The Means That Result in True Godliness

"The purpose for practicing the spiritual disciplines is not to see how many chapters of the Bible we can read or how long we can pray, nor is it found in anything else that can be counted or measured. We're not necessarily more godly because we engage in these biblical practices. Instead, these biblical practices should be the means that result in true godliness--that is, intimacy with and conformity with Christ" (Donald S. Whitney, "Pursuing a Passion for God Through Spiritual Disciplines," in A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, eds. John Piper and Justin Taylor, 111).

The Joy of Enjoying God in Christ

"Do we understand religion as Edwards did? Specifically, do we understand Christian experience as the joy of enjoying God in Christ, framed by the struggles of a life of repentance, self-denial, and suffering in its various forms?" (J.I. Packer, "The Glory of God and the Reviving of Religion: A Study in the Mind of Jonathan Edwards," in A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, eds. John Piper and Justin Taylor, 107).

Final Era, Begun

"What is nowadays called postmillennialism seemed to him [Jonathan Edwards] clear in Scripture -- Old Testament prophecy, including Daniel, and the book of Revelation, interpreted in historicist terms, being the main sources. He though the final era of history, when knowledge of God would fill the earth as the waters cover the sea, had begun" (J.I. Packer, "The Glory of God and the Reviving of Religion: A Study in the Mind of Jonathan Edwards," in A God Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards, eds. John Piper and Justin Taylor, 105).

Against Wild Blurting

"Your freedom as a writer is not freedom of expression in the sense of wild blurting; you may not let rip. It is life at its most free, if you are fortunate enough to be able to try it, because you select your materials, invent your task, and pace yourself. In the democracies, you may even write and publish anything you please about any governments or institutions, even if what you write is demonstrably false" (Annie Dillard, The Writing Life, 11).

Humanities vs. Fear

"There are, of course, perfectly reasonable arguments (supported by evidence) for the practical advantages of the humanities. Medical schools recognizes the value of humane learning, so studying the literature that you really love can give you a boost in the admissions pool. Employers know that a degree in classics is evidence of intelligence, discipline, analytic ability, and linguistic precision as well as of the ability to think your way into another culture. Liberal-arts majors tend to out-earn business majors over the long run. But these truths make little impression. Parents and students are not looking for rational arguments. They are looking for something to latch onto now to quiet their fears" (Mark Shiffman, "Majoring in Fear" in First Things (November, 2014).

Imaged Witness

"As Creator, God has guaranteed that he will never be without witness to the creatures who have been made in his image. He has ensured that all of his human creatures will, and will always, know him" (K. Scott Oliphint, Covenantal Apologetics, 101).

Military Load Balancing or the Lack Thereof

"It was not rumor but fact that federal troops were stationed in the South on Reconstruction duty while Custer was fighting in the West. How people interpreted that usually depended on their politics"  (James E. Mueller, Shooting Arrows and Slinging Mud: Custer, the Press, and the Little Bighorn, 76).

War News Coverage and the Lack Thereof

"Unlike the Civil War, which had been covered by hundreds of correspondents from papers around the country, the Indian wars were covered haphazardly by a small group sent from newspapers that were willing and able to hire reporters to cover the fighting. Only two major newspapers, the Chicago Times and the New York Herald, regularly covered the Indian campaigns between 1867 and 1881. The majority of newspapers were content to rely on wire reports or "exchanges" of stories with the newspapers that had correspondents at the front. Many newspapers also used freelancers and sometimes army officers. Custer himself actually contributed stories to the New York Herald" (James E. Mueller, Shooting Arrows and Slinging Mud: Custer, the Press, and the Little Bighorn, 32).

Great Story

"The Little Bighorn was a great story for two main reasons: the magnitude of the defeat and the death of Custer. Furthermore, the circumstances of the battle and Custer's career were controversial, a main characteristic of any good story. . . . Like many of those with outsize personalities, Custer attracted devoted friends but equally bitter enemies in his lifetime, and the fantastic nature of his death has carried the same debate forward among historians and Custer buffs who are sometimes called Custerphiles or Custerphobes, depending on their perspective. Both camps find his life endlessly fascinating, and with good reason, for it includes the highs and lows of a real American character" (James E. Mueller, Shooting Arrows and Slinging Mud: Custer, the Press, and the Little Bighorn, 11).

Life and Doctrine

"Too few Christians today have an adequate grasp of biblical doctrine. This is due to a widespread disinterest in doctrinal preaching and deep reading. . . . This problem, though intensified in our day, is not new. Eighty years ago J. Gresham Machen lamented: 'The growth of ignorance in the Church is the logical and inevitable result of false notion that Christianity is a life and not also a doctrine; if Christianity is not a doctrine then of course teaching is not necessary to Christianity'" (Kenneth L. Gentry, He Shall Have Dominion, 40).

