Stop trying to claim the hermeneutical "high ground" with your literal approach. You don't actually do it. To some degree or
Book Review: NIV College Devotional Bible
Individuals seeking to purchase a NIV from Zondervan would be better served buying their NIV Skinii Bible which is both affordable and physical/visually attractive.
Presbyterian without Promise
Yes, God has promised the salvation of our children. Yes, He has promised directly to them to save them. And yes, some of them spurn His covenant of promise and become apostate.
The Highway & The Sidewalk
Too often when someone disagrees with what someone is writing they tend to boil things down to silly arguments about the writers moral standing. Developing a an enlarged understanding of how differing mediums and purposes will affect one's form of communication could do much to quell the tumultuous world of social media and blogging. Especially among Christians.
A Thanksgiving in Vancouver with Barth
As many of you might know, my wife surprised me in multiple ways on father's day this year. I found out I would be a dad (for the third time) via a cryptic card. I also received a book that I have been craving for a long, long time.
Why Are Christian Novels & Movies So Bad?
What Christian authors and film makers need to understand is that the Christian faith is not an idea. Christianity is incarnate, creational, embodied. If Christians continue to use physical means (art) to simply say that art is not important (only ideas are) then our contributions will continue to lag behind.
Book Review: The Authors of the Deuteronomistic History by Brian Peterson
The Authors of the Deuteronomistic History is a surprisingly accessible volume that is brimming with scholastic insight. Even laymen will be capable of understanding Peterson’s arguments and enjoy his insights into the history of Israel.
Book Review: The Attentive Life by Leighton Ford
Encouraging an adjustment to our focus, Leighton Ford dives deeply, uncovering gems. All who walk the path of Christianity would find benefit engaging The Attentive Life.
Liturgy Series: Part 7 – Baptism
Baptism serves as a constant reminder that God chooses that which is weak in the world to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27). Whereas the priesthood of the old covenant was available only to a select few based on blood. The waters of baptism open the priesthood to all serving as testament forever that water truly is thicker than blood.
An Apologia for Outcry
A personal apologia that is not inherently meant for outside readers. It is for me. It is what I have determined the Scriptures to require. A cry that the church should recognize, support, and encourage. The declaration that something is "lawful" does not make it righteous. And only a fool would declare that the recent string of deaths at the hands of police officers has been righteous.
Heavenly Outposts
The church cannot afford to sit back and assume that their heavenly citizenship opts them out of reforming/heavenizing the world around them. Because the church truly is the Body of Christ indwelt by the Spirit this means that the church, like its Lord, is the connection between heaven and earth and angels ascend and descend upon her. The church is "a colony of heaven" on earth.
Book Review: Johannine Theology
What makes Rainbow's work unique from other volumes on Johannine theology is that it considers all of the Biblical works that are traditionally ascribed to John (the Gospel, the Epistles, and the Apocalypse). Other contemporary works that have attempted to address the breadth of John's theology have tended to do so while not addressing one of those just mentioned.
Gracious Tables
These are the conversations of experienced people. Conversation flooded with input not for the sake of self gratification or pontification but for an engagement and sharing of life.
Happy New Year!
In recognizing the ways in which secular liturgical calendars pull on and shape our desires we can more clearly see the wisdom of embracing the liturgical calendar of the church. Following such a liturgical calendar functions as a counter-formation to the liturgical calendars that wish to shape our desires contrary to the Kingdom of God.
Book Review: Blindness
Finishing this book, for me, was like waking from a long and nerve-wracking but undeniably momentous dream; and in
Two Kingdoms: Living In A Land Not Our Own
NL2K does not mean we retreat from society and let it go to hell, it means that we seek the best for whatever society we find ourselves in, we live at peace with all men inasmuch as it depends on us, we lead quiet lives, and we seek out the welfare of our neighbors.
Happy Thanksgiving From St. Anne's Manor
Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving from all of us here at Torrey Gazette! Eat lots of great food, drink lots of good alcohol, and make merry with the best of ‘em!
Satan Unbound, Christ (Still) Victorious
One side says that if you believe Satan is not bound then you don’t believe in God’s power and you’re just reading the Bible wrong, the other side says that if you believe Satan is bound then you are just blind to the evils of the world and you don’t read the Bible with a “literal” hermeneutic.
Book Review: Biblical Theology: The Common Grace Covenants by Jeffery Niehaus
Niehaus’s Biblical Theology is a joy to read. It is pleasing to the mind (theology) as well as the soul (poetry).
The Bloody Marriage of Military & Sport
Sports, the movies, the mall, the news cycle, etc. all serve in a liturgical manner; they all shape us and form us in certain ways simply by our exposure to them. When Smith speaks of “liturgies” he’s talking about cultural rituals that tend to shape us in ways that we aren’t necessarily aware of. In other words, liturgies don’t ask for permission to shape the way we think and feel about certain things, they just do it.