The End of Truth

Driscoll and Wilson on Spiritual Gifts and Intepreting Strange Happenings

2011-10-03T23:48:00.000-04:00

Driscoll and Wilson on Spiritual Gifts and Intepreting Strange HappeningsTwo classy men having an ejoyable and honest discussion. As always, this is the kind of stuff I love to hear, and even be around whenever possible.BHT

Spinning Into Control

2011-09-20T00:14:00.001-04:00

I was minding my own business today when a thought invaded, arrested, and held hostage my mind. It was let loose by a memory I have had for years of something a pastor said regarding those "old time Arminians". If memory serves, he went on to say (as if commending even such Arminians as John Wesley) that "they cared about God" in contrast to so many Evangelicals (of an Arminian stripe) who

There Are Two Ways To Get You To Do What I Want

2011-07-02T21:34:00.000-04:00

When it comes downt to it, there are two ways to get people to do things: by word or by deed. Or, to put it another way, I can ask you to do something or I can make you do something. This lesson is particularly a good one to learn as a child (I have no particular age in mind here, but the sooner the better, for both parent and child). The first time this truth arose in our home was when one of

Imagination, Evolution, & Education

2011-06-30T07:08:00.000-04:00

I was listening to a podcast titled Philosophy Bites in which Edmonds and Warburton (forgot first names) interviewd Alison Gopnik on the imagination. Toward the end of the interview, Gopnik offered an explanation for why we even have imaginations at all. In her estimation, and from an evolutionary perspective, the role of imagination in childhood serves as the R&D department of the human race (

A Glimpse of Lost Humanity at the Pool

2011-06-23T21:59:00.001-04:00

I was watching today at a pool in which middle and elementary school children were receiving swimming lessons, and noticed how unattractive children are when they won't trust adults. It wasn't as though they were explicitly defiant or that rebellion was oozing from every corner of the pool. However, I notice that those who could tread water, or even perform a sophisticated doggy-paddle, rarely

Christian Hedonism a la Thomas Manton

2011-06-12T22:18:00.000-04:00

I fell in love with the English Puritans years ago; I found there (after much effort learning how to read them) a substance that was lacking in so much contemporary preaching, both theological as well as practical. The other reason I have come to admire and appreciate them is because of the affective manner in which they speak about God: one almost gets the impression that they actually love him

8 Years of Grace Have Led Me . . . Here?

2011-06-08T22:12:00.001-04:00

As I sat in my classroom observing the students in the last period of my day today, I was overwhelmed at the stupidity of it all. It wasn't just the immature frolicking, the banal sense of humor; it was indescribable banality and folly. It was a lucid moment into the shallow joys and weak thoughts that so many young adults are trained in today. What follows are the words that came to me in

"If You Love Me, You Will Keep My Commandments."

2010-04-21T22:26:00.002-04:00

I recently spoke on the "new commandment" of Jesus to his disciples, referred to in 1 John 2:3 and named thus in the Gospel of John 13:34. My point was that Jesus, though he gave many commandments as we have them in the four New Testament Gospels, said that everything he expected of his disciples (and everything the Old Testament expected) could be summed up in the word "love God and your

God, Man, Love, and for Whose Sake

2010-04-17T00:06:00.004-04:00

On loving oneself, one's neighbor, God, and how they all fit together, Augustine writes in On Christian Doctrine,No sinner is to be loved as a sinner; and every man is to be loved as a man for God's sake; but God is to be loved for His own sake. And if God is to be loved more than any man, each man ought to love God more than himself. Likewise we ought to love another man better than our own

Christ's Death as Satisfaction for Sin

2010-04-15T18:44:00.002-04:00

John Owen writes on the human heart's need for a "resting place" and why believing that Jesus' death was, among other things, a satisfaction for sin before the demands of God's justice is so neeful:God is abundantly willing that we should receive that strong consolation that comes from gospel faith; the root of such faith is plucked away by denying the satisfacatino that was made by Christ. It

John Owen on Prayer, Via Sinclair Ferguson

2010-03-04T18:13:00.002-05:00

From Ferguson's John Owen on the Christian Life,[The Spirit] inspires confidence and boldness in prayer. "...[this boldness] consists in a holy persuasion that God is well-pleased with [our] duties, accepts [our] persons, and delights in [our] approaches unto his throne." Prayer, then, is a covenant privilege, and draws its inspiration, both in content and manner from what the Christian learns

John Owen, Sin, & Moths

2010-03-01T21:25:00.002-05:00

From Sinclair Ferguson's John Owen on the Christian Life, Owen says that sin is likea moth in a garment, to eat up and devour the strongest threads of it, so that though the whole hang loose together, it is easily torn to peices. (139)There's nothing like a good mental image to drive the point home, eh?

