Anabaptist is a name invented by the enemies of the Anabaptists. One of the names they used for themselves was “defenseless Christians.”
One of my goals is to be a defenseless Christian. All of society and most of the church spends much of its time defending itself. When we’re attacked, that’s our natural response. But I want God to be my only defense.
Unfortunately, I spend much of my time defending myself as well. But, I mean, I probably have to. What if God doesn’t come through for me? When I really need him. he might turn out to be sick or busy. Or maybe not.
Posted in Desperate Suggestions | November 27th, 2007 1 Comment »
A corollary of the common heresy of proportional atonement is the heresy of proportional repentance. That says that you only have to repent of the bad things about you. But there are many good things about you. You don’t have to repent of them.
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Posted in Common Heresies | November 21st, 2007 2 Comments »
Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
- G. K. Chesterton
Posted in Incisive Quotes | November 16th, 2007 1 Comment »
Why do we allow deliberate mistranslations of the word of God simply because we are too delicate and pure to read it?
When Isaiah says our human righteousness is like “filthy rags,” he wasn’t talking about anything you get when you change the oil in your car.
When Paul said that he counted his previous righteousness as “loss,” he wasn’t talking about anything you’ll find in the lost and found.
Posted in Common Heresies | November 12th, 2007 No Comments »
“Where is Hollywood located? Chiefly between the ears. In that part of the American brain lately vacated by God.”
– Erica Jong, from How To Save Your Own Life
Posted in Incisive Quotes | November 8th, 2007 No Comments »
You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.
- G. K. Chesterton
Posted in Incisive Quotes | October 26th, 2007 No Comments »
Pornography, if it’s defended, is defended in the name of freedom of expression. The creators of pornography, it is argued, are making an artistic statement. Okay, few defenders of pornography are willing to call it art. But they claim that pornographic performers are proud of their bodies, free from sexual hang-ups, and eager to share their worldview with the rest of us.
That makes pornography the direct counterpart of the 19th century minstrel show. Both pornography and minstrelsy depict an idealized world that doesn’t really exist. And both involve the exploitation of the people they are supposed to be depicting.
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Posted in Babylonian Captivity | October 11th, 2007 3 Comments »
Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.
- G. K. Chesterton
Posted in Incisive Quotes | October 9th, 2007 No Comments »
“If you are a Christian, no earthly city is yours.”
– John Chrysostom
Posted in Incisive Quotes | September 28th, 2007 No Comments »
“God is not a hypothesis derived from logical assumptions, but an immediate insight, self-evident as light. He is not something to be sought in the darkness with the light of reason. He is the light.”
– Abraham Joseph Heschel
Posted in Incisive Quotes | September 22nd, 2007 No Comments »
