to entwine the thread of prayer around
These cares and woes, the daily, hourly cares,

Continue reading

That You May Prosper: Dominion by Covenant by Ray R. Sutton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As Doug Wilson says, when you first discover the hammer you think everything looks like a nail. Continue reading

Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church by Mark Driscoll
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was expecting to be shocked by this book, but perhaps we’re all Driscoll-desensitized now. Sounds like Mark was just what Seattle needed. Lots of wisdom from hard knocks, teachability, but above all, persistence for Jesus. Continue reading

More than thirty years after the release of their hit song, “Down Under,” (1978) Australian rock band Men at Work were hauled into court for ripping their flute riff from a nursery rhyme. The issue came up after discussion on a popular rock quiz TV show. [1]

Most Aussies of my generation knew the original (really uncool) song, and the use of it as a motif in a rock song was, well, really cool. The very fact that it didn’t have a big yellow sticker on it saying “This bit is from Kookaburra,” and the listener picked it up, was gratifying. All good music does this. All good movies do this. TV shows also use subtle allusions to past episodes as a nod to faithful viewers (and no show does it with the concrete-cracking understatement of Mad Men).

In this case of the flute riff, any dunderhead could pick it up. While I think that the current owners of the copyright, Larrikin Records, are a bunch of opportunistic bastards (and though they were once considered indie and cool, I guess they are now really uncool), it pains me that modern teachers of the Bible are too cautious to read the Scriptures in this way, too conservative to pick up the motifs, phrases and structural allusions that are obvious once they are pointed out. They are looking for the big yellow sticker, and it ain’t coming.

Continue reading

“Courage is the flower of conviction.”

When Christians speak of “cultural engagement,” what comes to mind? Are we thinking diamond rings or swords and strategies?

Jefferey Ventrella again:

Postmillennialism provides a biblically tenable basis for hope in God’s future grace. But we must not forget that God’s decree ordains both the end as well as the means. Christians must “work out their own salvation,” and this means ethical living by God’s holy standard, that is, theonomic living…

Continue reading

Jeffery Ventrella writes:

If theonomic postmillennialism is true—and it certainly is—then what differences here and now should this conviction make in the lives of Christians and their churches? What should be the character, and what should be the conduct of a professing postmillennialist?

Continue reading

Doug Wilson writes:

“Why do baptists not understand the covenant? The answer is not what many paedobaptists want to hear — the baptists do not understand it because paedobaptists do not understand it” (To a Thousand Generations, p. 95).

In context, Pastor Wilson’s argument here seems to be that if the church is suffering from nominalism, paedobaptism is not to blame.

Continue reading

.

One more Friedman post. Rich Bledsoe commented that the Biblical Covenant structure is very apparent in Friedman’s writings. Here’s a few of Mr Friedman’s principles for understanding the nature of true and false leadership (I have left quite a few of them out, as they wouldn’t make sense without his elaboration). For the whole outline, you’ll just have to get the book.

Continue reading

A fascinating article by Peter Leithart for Biblical Horizons:

But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you” (Jude 9).

Jude 9 raises several difficulties (though not insuperable difficulties) for conservative commentators. The event that Jude recounts does not seem to be drawn from the Old Testament, and most scholars claim, based on statements of Clement of Alexandria and Origen, that Jude borrowed this story from the Assumption of Moses, an apocryphal work.

Continue reading

“If the Federal Vision got baptism right, they would be demonstrating the biblical dominion pattern in every individual’s life.”

Matt Caslow posted some thinking man’s questions concerning Bully’s broadband brand of credobaptism. Matt, I hope these answers help you understand my assertions. Happy to discuss further. I’ll soon be posting a page at the top of the blog with baptism links.

Continue reading