Squealer, Data, & Propoganda

2010-02-20T22:33:00.003-05:00

Data can be very helpful. Sleepy? You will be able to partially explain your fatigue if you go back and count how many hours you've slept each night for the last week or two. Hungry? How many (and what kind of) calories have you consumed today so far? Feel stupid? Well, that's not quite so easily explained merely by data.As an educator in America, one of the never-ending refrains I hear

Psalm 51 and Recycled Souls

2010-02-18T11:20:00.001-05:00

David wrote, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to you steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from me sin.” (Ps. 51:1-2) What struck me as I read these words this morning was the strange juxtaposition David formed by pairing the writer’s practice of blotting with his own soul being

No Excuses

2010-02-17T21:06:00.003-05:00

John Owen on the call to ministry, from The Duty of Pastors and People Distinguished:Nothing can excuse any[one] from going on His message who can perfect his praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings.No excuses of disability or any other impediment ought to take place; the Lord can and will supply all such defects. (p. 29)

"On the Square" from First Things: The Era of the Narcissist

2010-02-16T12:02:00.010-05:00

Have you ever noticed that no one today knows the names of the architects or fincanciers of medieval cathedrals, while the whole world seems to know that "this half-hour of the so-and-so show is brought to you by..."? We are a credit-seeking people, obsessed with the world knowing everything we've done. Without wanting to overy disparage the Facebook/Twitter phenomenon (which my wife and I are

The Paradox of Rebuke: Pleasurably Painful

2010-02-15T20:12:00.004-05:00

One of the things about the Bible that I love is how it rebukes people. There's nothing quite so invigorating and illuminating as a piercing, penetrating declaration that you're wrong which, at that moment of delivery, is self-evident and undeniable. This is the moment of confession, except it's a bit less voluntary. But that's the beauty: ever been at least partially relieved when your

So, What's the Bread and Wine for Again?

2010-01-19T21:08:00.004-05:00

Have you ever wondered what the purpose of the sacraments (bread and wine/juice) is in Christian worship? The standard answer is something like, "They are signs and seals of the promise of God to save all those who trust in the work of Christ on the cross in their place, and they are meant to strengthen that same faith." If that's the case, then one wonders, "Does that means that God's promise

Jesus Is the "True and Better" Jonah

2009-12-13T11:19:00.005-05:00

I read the book of Jonah this morning and was struck by what sounded like strong similarities with a passage in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 4, verses 35-41. In Mark, Jesus suggests to his disciples that they cross the "sea", and while sailing "a great windstorm arose" which terrifies the disciples but does not wake Jesus from his slumber in the back. They come to him, asking him to do something

Reading Providence Like Personal Tea Leaves

2009-11-27T12:18:00.005-05:00

I've had my share of unexpected, favorable "providences" in life, and read too much of the Bible, to believe that God is neither interested nor active in my life. However, I've also been tempted, as I know many Christians today are, to identify particular events in my life as what are called a "God-thing": events which are so completely extra-ordinary that they defy "normal" explanations, and

What are you, Deaf?

2009-11-10T20:06:00.002-05:00

In the Gospel of John 10:1-6, Jesus speaks about how people come to follow him: they recognize his voice as that of their shepherd. A stranger, he says, they simply will not follow, because they do not recognize his voice. When John says, then, that "they did not understand what he was saying to them", are we not to understand that they, his listeners, are not his sheep? The irony is

The First Information Age: the 16th Century

2009-11-08T21:13:00.003-05:00

Once again, the naivete of the (post)modern world has been demonstrated, and not surprisingly by Neil Postman. In his enjoyably impressive Technopoly, he writes about the overload of information that the modern book (not computer) created. In so doing, he reminds me that the "crises" of our day do not necessarily warrant the fear or euphoria we are so prone to give them, not unlike the toddler

Well Said, Mr. Lewis

2009-09-03T18:48:00.004-04:00

One of the things that keeps me reading these days is coming across material that says clearly and insightfullly what I already think. C. S. Lewis is one such writer. In God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, there is an essay titled "Dangers of National Repentance" which at least sounds prescient (and, upon reading, proved to be so). Mr. Lewis says,The idea of national repentance

False Dichotomies

2009-07-13T15:52:00.003-04:00

As a parent, obedience is often on the forefront of my brain. It came to me this morning how often my insistence of obedience can so easily bring about as well as destroy peace in the home. If I destroy peace, it's often because I'm after obedience from my children in the wrong way or time, or even after unreasonable obedience - expecting that they do something beyond their capacities. This

Protestant Purgatory or Catholic Correction?

