Monthly Archives: July 2015

A Worldview Against the West

Posted on by under Cowboy, World

The author of the Hank, the Cowdog children’s stories wrote an article for American Cowboy on ‘political correctness’ and how that worldview sees the West. In our cultural moment, John Erickson’s article highlights the differences in worldview that are becoming inescapable.

Erickson writes:

It took me a while to figure out the obvious, that there are people in the entertainment business whose decisions are driven by ideology, not by experience or artistic judgment. And some of those people just don’t like the West I was describing—which I knew to the bone; which they might have seen through an airplane window at 30,000 feet.  

They don’t like the history of the frontier. They don’t like cattle or beef. They don’t like people who pray before a meal. They don’t approve of anyone who might spur a horse or rope a calf, and they sure don’t approve of women who stay home to raise their children. Maybe they don’t approve of marriage either.

I think that Erickson is pretty accurate as a recent Calgary Herald column gives evidence of the ‘dislike.’

But as we consider what our greatest need is, it is not for the culture of the West, as much as I personally love it. It is rather the culture of the new city and new world order established by the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.  If your world isn’t governed by this King, then who are you choosing?

“at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.  (The Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Church at Philippi, chapter 2, verses 10-11).

 

See the rest of John Erickson’s article at: American Cowboy

Calvin as Pastor-Scholar

Posted on by under Theology

The grandeur of this achievement becomes all the more evident when we remember that these Commentaries were the work not of a detached scholar, but of a Reformer whose days were filled largely with pastoral work both in the church and in the state. His multiple activities and preoccupations in the latter capacity, especially in the light of his delicate and sickly physical condition, leave one amazed at the diligence and perseverance which made Calvin’s literary output (fifty-nine volumes in his Works) possible. One must not forget the several versions of the Institutes, his numerous tracts and thousands of letters. Calvin believed not only in the Word of God, but also in human words as means of promoting the gospel and serving the church.

 

In Calvin: Commentaries, Haroutunian, ed.

6 Thoughts on the Integrity of God

Posted on by under Theology

Romans is focussed on the Integrity of God. This integrity is tested by accusations that God is essentially hypocritical. So God is challenged and Romans reaffirms that:

  1. God will judge the Wicked, even if it looks like he won’t. (ch 1)
  2. God does justify the Ungodly through Faith in Christ (Ro 3.26)
  3. All things do work together for good to those that love God and are called according to his purpose (8.28)
  4. God has kept his promises to Israel (9-11)
  5. God has loved us in Jesus Christ, and nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8.39)
  6. Our duty is to show genuine love, because we have been shown genuine love in the gospel of Jesus Christ. (12.9).

So the integrity of God is displayed even in the integrity of Christian love. This is a connecting thread through Romans.