I’m just now getting around to looking at Damon Linker’s expose book on the Theocons , so’s I can find out what those First Things folks are really like. I discover that Neuhaus early developed a “pattern of defiance.” Evidence? Oh, you would ask. Well, Neuhaus said his father was not a man you could “directly cross . . . without direct repercussions.” Hmm. Not surprising for a Lutheran pastor of the old school. Any more? Yes: Neuhaus was sent... Read more
In the latest IJST , Paul Nimmo of Cambridge discusses Barth’s doctrine of divine concursus, contesting the idea (advanced by George Hunsinger among others) that Barth’s concursus doctrine is “Chalcedonian.” Early in the article, he summarizes Barth’s treatment in the Church Dogmatics . As one would expect, Barth wants to start from Jesus. Nimmo says, “It is in the history of Jesus Christ . . . that there is revealed the simple autonomy of the creature and with it the... Read more
John, the elder, addresses a “chosen Lady,” warning her and her children about “deceivers” who might try to win them over. John especially wants to draw the line at table fellowship: Don’t eat with the deceiver, John tells the Lady. Sound familiar? It’s Eden, but not quite Eden. After all, John presents himself more as “father” than “husband,” there are children, and this Eve has a sister (2 John 13). The most notorious sisters in the Bible are Jerusalem and... Read more
I recently saw the film, The End of the Spear , the story of Nate Saint and Jim Eliot’s mission to Ecuador. After the tribe spears the missionaries, one of the women from the tribe, who had left to live with the missionaries some years before, returns home to announce that God does not want them to spear each other. Some of the tribesmen respond, and begin living peaceful, productive lives. As the film depicts it, this is before any... Read more
John uses the word “truth” four times in the opening three verses of 2 John. Truth is fourfold, stretching out to the four corners of the earth. It also seems possible to take “truth” here, at least at a secondary level, as a reference to Christ – especially in the phrase “in truth,” “knowing truth,” and “for the sake of the truth” (vv. 1-2). Christ, the Way, Truth, and Life, also stretches to the four corners of the earth. And... Read more
The heretics that John attacks in his epistles are said to deny that Jesus came in the flesh. The coming is past in 1 John 4:2, but the tense is different in 2 John 7. Stott comments, “In strict grammar this should refer to a future coming, and some have wondered if a reference to the parousia, mentioned twice specifically in the first letter (2:28; 3:2), is intended.” Stott goes on to argue that John is referring to the incarnation,... Read more
Rosenstock-Huessy says that the Papal revolution led by Gregory VII was the first total revolution It was a mutiny against the papacy’s defense on the palace: “The papacy cut the direct and domestic relation between throne and altar in every manor or palace, and claimed the right to be guardian and spokesman for every local representative of the spirit.” The key issue was the election of the Pope, and “what the reform party did tackle immediately was the exclusion of... Read more
A few days ago, I suggested that the Federal Vision controversy in the Reformed churches is a “Presbyterian identity crisis.” But I don’t want to minimize the theological dimension of this debate. The issue is how to express the real theological differences, as opposed to the host of imaginary differences that are often discussed. Here’s the problem: Those associated with the Federal Vision and their opponents both claim to hold to the doctrinal standards of the PCA and OPC (or... Read more
In Ephesians 4, Paul describes the sevenfold unity of the church. The numerical connection with Genesis 1-2 already indicates that the church is the new creation, formed by the word of God and the “seven Spirits” into a united cosmos. But the seven unities might also link in detail to the days of creation. Maybe; here’s a stab: 1. One body: Church as light in darkness. 2. One Spirit: Spirit as the boundary/firmament? 3. One hope: Earth emerging from waters?... Read more
Robert Newton Peck writes about Baptist baptism in his novel, A Day No Pigs Would Die : “Baptists were a strange lot. They put you in water to see how holy you were. Then they ducked you under the water three times. Didn’t matter a whit if you could swim or not. If you didn’t come up, you got dead and your mortal soul went to Hell. But if you did come up, it was even worse. You had to... Read more
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