2009-04-26T07:33:00.003-04:00

Do Protestants and Catholics have more in common on this doctrine of Purgatory than you previously thought? Wright has some interesting comments worth pondering (Surprised by Hope, p. 171):Paul makes it clear here [Romans 8] and elsewhere that it's the present like that is meant to function as purgatory. The sufferings of the present time, not some postmortem state, are the valley through which

Wright Speaks About Rewards Rightly

2009-04-25T16:02:00.004-04:00

From Surprised by Hope, page 161-2 (italics Wright's):We have been taught that we are justified by faith, not works, and, somehow, the very idea of being a Christian for what we will get out of it is distasteful. But the image of reward in the New Testament doesn't work like that. It isn't a matter of calculation, of doing a difficult job in order to be paid a wage. It is much more like

N.T. Wright On The Meaning of "citizens of heaven": Divine Imperialism

2009-04-23T07:19:00.007-04:00

I am aware that, in particular theological circles, there's a whirlwind of opinion about N.T. Wright and whether his view on "justification" is orthodox or not. Be that as it may, I'm also aware that many of those same critics are as excited about his writing on the resurrection of Jesus as they are horrified about his views on justification. His larger, more encyclopedic, work titled The

NPFT: Part 3

2009-04-22T07:59:00.004-04:00

This third installment of summarizing David Wells' critique of Modernity and the particular strain of Evangelicalism that it has spawned addresses some of the factors that have contributed to make public (and private) life feel superficial. This is not to say that nothing in modern life is substantive; rather, the atmoshere of modernity behaves and functions as though life is not as "weighty" as

The 21st Century in the Garden of Eden

2009-04-08T07:55:00.004-04:00

Because humanity is a unity (meaning that we are all descended from Adam and we all therefore constitute the human race), it ought not surprise us to continually see expressions of its fallen nature throughout history (including the history recorded in the biblical text) even if our fallen nature often takes on various expressions. Human nature, in Adam, is depraved, no matter the time or the

NPFT: Part 2

2009-03-27T12:56:00.004-04:00

My previous post, NPFT: Part 1, as a summary of the entire book No Place for Truth by David Wells, is now followed by my summary of the first chapter. I begin by stating a thesis that I think fairly summarizes the the whole volume, then a statement summarizing the chapter, then a more developed summary of the chapter. My hope is that anyone jumping in can get caught up by reading the statements

NPFT: Part 1

2009-03-15T21:05:00.003-04:00

In 1993, I was a college freshman and knew nothing of the term "evangelical", let alone what others, either friend or foe, thought of it. That year, David Wells published the first in a line of four volumes aimed at constructively criticizing the movement. That first volume, No Place for Truth, was said to possibly be "the most provocative book evangelical pastors and laypeople ever read".

An Overlooked Obstacle to Education (Public, Private, or Otherwise)

2009-02-08T18:10:00.000-05:00

As a teacher, I encounter the same obstacle every year: students resist learning and enter the classroom predisposed toward skepticism. Most of them are not always hostile (though they certainly can be), but even when they're not, there seems to be a cognitive membrane of resistance to what I'm trying to communicate; autobiographical information is the easiest thing to get across. Whether the

C.F.H. Henry: Unbelief Is Not Modern

2009-01-30T23:28:00.005-05:00

With all the attention and adulation that I've given David Wells' thesis (that modernity has made the gospel implausible), the late Carl F.H. Henry has some comments that have given me pause and that I think have begun to clarify what the root of unbelief is and modernity's challenge to biblical faith.The crisis of word and truth is not, however, in all respects peculiar to contemporary

John Calvin for Postmoderns: citation

2009-01-23T11:23:00.003-05:00

In my first post on Calvin, I cited his Institutes of the Christian Religion without giving the title. I suppose the few who read my posts probably knew what I was citing, but since this the web I can never be sure who's reading.

