Bible

Contra mundum pro mundi.

Posted on October 24, 2015October 25, 2015 by albrooke

“Against the world, for the world’s sake.”

Colson’s public-square work offers modern evangelicals a workable model. Initially, Colson considered himself contra mundum, “against the world,” as a believer. He wished to stand against evil. He never lost this vital perspective, but his friend, First Things editor Richard John Neuhaus, suggested Colson tweak the self-descriptor. The Christian, he said, is contra mundum pro mundo, “against the world for the world,” an elegant and accurate summation of evangelical engagement with a fallen order. The believer, and particularly the public-square witness, opposes evil, but does so not to defeat opponents or gobble up cultural territory. We are against the world out of love, seeking always to win lost friends to Christ and usher them into flourishing.

Owen Strachen, “Chuck Colsen was not a Culture Warrior” (Oct. 2015) (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/october-web-only/chuck-colson-was-not-culture-warrior.html?paging=off)

Matthew handouts, part 4

Posted on October 11, 2015January 4, 2016 by albrooke

Jesus says, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” but it is easy to kid ourselves that he makes no demands whatsoever. The dividing line between believer and non-believer isn’t a matter of fine theological detail, or practical living as a kind, loving person, it is recognition that the Creator has a right to ask something of me that I do not want to give, and that my compliance is flawed. The fine theological details come in deciding what he actually requires. The practical living comes in deciding whether I will give it, and what needs to be done when I fail or rebel.

Rembrandt, “Christ Preaching”

Posted on September 28, 2015September 28, 2015 by albrooke

Notice the little boy drawing in the foreground.

Rembrandt, “Christ Preaching” (1652) (http://www.rembrandtpainting.net/rmbrdnt_selected_etchings/christ_preaching.htm).

Post-Obergefell

Posted on September 17, 2015September 17, 2015 by albrooke

In post-Obergefell America, Evangelicals and other orthodox Christians will be unable to outrun our freakishness. That is no reason for panic. Some will suggest that a Christian sexual ethic puts the churches on the “wrong side of history.” Well, we’ve been on the wrong side of history since A.D. 33. The “right side of history” was the Eternal City of Rome. And then the right side of history was the French Revolution. And then the right side of history was scientific naturalism and state socialism. And yet, there stands Jesus still, on the wrong side of history but at the right hand of the Father.

Interesting article by Russell D. Moore in the current issue of First Things (“Evangelicals Won’t Cave: Why evangelicals will not be surrendering to the sexual revolution,” October 2015 (http://www.firstthings.com/article/2015/10/evangelicals-wont-cave).

“Confident”

Posted on September 3, 2015September 3, 2015 by albrooke

Cromwell’s rule

Posted on August 25, 2015 by albrooke

This was a favorite saying of my Jurisprudence professor (William Powers) in law school:

I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible that you may be mistaken.

Thomas Carlyle, ed., Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches, vol. 1, 448. (Harper 1855).

Even Christians who are very sure that they know the mind of God ought to reserve some uncertainty. We all recognize that we are flawed and sinful and that we are subject to confusion and delusion. Let us all take one small step back from certainty. We may be unapologetic in our faith in the redemptive work of Christ without claiming that we have the final word on everything.