Theological Awareness

"Christians should be aware of contemporary theological issues, particular theological formulations impacting evangelicalism" (Kenneth L. Gentry, He Shall Have Dominion, 40).

The (Needed) Spirit of Contemporary Christian Thought

I'm partial to Robert Louis Wilken's introductory observation in The Spirit of Early Christian Thought.

I am convinced that the study of early Christian thought has been too preoccupied with ideas. The intellectual effort of the early church was at the service of a much loftier goal than giving conceptual form to Christian belief. Its mission was to win the hearts and minds of men and women and to change their lives. Christian thinkers appealed to a much deeper level of human experience than had the religious institutions of society or the doctrines of the philosophers. In this endeavor the Bible was a central factor (xiv).

Wilken goes on to note that the early church "gave men and women a new love, Jesus Christ, a person who inspired their actions and held their affections" (xv).

In light of this, I believe it is safe to say that contemporary Pentecostals are doing a better job than the historic mainline churches of appealing to the "much deeper level of human experience." Thus, in the wake of Pentecostalism we see personal change and congregational growth. But IMHO the Pentecostal-endeavor has failed to make the Bible a central factor.

Another of Wilken's introductory observations is key: "What has impressed me the most is the omnipresence of the Bible in early Christian writings" (xvii). If the contemporary church can both (a) bear witness to her experience that the love of Jesus Christ has changed her and (b) make the Bible a central factor to that lifestyle of witness, then I believe we'll see church growth and cultural transformation on par with the Early Church. 

Custer As "Good Copy"

"Uniquely charismatic men like Custer, who always seem to be in the right place at the right time, are indeed rare, which is why he was always good copy, as journalists are wont to say. If it is true that he led himself and his men to their deaths at the Little Bighorn in a mad dash for glory, then he was only doing what the press and its voracious readers expected him to do" (James E. Mueller, Shooting Arrows and Slinging Mud: Custer, the Press, and the Little Bighorn, 6).

Ouch!

"According to the Left Behind website, between 1995 and 2008 the series sold sixty million copies. On February 4, 2002, its authors appeared on CBS popular program 60 Minutes and on July 1 of the same year the Left Behind series appeared on the cover of Time magazine as a cultural phenomenon" (Kenneth L. Gentry, He Shall Have Dominion (3rd. ed), 39).

Central Pillar of Pentecostalism

"The central doctrine of pentecostalism, according to one of the movement's best known leaders, is 'the abiding possibility and importance of the supernatural element . . . particularly as contained in the manifestation of the Spirit'" (David Edwin Harrell, Jr., All Things Are Possible: The Healings and Charismatic Revivals in Modern America, 11).

Luther the Preacher

"Reformer, scholar, teacher, pastor, husband, father, composer, prayer warrior--all these labels depict Martin Luther. Yet Luther was also a preacher--and a prolific one at that. . . . Generally, he averaged three sermons per week throughout his adult life, but often preached four or more. Luther was, to state it mildly, a homiletical force" (Eds. Keith Willhite and Scott M. Gibson, The Big Idea of Biblical Preaching, 31).

Ecstatic American Roots

"The roots of American pentecostalism reach deep into the history of ecstatic Christianity. Pentecostal leaders trace their origins through George Fox and the Quakers, John Wesley and early Methodism, the Plymouth Brethren, William Booth and the Salvation Army, and other similar men and movements. More recently, American pentecostalism grew out of a deepening of spiritual life associated with the holiness movement at the end of the nineteenth century. Participants in this nebulous movement, both in America and abroad, looked beyond the conversion experience to continual personal encounters with God for the Christian" (David Edwin Harrell, Jr., All Things Are Possible: The Healings and Charismatic Revivals in Modern America, 11).

Augustine the Preacher

"Having been trained in the art of rhetoric, Augustine knew well all the strategies of communication. Yet what made him such an outstanding preacher was his emphasis on communicating God's truth in familiar and ordinary ways. The aim of the sermon, he stressed, should be to instruct, to please, and to move the will to action" (Eds. Keith Willhite and Scott M. Gibson, The Big Idea of Biblical Preaching, 29-30).

Bible-Vision

"[T]he biblical text is what truly governs our seeing of the world. If all the world is a text to be interpreted, then for the church the narrative of the Scriptures is what should govern our very perception of the world. We should see the world through the Word" (James K.A. Smith, Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?, 55).

