A Living Text.
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What would Calvin have thought of ‘Calvinists’?
Probably not much. He attacks the idea of factions in the church being called by a leader’s name when he writes about monasticism: And that there might be no doubt as to their separation, they have given themselves the various names of factions. They have not been ashamed to glory in that which Paul so…
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Yoga leads to possession
This probably puts me firmly into the fundamentalist camp, but I don’t mind. An article says that yoga can lead to demonic possession, and I tend to agree. All kinds of non-Christian practices that were anathema when I was a kid (not that long ago) are now widely embraced, including horoscope reading, acupuncture, and yoga.…
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Splitting up: Anglican angst
From the Christian Century: by Jason Byassee in the May 20, 2008 issue Last year the Church of the Resurrection in suburban West Chicago closed its doors and put its building up for sale. The Episcopal congregation had suffered membership losses 14 years earlier when some conservative members left to start their own church, also called the Church of…
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Five Objectionable Mormon Doctrines
In The New Mormon Challenge, Craig Bloomberg takes a stab at defining what he thinks the “five most objectionable Mormon doctrines” are. He says: a finite theism in which God at some point in eternity past was merely a man and not divine; a view of the universe as not eternally contingent on the will…
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The family tree of Jesus
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William Ames on image worship
William Ames writing in his Marrow of Theology discusses image worship: Prayer is opposed by the use of representative images at or before which God is worshiped, even though the worship is referred not to the images themselves – subjectively, as some say – but objectively to God alone. Superstition of this type is called…
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Arthur Bloomfield and Bad Exegesis
I grew up in a church that was enamored with many things that I now find to be less that sound doctrinally – Finney’s sinless perfection for one. One thing that made a huge impact on my thinking was the dispensational thinking of a particular strand unique to my church. The source of much of…
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John Lennon on Led Zeppelin
For the longest time I have looked in vain to see any of the Beatles comment on Led Zeppelin. I just couldn’t find any- thing on what John, Paul, George or Ringo thought of Led Zep. And to me, the torch passed from the Beatles to Zep in terms of world-dominating groups that mattered. So…
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The Good Life
I’ve quoted the definition of the good life here before; it is: “happiness,” or the good life, which is to be attained in a community of family and friends who can satisfy one another’s material and social needs, behave justly toward one another, and, according to their capacity, contemplate the Good. I am reading Till…
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Paula White: Rich, Divorced, ‘Christian’ Pastors
I’ve watched Paula White on TV for sometime now. One of my hobbies is watching stations like TBN and offering a constant verbal criticism of what the people on-screen are saying or doing. Paula White is particularly entertaining. She is able to talk without breathing for long stretches at a time. There is an entire…