Is the Magistrate’s Prohibition of Public Worship a Lawful Command in Our Present Situation?
A postscript to the author’s former review of “The Price of Panic.”
The fact of the matter is that the fundamental premise of our government’s pandemic response strategy, summarized by the phrase “Stop the Spread,” runs contrary to basic epidemiological theory, which “indicates that lockdowns do not reduce the total number of cases in the long run and have never in history led to the eradication of... Continue Reading
‘Hillbilly Elegy’—A Threat to Critical Race Theory
‘Hillbilly Elegy’ is really not so much a book or movie about Appalachia and its culture, but more about the consequences of sin in any culture.
The major controversy that surrounds the book is that it contradicts the narrative of identity politics presently dominant in this country. We are told that racial injustice is only a problem with minority groups who are non-white. White men are, by definition, oppressors. That is the standard presupposition of identity politics. Because the book portrays... Continue Reading
How the Founders Responded to an Epidemic in the Nation’s Capital
iI’s hard to conceive of any action that would have better met the challenge than what Philadelphians did, crude though it seems by today’s standards.
Churches in Philadelphia never closed during the epidemic. Given the nature of the disease, it wouldn’t have made a difference either way. If government officials had ordered them closed, there’s good reason to believe that devout Philadelphians would have defied or resisted such orders. Do not read this book before eating, or in the midst of a... Continue Reading
A Review: “Meet the Puritans”
This is a must read—and re-read—for those seeking encouragement in a day when it costs to stand for truth.
Meet the Puritans invites modern readers—laymen and scholars alike—into the world of the Puritans. The work covers preachers from England, Scotland, Holland, and America, as it takes readers back to the peoples, places, and events of the Puritan era. The format of the book is simple, providing snapshots of the Puritans. Its breadth is comprehensive, covering... Continue Reading
Book Review: Gentle and Lowly
In other words, he wants us to see his heart for his people. He is for us. He is with us. He is beside us. All the way home.
Our savior is tender. He is compassionate. He is gentle and lowly. We need not have this image in our head of a stiff-necked Christ who is waiting for us to mess up. He is not trigger-happy to show his hanger. No, he is trigger-happy to show his children mercy, compassion, and undeserving grace. ... Continue Reading
Why Contentment Stems from a Thankful Heart
The beginning of men’s rebellion against God was, and is, the lack of a thankful heart.
If the contentment goes and the giving of thanks goes, we are not loving God as we should, and proper desire has become coveting against God. There is proper desire, and there is proper rejection of the results of a fallen, abnormal world; but when I can no longer say thank you in the midst... Continue Reading
Carl Trueman’s New Book
The book is an exercise of anthropology, the doctrine of human beings, involving an estimate of some of its current expressions.
What do this rather different trio of Rieff, Taylor and Macintyre have in common? I think it is fair to say that Trueman treats them as sources of the reimagining of the human self. The three thinkers do not concur, and certainly have not collaborated, But their approaches overlap, each providing materials which can provide elements of... Continue Reading
8 Ways We Can Pursue Peace
There are eight godly attitudes in Colossians 3:12–14 that are foundational to biblical peacemaking.
In Colossians 3:5–11 Paul describes the evil we must put off. Verses 12–14 set forth the eight attitudes we are to put on. The Greek New Testament verb translated “put on” or “clothe yourself with” continues the clothing metaphor begun with the “put off” exhortations in verses 5–11. Paul lays out eight articles of clothing... Continue Reading
3 Causes for Political Tension Between Christians
When we were born again, wonderfully, we lost the need to justify ourselves before God through our personal and political pursuits.
Most political judgments we make depend on wisdom not on directly applying explicit biblical principles. To put this another way, there is some space between our biblical and theological principles and our specific political judgments. Two Christians might agree on a biblical or theological principle but disagree on which policies, methods, tactics, or timing best... Continue Reading
A More Life-Affirming Worldview (Pearcey)
Christians must once again become known as those who honor the whole person.
Christians must present biblical morality in a way that reveals the beauty of the biblical view of the human person so that people actually want it to be true. And they must back up their words with actions that treat people with genuine dignity and worth. The following section of Nancy Pearcey’s Love Thy Body is very... Continue Reading