Regenerate Information, Regenerate Reading

"Revelation informs our horizon. However, even the (objective) provision of a revelatory interpretation does not guarantee that everyone will read the event in this way. One must (subjectively) accept this revelatory interpretation, which requires faith--and such faith requires the regenerating working of the Holy Spirit. . . . the objective provision of revelation in the Scriptures is ineffectual as revelation (i.e., to communicate) without the regeneration of the heart and mind in order to dispel blindness" (James K.A. Smith, Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?, 48).

Ubiquity of Interpretation

"Thus [Derrida] is not a linguistic idealist who denies the material existence of cups and tables; rather, in the line of Martin Heidegger (of Being and Time), he is what we might call--for lack of a better term--a comprehensive hermeneuticist who asserts the ubiquity of interpretation: all our experience is always already an interpretation" (James K.A. Smith, Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?, 39).

"Ideas have legs."

"But I want to follow Francis Schaeffer's footsteps by taking philosophy very seriously precisely because it does impact everyday life. 'Ideas have legs,' and even in a culture of amusement, there is thought that shapes it" (James K.A. Smith, Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?, 20).

Potent Preaching

"If preaching is to be transformational, it must address the needs, hurts, temptations, and trials of listeners" (Eds. Keith Willhite and Scott M. Gibson, The Big Idea of Biblical Preaching, 26).

Handling the Pomo With Your "Nice Gloves"

"If we are going to do justice to postmodernism, our engagement with it needs to be characterized by charity--and charity requires time" (James K.A. Smith, Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?, 36).

Give Hope

"[I]f you tell a Christian, 'Your problem is that you have been sinning,' you give him hope, because he knows that Jesus Christ came to die for sin" (Jay E. Adams, Christian Living in the Home, 17).

Life Together

"The Christian home, then, is a place where sinful persons face the problems of a sinful world. Yet, they face them together with God and His resources, which are all centered in Christ (cf. Col. 2:3). Sinners live in the Christian home, but the sinless Savior lives there too. This is what makes the difference (Jay E. Adams, Christian Living in the Home, 13).

Sanctification As Presupposition

"A fundamental presupposition of the Christian faith is that there will be growth out of sin into righteousness" (Jay E. Adams, Christian Living in the Home, 12).

Thematic Unity

"Well-crafted speeches are like good jazz music--variations on a rich theme. They relate all content and delivery to one major thesis. . . . Listeners deserve to know the main point of any presentation. Therefore, we speakers ought to ask ourselves, What's the principle point of my speech? That point is the speech's main idea or thesis" (Quentin Schultze, An Essential Guide to Public Speaking, 56-57).

Preaching

"Expository preaching is text-centered and audience-focused" (eds. Keith Willhite and Scott M. Gibson, The Big Idea of Biblical Preaching: Connecting the Bible to People, 14).

Understand the Problem and Know What To Do About It

"A truly Christian home is a place where active sinners live; but it is also a place where the members of that home admit the fact and understand the problem, know what to do about it, and as a result grow by grace" (Jay E. Adams, Christian Living in the Home, 11).

Glorify God

 All of redemptive history works toward the goal of glorifying God. As Paul says in Romans 11:36: For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. As the Westminster Divines stated in the Westminster Shorter Catechism:

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man? 

A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God,and to enjoy him forever.

Past Crises, Future Hope

From the Preface to the Second Edition of John Witte Jr.'s From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition.

Statistics tell the bald American story, which has parallels in other Western cultures. Since 1975, roughly one-quarter of all pregnancies were aborted. One-third of all children were born to single mothers. One-half of all marriages ended in divorce. Two-thirds of all African American children were raised without a father present. Children from broken homes proved two to three times more likely to have behavioral and learning problems than children from two-parent homes. Single mothers faced four times the rates of bankruptcy and eviction. More than two-thirds of juveniles and young adults convicted of major felonies came from single- or no-parent homes. So much is well known. Though these numbers have improved over the past decade, they bring little cheer. 

What is less well known, and what brings more cheer, is that the Western tradition has faced family crises on this scale before. And apocalyptic jeremiads about the end of civil society have been uttered many times before. What brings cheer is that the Western tradition of marriage has always found the resources to heal and reinvent itself, to strike new balances between orthodoxy and innovation, order and liberty, with regard to our enduring and evolving sexual, marital, and familial norms and habits.

First Fact

"Is it [a Christian home] an idyllic place where peace and quiet, tranquility and joy continuously reign? Definitely not! The first and most important fact to remember about a truly Christian home is that sinners live there" (Jay E. Adams, Christian Living in the Home, 10).