Over the last month the snows have gradually receded from Edmonton as spring has tepidly taken hold on the northern prairies. It’s an exciting time of year, except for one thing: dog turds. Yes, dog turds. I try to get out for runs on a regular basis and as the snows melt away on the […]
sanctification
80. The Problem with Porn: A conversation with Matt Fradd
We live in a world where Abercrombie and Fitch sell padded bras for eight year olds, where b-movie stars build their careers by tweeting demeaning selfies to their legions of voyeuristic knuckle dragging fans, and where an adjective like “sexy” is now used to describe everything from sports cars to sermon titles. In short, ours is […]
Hell and Holiness
Last year I wrote an article titled “Hell, right doctrine, and right character” in which I explored the link between the formulation of right doctrine and the process of sanctification. The idea, in short, is this: correct doctrine ought to encourage the process of sanctification (aka becoming Christlike). Thus, if acceptance of a particular doctrine tends to undermine the process […]
Patience: A Sermon
In this sermon (preached at Greenfield Community Church on July 26th), I explore the spiritual fruit of patience. It is a virtue with which I have little first hand acquaintance, so I had to do some research first. As with all my sermons, there are several additional points that I would like to have discussed, […]
How we try to avoid coming to terms with hell (Part 1): Make it small
In my article “Hell, right doctrine, and right character” I proposed my thesis in the form of a rhetorical question: Shouldn’t right doctrine seamlessly interweave with right character formation? In other words, the more that the consistent and clear acceptance of a doctrine frustrates the formation of one’s Christian character the less likely the doctrine is […]
How societies improve: the simple example of Morocco
In “Why do conservative Christians think everything is getting worse?” I argued that the widespread conservative belief that society is, on the whole, becoming less just and compassionate is not borne out by the facts. This doesn’t entail that things are getting better overall, though in many cases they are. Nor does it entail that […]
Are Christian serial killers saved?
Some years ago I was at a coffee shop with a friend when we got into a heated discussion over the question of whether a Christian could be a serial killer. (He said yes, I said no. ) The dispute was not whether there might be self-identified Christians who moonlight as serial killers. That there […]
Imprecations for Arminians
I have been arguing that there is something morally problematic about the imprecation which expresses hatred of one’s enemy and relishes the coming destruction of one’s enemy. But this doesn’t mean I don’t want God’s kingdom to come in its fullness. And yet, Jerry inexplicably seems to have thought that in some sense this was the […]
On not being a jerk about it
This happens to be one of my favorite Bizarro cartoons. It handily raises the question each one of us needs to be asking: would I rather be good or right? Of course all things considered it is better to be both/and, but if you had to choose, which would you opt for? Would you rather […]