John Calvin for Postmoderns: Follow Up

2009-01-22T15:07:00.005-05:00

My aim in the previous post was to point out that God's self-authenticating presence and revelation of himself, through the Bible, by means of the Spirit's illuminating work in that Word is a good thing for believers to know and believe, even though it may sound subjective (and, therefore, threatening). But that's the point: hearing is subjective, in that you can't prove you heard the birds sing,

John Calvin for Postmoderns

2009-01-22T08:13:00.007-05:00

Our day is one in which people tend to believe only those things that can be demonstrated, proved, or shown by some empirical method; we have become a "Show Me" culture. Long before such proofs became popular, the 16th century reformer, John Calvin, recognized some of the problems with people subjecting Truth to such tests (even if it remains a valid method for scientific discovery). The other

Resolutions: Best If Served With Zeal

2009-01-04T20:57:00.004-05:00

I've never thought highly of resolutions (I'm thinking New Year's mainly). It always seemed to me strange that just because the calendar changed, so many people (inexplicably and all of a sudden) have epiphanies of what's wrong in their life and how to fix it. I always wondered, "If a new date was all you needed, why wait till Jan. 1?"Needless to say, then, is how un-resolved my own life has been

Winning & Bragging

2008-12-27T14:14:00.003-05:00

My freshman year of college I coached a middle school boys basketball team and PE class. I remember that at the time I received a lot of advice about emphasizing a lot of things: equal playing time, enjoying the experience of playing, growing in skill, seeing others succeed, etc. - almost everything except winning. This was when protecting the self-esteem of students and players had come to its

Alcohol and Happiness: Get the Order Right

2008-12-22T22:07:00.005-05:00

One of the great delights I have in reading writers from generations other than the present is the freedom they enjoy: they are unconstrained by our contemporary consciences or sensitivities to speak with clarity and conviction (and often did so even in the face of their contemporaries' sensitivities). G. K. Chesterton is certainly one such writer. His affinity for alcohol is no secret to those

(The) Prayer's Problem

2008-12-09T21:55:00.003-05:00

I usually like to write about issues in such a way as to not leave any "loose ends", but I don't know whether I'll be able to on this one. I recently spent some time praying with a few friends, and we began (as has been our habit) acknowledging "good" things about God. In some circles this would correspond to Adoration (per the ACTS protocol of prayer: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving,

Getting Through to People

2008-12-05T22:57:00.001-05:00

It came to me the other day: one of the ways that public speakers, and preachers in particular, have it pretty rough is their choice of words in speaking. It happened after I heard a biographical lecture on William Tyndale in which the speaker gave an example of the kind of linguistic training that Tyndale received in the 15th century. One assignment consisted of rewriting the statement "your

Needed: Leaders for the Church

2008-11-19T20:14:00.003-05:00

I continue to plod through Wells' diagnosis of what ails the church and his prescription for her restoration and health. As I read him, I find myself "strangely warmed" by his vision of what the future leaders of the church will be called upon to be. Note: I said "be" and not "do", mainly because what I think is mostly wrong in the church is that we know all to well how to "do" and have lost what

Intersection: Urban African-American Youth, Mathematics, & Religion

2008-11-14T22:58:00.003-05:00

Once in a while, something comes up in class that just begs for questions, discussion, and dialogue. Recently, the name Pascal came up (not unnaturally, since it’s a senior math class). This time, however, I mentioned the fact that he was not merely a mathematician, but a mathematician turned theologian and philosopher, whose departure from academia was greatly lamented and even resented by many

Why Providence Has Fallen On Hard Times

2008-11-03T08:06:00.009-05:00

In communicating the truths of Christianity, few efforts are more greatly rewarded than understanding why and how those truths may be difficult to believe or make little to no sense to one's hearers. In this regard, David Wells comments on why the traditional Christian understanding of Providence has become downright unintelligible to many today. The following quotations come from God in the

Saw: Cutting Off Limbs For The Wrong Reason

2008-10-20T14:10:00.007-04:00

Being older than 30 and without cable or satelite TV, there are many things of which I am ingnorant (and happily so!). But since I teach in a public high school, some things reach me anyway. One of them is movies I would never know about or see. Today, a few students came into class talking about the Saw movies and, interestingly, reflected on what the moral of the series is. After they talked

