Quote on Mealtimes
“If we understand mealtimes as an important blessing from God, then we need to carve enough time in our schedules for this most precious gathering of the day. To have regular sit-down meals as a family, and to have people over, you have to have a schedule that frees your time to do this. Your […]
Transcript of CP Show with Jonathan Merritt Part 1: What is Lostness?
Managing Editor: This is the text of an interview CrossPolitic did with Jonathan Merritt about his book Learning to Speak God from Scratch. The video of the interview can be found here. The text has been slightly edited for sake of smoothness and clarity. Otherwise, this is the transcript of the interview. The other parts […]
Thoughts on Biblical Satire
“When Jesus looked on the rich, young ruler and loved him, it is very easy to say that we should be loving as He was. When preachers make such applications, no one thinks anything of it. But when Jesus looked on the rich, old rulers and insulted them, why do we tend to assume that […]
Song of Your Own
SONG OF YOUR OWN People take on the shape of the songs and stories that surround them, especially if they don’t have a song of their own. Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys Like the slender-ankled daughters of ocean shaped by the banks that decide their path, we are shaped by our songs and our stories like potions. Each […]
Interview with Remy Wilkins, Author of Strays
Thanks for joining us at The Westminster Confession of Funk. And thank you for such a delightfully named blog. It’s always been one of my favorite names. Your novel Strays, what’s it about? What inspired the story? It’s about a boy named Rodney who has to spend the summer at his weird uncle’s and gets […]
Pastor Joe Rigney on Caesar, Shakespeare, and Twitter
[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_code _builder_version=”3.11″]<div style=”width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;”><iframe src=”https://streamable.com/s/ean22/nruujm” frameborder=”0″ width=”100%” height=”100%” allowfullscreen style=”width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute;”></iframe></div><!– [et_pb_line_break_holder] –><!– [et_pb_line_break_holder] –>[/et_pb_code][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.11″] Find the full episode here on iTunes or here on our Youtube channel. [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]
What Happens if Roe Vs. Wade is Overturned?
Here is my concern about the overturning of Roe vs. Wade: what happens when the law comes? Sin revives and we die. To undo Roe is to choose the death of America. That makes sense if you believe in resurrection. But we can only pray for the end of Roe if we trust that God raises the dead.
Hunger For God: Nearly 1000 Soldiers Come to Faith
When I was a young boy I met someone who seemed like a giant to me. At six-foot-seven-inches Jose Rondon was the tallest person I had ever seen in person. He was also incredibly kind, a good baseball pitcher, and loved Jesus. Originally from Venezuela, Jose lived briefly with my grandparents before staying long-term with […]
Hair Flapping in the Wind: On the SBC and Women
My denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, held its annual meeting last week. In response to current cultural trends, namely the #MeToo movement and the Paige Patterson fiasco, leaders and messengers spent a significant amount of time addressing women’s issues. The convention passed resolutions on the dignity of women and on abuse. But a lot of […]
Cake Bakers, Crossfit, and The French Revolution
I was recently sitting in on a lecture from a local university professor on the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. Whitworth University’s Dr. Van Inwegen explained that there are stories from history, “that help us understand the world we are in.” One of his stories did just that. During the French Revolution, after […]
Nouveau Pelagianism
In his Confessions, Augustine (354-430) describes mankind’s universal sinful bent as “concupiscence.” The Greek word epithumia (ἐπιθυμία) occurs 38 times in the New Testament. It describes the utter enfeebling of mankind’s freedom of will through the bondage of sin. It is the fallen nature’s inclination to wickedness, desire for immorality, and passion for iniquity, that […]
Immediately
Poet, literary critic, and novelist, Arthur Quiller-Couch, was best known for his incomparable anthology, The Oxford Book of English Verse. As a lecturer at Oxford beginning in 1886 and a professor at Cambridge from 1912-1944, he taught an entire generation of English writers how to write. Exceedingly prolific himself, he wrote in almost every conceivable […]
Facebook, Evangelism, and the Control of Information
Adam Ford has sold the Christian satire news site, The Babylon Bee. Launched in 2016, the Bee employs The Onion-style satire to spoof American evangelicalism—its popular pastors, authors, and fads—while taking occasional jabs at our larger secular culture. It has been mostly funny and wildly successful. So why did Ford sell? He gave several reasons […]
Education and Hope
Haarlem is a beautiful little Dutch town on the River Spaarne, fifteen minutes by train from Amsterdam. Founded sometime in the 10th century, in 1245 it was granted city status or stadsrechten and was made the capital of the province of North Holland. By the 14th century, it had become a mercantile hub as a […]
Islam, End Times, and the Imago Dei
Last week was crazy. The United States moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Hamas greeted the move in their usual manner, which means with bombs and human shields. Major media outlets portrayed Hamas in their usual manner, which means referring to them as “protestors,” ignoring the bombs and the children sent into a […]
Just Preach It
When I was in seminary, the “Church Growth Movement” was just getting its sea legs. So, of course, it was all the rage in the hallowed halls of academia—if not amongst the profs, most assuredly amongst their charges. Filled with uninformed enthusiasm my peers tended to gobble up every fad and fancy that came down […]
Investigating Us – An Interview with Musician Joel Ansett
Joel, thanks for joining us at The Westminster Confession of Funk, hosted by CrossPolitic. So you have a new Kickstarter out. Your last one was a big success. What have you learned about yourself as a musician since your last kickstarter, “The Nature of Us”? Great question. Goodness what have I learned. As a musician, […]
Alfie Evans and the Post-Familial World
By now the tragic story of Alfie Evans is well known. The English toddler with an undiagnosed neurodegenerative disorder died last week, five days after doctors extubated him and abandoned all treatment, except palliative care. A judge denied Alfie’s parents the right to transport him to another hospital to extend treatment and life-support, even though […]
Self-Examination As a Check Against Idolatry
The years leading up to the Scottish Disruption and those immediately afterward produced some of the most remarkable servants of God in the history of the church. Andrew Alexander Bonar (1810-1892) was a member of that galaxy of brilliant, Reformed Scots preachers, writers, and missionaries which included his brothers John, James, and Horatius, as well […]
Just or Unjust: Reviewing the Syrian Missile Strike
Last week, I posted my article on just war and the ascendance of foreign policy hawks in the White House on the same morning President Trump tweeted this: Two days later, President Trump, along with his British and French counterparts, ordered a limited missile strike against the Assad regime in response to its alleged use […]