Forget what you learned about the first Thanksgiving being a celebration of a bountiful harvest, or an expression of gratitude to the Indians who helped the Pilgrims through those harsh first months in an unfamiliar land. In the Tea Party view of the holiday, the first settlers were actually early socialists. They realized the error... Continue Reading

In fact, the Puritans were not teetotalers. Scholars estimate the Puritans had a rum-consumption rate that surpasses the alcohol-consumption rate in the twentieth century. Who were the real Puritans? And why did Puritan become a derogatory label? In what ways have the Puritans shaped what we believe and how we live today? To answer these... Continue Reading

Every fall in my Econ 101 course, during the last class period before we part for Thanksgiving, I share a lesson from early American history. It is particularly timely, because it deals with those we credit with the first American Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony. Upon arriving in New England, the Pilgrims shared “their... Continue Reading

The Japanese sometimes accept gifts by saying, “I’m sorry.” The subtext, Visser explains, is, “I am fully aware of my debt to you. I can never repay it.” Appearing on Conan O’Brien’s show last year, comedian Louis C. K. lamented how frustrated people get when cell phones and cross-country flights are slow or faulty. “Everything... Continue Reading

“…the majority of ministers and elders, while being personally men of great integrity and doctrinal orthodoxy, will tend to side with the left in the initial rounds of the struggle.” In my last two posts, I have tried to suggest that the reasons for a church’s decline into liberalism are not always immediately doctrinal, but... Continue Reading

What is right and just in these situations? What is loving to neighbor? Walk through each step of ethical reflection, explaining how you arrive at your answers, grounding your answer in Scripture and the gospel… Every year my Christian ethics class ends the year with a final examination that amounts to answering a hypothetical question.... Continue Reading

“Matthew 25: 45-51 is meant to show the temptation which besets all in authority to forget the responsibility that goes with power. …” I’m just back from a wonderful visit to Liberty University’s law school, where I gave a talk called “Making Sense of the New Financial Deal.” (I also had a chance to spend... Continue Reading

We have not given enough attention to the fact that voluntary alternatives have been proposed. Dave Sarafolean has suggested one way, and Martin Hedman has proposed another. The rumor is that another alternative, voluntary plan is in the works To the best of my knowledge, all the Presbyteries that are going to vote in 2010... Continue Reading

I think Wright is wrong in not seeing 2 Corinthians 5:21 as a statement of soteriology and I think he is wrong in not seeing Paul’s discussion of righteousness and justification in Romans as a statement of soteriology. Been following the Wright/Schreiner/Thielman exchange over justification at ETS last week in Atlanta? Among the many good... Continue Reading

The first danger I want to highlight is that of the celebrity pastor who is ultimately so big as to be practically beyond criticism. Not all historical phenomena that manifest themselves as doctrinal are necessarily immediately doctrinal in cause or origin.’ That statement, made to me by a mentor in my field of historical theology,... Continue Reading