Lewis, The Virgin Birth, & Red Herrings

2008-10-19T21:05:00.005-04:00

Once again, I thank God for the uncanny insight and clarity with which Lewis cuts away the debris of modern thought. In his book Miracles, he includes a chapter on Red Herrings - insubstantial objections to the possibility of miracles happening. Taking the virgin birth as an example of the sloppy thinking that most Philosophical Naturalists bring to the table, Lewis says,...you will hear [modern]

Modernity: The Worldliness of Our Time

2008-09-05T23:00:00.008-04:00

The ways in which modernity has influenced and even altered human values and priorities are many and complex, and those who attempt to ellucidate such findings are like fish trying to tell other fish what it's like to be wet. Of course, fish are supposed to be wet, and human beings are supposed to have values and social customs (in a word, culture); but while being wet is no sin for a fish, being

From Tribe to Print to TV to Tribe again

2008-08-21T14:32:00.005-04:00

David Wells is an insightful author whose work I enjoy tremendously. Although he's been writing for several decades, I only discovered him last year. In No Place For Truth; Or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?, Wells comments on how the Age of Television (over against the preceeding centuries in which print was the dominant medium of knowledge) has been a major factor in changing how

Faith and the Reason to Believe God

2008-07-31T08:16:00.012-04:00

How would you sell a retirement fund? Would you persuade your client of its security by telling them the funds were already in it? If so, what motive could you give them that might compel them to invest their own? It seems to me that we often expect God to show us what the “pay off” will be in this or that situation before we will trust him in it; we expect to first see the money in the account

Artificial Equality A Necessity

2008-07-30T15:03:00.011-04:00

In his sermon titled Membership in The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis drops yet another bombshell. He says,You have often heard that though in the world we hold different stations, yet we are all equal in the sight of God. There are, of course, senses in which this is true. But I believe there is a sense in which this maxim is the reverse of the truth. I am going to venture to say that artificial

Mathematics as Beauty

2008-07-29T08:23:00.003-04:00

Beauty - what is it? We can all point to things we find beautiful; we can even (sometimes) explain why we find them beautiful. But what is that quality called "beauty" in them that makes them so attractive, especially when "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"? Yes, it's a cliche, but it's true: so many people find so many different things beautiful.Take mathematics, for instance. As a student

A Child Fit For Heaven

2008-07-11T12:10:00.004-04:00

David Copperfield begins with young Davy's birth. He is born to his recently widowed mother, raised for several years by her and their beloved nurse Pegotty, and then sent away to a London boarding school upon his mother's remarriage to the abusive and unfeeling Mr. Murdstone. He remains there long enough for his mother to conceive and give birth to a younger brother, of which David knows

The Lost Art of Description

2008-07-10T09:17:00.006-04:00

C.S. Lewis wrote a book titled Studies in Words that I only just recently discovered; it is an enjoyable read. On page 7 he defines 'verbicide' as "the murder of a word" and writes:Inflation is one of the commonest [ways in which verbicide happens]; those who aught us to say awfully for 'very', tremendous for 'great', sadism for 'cruelty', and unthinkable for 'undesirable' were verbicides.

A Christian Humanism

2008-07-09T11:46:00.001-04:00

In my limited but earnest adventures into the history of philosophy, I've learned that the term humanism hasn't always (or even primarily) carried the secular and negative connotations it so often does today. For most Christians, humanism means "man-centered" and the climax of rational arrogance; for many non-Christians, it means the discovery and pursuit of everything in life that is within the

Mental Illness As Sin vs. Sin as Mental Illness

2008-06-24T12:31:00.004-04:00

In commenting on some of the effects of the Enlightenment, the Dutch Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck praised the humanitarianism but also faults it.His praise: "...the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century introduced a milder assessment of sin and crime, abolished instruments of torture, moderated punishments, and aroused a sense of humaneness everywhere...". This "...idea of humaneness and

Nietzsche: Getting More Than He Bargained For

2008-06-24T09:08:00.005-04:00

As part of the requirements for a class I just completed, I've been reading Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols and C.S. Lewis' The Weight of Glory (the sermon within the book by the same title), and was struck by how much they both resonate with me, though for very different reasons. Nietzsche, of course, provokes a lot of well-deserved criticism from Christians, but some also

Flannery O'Connor, Dogma, & Mystery

2008-06-13T13:50:00.007-04:00

The Catholic novelist Flannery O'Connor has recently been very encouraging to me. It has been said that historic Protestant orthodoxy has more affinity with Roman Catholic dogma than with liberal Protestantism's theology. Without having had reason to doubt this assertion, I have now tasted it, and agree wholeheartedly.I recently read her Spiritual Writings and was surprised at how much I

