What can we do to improve the prospects of boys? For one thing, we must acknowledge the fact that boys and girls are different. In many education and government circles, it remains taboo to broach the topic of sex differences. Many gender . . . Continue reading →
Creation
Creator, Sustainer, Father (1)
One of the most basic impulses of the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment west has been to get rid of God. The Enlightenment brought a revolution. In Christian antiquity, God was and we were becoming. In Modernity (and late modernity) we are and God . . . Continue reading →
Messages To Millennials (1): Marriage
On March 7, 2014, the Pew Research Center published the results of a new Survey: Millennials in Adulthood. Bradford Wilcox has a summary in the NRO. According to the study, Millennials have become disconnected from some basic institutions: marriage, church, and work—though not . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 68: Science! (pt 2)
It’s widely thought that science, the modern study of nature, is the product of the rejection of Christianity, as if science and Christianity are naturally at odds. As part of this narrative it is said that Christianity was anti-intellectual and disinterested in . . . Continue reading →
Creational Laws
And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 103: The Christian Sabbath (1)
If there was a time when the church needed to stop its business, to rest, to worship, and to set aside time for the care of the poor in their midst, that time is now. At no time in its history has . . . Continue reading →
Of Common Grace, Nature, And Bathrooms
On a quick trip to and from Washington D.C. I read P. J. O’Rourke, The Baby Boom And How It Got That Way…. As always O’Rourke is funny, insightful, and often right on the mark. I’m not sure that I’m convinced that . . . Continue reading →
Nature, Gender, Rage, The Emperor’s Clothes, And Evangelical Docetism
The controversy over transgendered bathrooms is really a symbol of the success of subjectivism. Hans Christian Anderson (1805–75) anticipated this crisis in the early 19th century and told us a story about the “Emperor’s New Clothes.” If ever there was a parable for this age, this is it. In it people are told repeatedly to deny their sense experience in favor of political correctness. A small boy, however, unaware of the potential socio-economic consequences (or the rage of the LGBT lobby) of telling the truth, speaks truth to power to the everlasting shame of the adults. So it is in our time. The Transgender Emperor has the wrong clothes. Continue reading →
An Early Orthodox Reformed Theologian On The Role Of Science In Biblical Exegesis And Theology
VII. We shall leave to the students of the physical world the problem of describing the nature of the various creatures [in the creation narrative]. For us, it is sufficient to to list them according to the days of creation. JOHANNES WOLLEBIUS, . . . Continue reading →
The Reformation Of Vocation
In the period between the early post-apostolic church (e.g., the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD) and the Reformation (beginning in the early 16th century AD) the church came to develop some unbiblical and therefore unhelpful and unhealthy ways of relating creation and . . . Continue reading →
What Is At Stake In The “Gender” Debate?
Will Gnosticism Become The State Religion?
What is at stake here is much more than the right of an individual to free self-expression or an employer’s freedom of religion to hold and act on such “stereotypes.” Since everyone in the workplace of that individual employee will be asked . . . Continue reading →
Heidelminicast: Heidelberg Catechism 6: Did God Create Man Thus Wicked And Perverse?
The Heidelberg Catechism is one of the most beloved and well used catechisms to emerge from the sixteenth and seventeenth century Reformation. Published in its final form in 1563, the catechism has been used by millions of Christians to teach the faith . . . Continue reading →
Post-Christian Sex
There is a remarkable article on Insider.com which features a series of comments from young people who belong to “Generation Z.” Sometimes described as “Zoomers,” GenZ are those who were born after 1996. The article purports to reflect the fears of Generation . . . Continue reading →
Found: One Lost Category
To follow up on the earlier essay on Christ and culture, I want to make a further observation about the importance of creation or nature as a category of thought. When many conservative Christians think of creation, the first thing they think . . . Continue reading →
In 1949 E. J. Young Was A Framework Man
The work of creation is composed of an hexaemeron, or period of six days, coming to a majestic climax in the resting of the Creator on the seventh day. The length of these days is not stated but a certain correspondence of . . . Continue reading →
Aquinas On Creation Days
…That three things are recorded as created, namely, the heaven, the water, and the earth; and these three received their form from the three days’ work of distinction, so that heaven was formed on the first day; on the second day the . . . Continue reading →