Since the beginning of time this world has been dealing with sin and its consequences. Adam and Eve’s fall in the garden leads to many consequences – setting us up for a lifetime of relationship struggles that was not in God’s original plan. As life plays out we watch and see disastrous things start to happen – murder, theft, idolatry, and promiscuity with sexual behavior. God leads His people: in the Exodus movement, and finally...
CNN interacts with Mark Driscoll’s new book, Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship, and Life Together, co-written with his wife. Read CNN’s article here. In light of the recent Iowa Caucuses to determine the future GOP candidate and the upcoming primaries in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, and so on, Kevin DeYoung gives us 7 anthropological principles for politics. Matthew Lee Anderson discusses predictions for the New Evangelicals in 2012. Michael Horton discusses the...
Good thinking necessarily requires pulling various strands of thought into something of a poetic amalgamation. Though it is doubtful that my writing could be described as poetic (I’ll leave that to other authors on this blog), I would at least like to take a stab at the amalgamation part. For those new to the two-kingdoms theological grid, the discussion of natural law and the two-kingdoms may seem incongruent. What do these two stands of thought...
We have all heard the mantra by now. Week after week, in pulpit after pulpit, Christians are being called to renew the world that they live in. Called to “renew” or “redeem” everything from governmental structures to the very way we play sports. Leaving aside the fact that this call is often times very confusing from a purely pragmatic standpoint, we ought to consider how massive the theological presuppositions are behind such statements. Yes, this...
A few weeks ago, I introduced an idea that natural law was meant to be the source from which all civil laws flowed. Thus, rather than appealing to biblical texts in order to erect judicial code, one must look to natural law. This post is my effort to establish natural law as the normative seat for the creation of civil law. While this may seem foreign to many, it was in fact the “orthodox” Reformed...
“…historic Reformed doctrines affirm a sharp distinction between the church as the non-violent kingdom of Christ and the sword bearing, coercive state. Hence, the state is not and cannot be the kingdom of Christ and… the demise of Christendom can be celebrated rather than mourned.” This quote from David VanDrunen in his book Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms will strike much of contemporary evangelicalism as nothing short of appalling. How can any real Christian...
We are less than a year away from the 2012 presidential elections and I suspect that I am not the only one who often finds political pontification in Christian circles (right, left or otherwise) to be an obscene bore. But it’s not just Christian circles. It’s every circle. What makes political discourse so confusing is that a solid foundation of social theory is largely lacking for the vast majority of voters. That includes Christian voters....
“Who are you to tell me what to do?” “Why can’t I do something if it doesn’t hurt anybody else?” “Big government is a big failure; keep its nose out of my business!” Such sentiments echo at Libertarian rallies across the world. Libertarians value autonomy and freedom, and they are not afraid to openly express their disdain for the viewpoints of the opposition. As Christians, however, it is prudent to evaluate such claims in the...
Upon John Dunne’s request, I am going to write something relating Romans 13 and civil disobedience. This post does not represent my thinking on the matter but rather gives a historical perspective to the problem with hopes that a later post, reflecting my thoughts, will bring about thought provoking and engaging conversation. I will quickly give an overview of John Calvin’s resistance theory and how certain historical events forced his most loyal and fervent follows...
It is hugely disappointing to me that I still have to defend my love for the Harry Potter series to other Christians. In good Two Cities fashion of “reconciling Evangelicals with the ‘Bad Guys,’” I will give two reasons why the Harry Potter series is not a threat to the Christian worldview and is actually a good means of teaching Christian moral values to children and adults. Harry & Stoicism The Harry Potter series is...
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