Trees as Teachers

2008-06-05T10:26:00.001-04:00

I reclined beside my 3 year-old daughter the other evening on the back patio while she finished her dinner. We had all finished eating, and the rest were cleaning up. As I lay there looking toward the sky, I noticed something I rarely stop to consider: the tops of the pine trees swaying in the breeze. They looked pleasant and lazy, bending with the wind.Down the tree line behind my neighbor’s

Christian Love Complicates Evolution

2008-05-19T08:39:00.004-04:00

In thinking about the goal of evolution (namely, the preservation and improvement of species), it struck me recently how self-destructive Christian Love is in such a world. Christianity's goal of Love toward God and people (as the Bible expounds it) is certainly odd in a world that is improved by survival at all costs. In a world where self-preservation is the goal, self-denial is

Atheism, Evolution, Science, & Rationality - Part 2

2008-05-14T15:02:00.004-04:00

In line with my last post, reading Dennett's book has provoked subsequent thoughts along other lines, one of which is how evolution, on its own terms, can explain why the survival of a species is a good or desirable thing. As I understand it, evolution is defined as the random genetic mutation of species and the natural selection of preferred mutations that result in the peferred mutations

Atheism, Evolution, Science, & Rationality - Part 1

2008-05-14T08:22:00.013-04:00

I've begun reading Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenemenon and I find it frustrating. It's not the subject matter I don't like, but the style. Leon Wieseltier, in his NY Times review, expressed it nicely: "The orthodoxies of evolutionary psychology are all here, its tiresome way of roaming widely but never leaving its house, its legendary curiosity that somehow

Addendum: Parenting Like Marriage

2008-04-15T10:23:00.003-04:00

In my haste to write the previous post on marriage, I failed to acknowledge that the thoughts therein are not orginal with or exclusive to me. Most recently, Dr. Jim Coffield (a professional counselor and adjunct faculty at RTS) spoke on the specifics of seeing marriage as part of a larger (more meaningful) whole. During the conference, reference was also made to the book titled Sacred Marriage

How Parenting is Like Marriage

2008-04-14T15:15:00.006-04:00

When my wife and I began having children, we believed that training them to obey us was the main goal. It wasn't until much later (our oldest was about 8) that we began to see obedience as a very poor end in itself. When we stopped believing that our children are "in training" for life till they're 18 or graduated, and started believing that they, just like every other person on the planet, is

Persons, Dignity, and Vindication

2008-04-11T08:07:00.006-04:00

People are not just so many cattle. If cattle are mistreated, it is a shame to the abuser. My indignation, however, is not that this or that particular head of cattle was mistreated, but that cattle in general should not be so mistreated. If a human being is mistreated, my indignation is both with respect to human beings in general and that human being in particular. If every man and woman, boy

Would you have saved Jesus?

2008-04-09T21:50:00.005-04:00

I was listening to a radio drama with my kids that portrayed the (mock) trial and execution of Jesus. In it, a boy who saw the injustice of it all screamed and yelled at people to "do something to stop it", and it hit me, would I have tried to stop it if I were there and saw how evil it was? But then, to stop it would have been to "gum up the works" of God's plan for the redemption of his people

Worthy Posts

2008-04-09T16:04:00.004-04:00

Now that I've entered Blogdom, the pressure to write is incredible. I'm amazed how often I'm tempted to check my own blog just to see what else I've written. It reminds me of television: TV rarely ever just records or documents events, but instead usually creates events that television can then capture and broadcast. Haven't you ever felt the sensation when someone turns the camera on you at

Double Meaning in Truth

2008-04-07T15:29:00.003-04:00

In his book The End of Education, Neil Postman explains that the word 'End' in the book's title was deliberately chosen because it carries a double meaning: if education has no end, it will meet its end. So it is here. I chose the title "The End of Truth" because today, in the intellectual discussions of philosophy and epistemology in the West, "truth" as an objective reality has rapidly grown

Trying to figure this out

2008-04-07T12:37:00.000-04:00

Since I've been skeptical of the entire "blogging" phenomenon for the last few years, I'm reluctant to begin doing so now. However, I have my reasons, which may actually come out in subsequent posts. For now, I'll just experiment to see how this stuff works, and hope I don't embarrass myself (or anyone I know).