Tag: christianity
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TO KEEP THE SHIRE, YOU HAVE TO DEFEND THE SHIRE: A CIVILIZATION WORTH FIGHTING FOR
[A version of this essay will be published in an upcoming issue of Fight, Laugh, Feast magazine.] The Christian faith built Western civilization. While Western Civilization (aka “Christendom”) was never perfect, it was glorious – certainly the apex of human history thus far. Christendom was our Shire – a civilizational and cultural home we had…
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Modern Liberalism’s God-Shaped Hole
Modern liberalism has a God-shaped hole. To put it another way, modern liberalism is just classical liberalism secularized; it is classical liberalism with God taken out of the picture. The values of classical liberalism are basically synonymous with the American founding era. Liberalism is basically just Americanism. When America was Christian, the system worked pretty…
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2/15/26 Baptismal Exhortation: There Is More to Baptism Than Meets the Eye
One of the great confessions produced the Reformation era is the Belgic Confession of Faith, authored by Guido de Bres in 1559, a few years before his martyrdom in 1567. The entire section on baptism is excellent, but here is part of it: By [baptism] we are received into God’s church and set apart from…
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Medieval Myths
These notes are based on my sermon from November 6, 2005. Audio available here: It is useful and fitting to reflect on the saints who have gone before us. This reflection leads us especially to the saints of the Middle Ages and to the many myths that surround the medieval church. While the medieval era…
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Liturgy and the Gospel
[This short essay was written for the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Austin TX. It appeared in the church newsletter sometime in the late 1990s, when I was on staff there.] One of the most talked about aspects of our church is our worship. Considering the centrality of gathered worship in the Scriptures, this is probably how…
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Liturgy as Cradle to Grave Pastoral Care
[I hope this is not breaking any copyright laws. I do not know where I found this but I saved it many years ago and it’s such a great essay on the pastoral value of liturgy that I want to post it here. Robert Zagore was a Lutheran pastor in the LCMS, if I recall…
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Advent in Isaiah (Part 2) — The Church’s Culture of Feasting (Isaiah 25:1–12) — 12/11/25
The Church’s Culture of Feasting (Isaiah 25:1–12) Advent in Isaiah (Part 2) The Church’s Culture of Feasting (Isaiah 25:1–12) And now our lesson of the day from the prophet Isaiah chapter 25, verses 1 to 12: “O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done…
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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Dabney Ecclesiology Lectures from Revelation 21-22 (Fall 2006) — Audio and Notes
Audio Lecture #1: Audio Lecture #2: Dabney Ecclesiology Lectures Fall 2006 Lectures #3-4 A Biblical-Theological Vision of the Church from Revelation 21-22 Hermeneutical background Reading the text as symbolic architecture Statistics, stories, and structures – 3 ways to describe a people What does it mean to be an American citizen? What does it mean…
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February 2026 X Posts and Other Miscellanies: Baptism and Circumcision; NETTR; Critique of Theonomy; Modern Israel; Conspiracy Theories and Identity Politics; Drugs and the Demonic; Immigration; Presbyterianism, the Public Church, and the Culture War; Etc.
“A brave man is a man who dares to look the Devil in the face and tell him he is a Devil.” — James A. Garfield — “Life’s tough. It’s even tougher when you’re stupid.” — John Wayne — “The key to compounding is continual reinvestment. It does not matter how low the rate of…
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Son of Man
Jesus’ most frequent title for himself is “Son of Man.” Why did Jesus refer to himself this way? Son of Man is Jesus’ way of calling himself the “Son of Adam.” In Pauline language, it means Second Adam, or Last Adam. It means he inaugurates a new humanity, Humanity 2.0. But there’s more. In Daniel…
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