I loathe the cliche "everyone has a story". Most of our stories are quite wicked and regrettable but we glorify them on the basis of our common humanity without assessing them in light of divine holiness and truth. Demas had his story. Do we soften to it? Judas had his story. Do we respect it? Michael Curry and Jon Meacham have their stories. Do we tolerate them? Repentance in humility and love before God is our lifetime's soul-work down here.
Read moreThe so-called "Equality Act" that Democrats are now pushing in the House as their "top priority" should really be renamed the "Get the Homophobic and Transphobic Bigots Act." It is the most dangerous bill to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion that has ever been proposed on a national level.
Read moreThe cross and justification. If God justifies sinners freely by his grace, on what ground does he do so? How is it possible for the righteous God to declare the unrighteous to be righteous without either compromising his righteousness or condoning their unrighteousness? That is our question. God's answer is the cross. --- John R. W. Stott
Read more"Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just; a God who is all love, but not holy; a God who as a heaven for every body, but a hell for none; a God who can allow good and bad to be side by side in time, but will make no distinction between good and broad in eternity. Such a God is an idol of your own, as truly an idol as any snake or crocodile in an Egyptian temple. The hands of your own fancy and sentimentality have made him.
Read moreOnce you have abandoned the principle that homosexual intercourse and transgenderism are immoral acts unworthy of federal protection and expansion, you have no case for maintaining a permanent religious exemption for your bigotry. --- Robert A. J. Gagnon, Ph.D.
Read moreEmpty religion. We need to listen again to the biblical criticism of religion. No book, not even by Marx and his followers, is more scathing of empty religion than the Bible. The prophets of the eighth and seventh centuries BC were outspoken in their denunciation of the formalism and hypocrisy of Israelite worship. Jesus then applied their critique to the Pharisees of his day: 'These people ... honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me' (Is. 29:13; Mk. 7:6).
Read moreIntersectionality and identity politics breed division. These ideologies atomize society and drive humanity away from its core and essential commonality. This is where Christians must counter with the gospel of Jesus Christ and the authority of Scripture. Only the gospel secures peace and establishes truth. Only the gospel will unite a fractured society. Only the gospel can stem the tide of modernity's downward spiral into chaos and decay. Identity politics is bad enough in the culture.
Read more"How can we speak of the termination of a pregnancy when what we really mean is the destruction of a human life? How can we talk of therapeutic abortion when pregnancy is not a disease needing therapy and what abortion effects is not a cure but a killing? How can we talk of abortion as a kind of retroactive contraception when what it does is not prevent conception but destroy the conceptus? We need to have the courage to use accurate language.
Read moreOn Fr. John Shepherd's statement about the resurrection: "The most deceptive comment is here: "I have never denied the reality of the empty tomb." Sounds orthodox. But note the negative formulation: "I have never denied..." Secondly, there are several theories which could include the Empty Tomb and no bodily resurrection. E.g., wrong tomb! Or "someone stole the body. Or simply, "I don't know, but bodies rising from the dead defies the laws of physics (h.t. to Rudolf Bultmann).
Read more"Hell is truth known too late." ― J.C. Ryle, Practical Religion
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
www.virtueonline.org
January 11, 2019
THE OXFORD DIOCESE in the Church of England faced a meltdown this week when a large number of clergy rejected Bishop Steven Croft's views on human sexuality, specifically homosexual marriage.
As a result, the diocese faces an uncertain future.
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