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Some recent comments on EWTN drove me back to my Bible and some time thinking through my concept of how the church is both fallible and perfect; flawed and finished; historical and eternal. I’ll share several brief posts walking through the relationship between a very human and flawed historical reality and its relationship with the […]

At the ministry where I work, we have a little guy I’ll call “Charles.” A middle-schooler growing into a young man.
Charles is a church kid, and he’s a Christian. He’s also very, very serious about impressing the adult Christians around him.
He wears a tie every day. Almost no one on our staff does that, and […]

There are lots of Luther resources available from our sponsor, New Reformation Press.
I attended Southern Seminary in 1979, 1982-84, and 1986-87. I earned the M.Div and 36 hours of doctoral work. During that time, I studied with Dr. Timothy George in several classes. One J-term- I believe it was summer- I took Dr. George for […]

No single book anywhere by anyone has had 1/100th the positive effect on my life as Robert Capon’s The Fingerprints of God: Tracking the Divine Suspect Through a History of Images. I have no idea what it will do for you, but it was the ingredient that turned a whole lot of dull this and […]

I’m going to take a brief breather from original posts for a while. I’ll be postings some iMonk 101 posts and some extended quotes from voices I believe are important and timely.
I have a lot of preaching to prepare for in the next few days, as well as some major school events to plan. […]

The following post could possibly be the largest discrepancy between the subject of a post and the actual title of a post you’ve ever read in these spaces. I’m hoping someone will nominate the title for an award.
Seriously, if you never thought about the topic of this post, don’t ridicule me. I’ve watched a lot […]

I don’t plug schools or teaching ministries in this space, and I don’t promote what I’m not convinced represents the values of this audience just because I get some free materials. If I tell you it’s worth your time and money, it will be. And if it proves to be otherwise, I’ll eat crow in […]

Over at Frank Turk’s blog, he has something of a motto up on the sidebar. It’s a phrase his pastor offered in a comment thread sometime in the past. Here it is: The Gospel is the solution to culture.
I’ve often wanted to riff on this statement. While I’m pretty sure how Frank and his pastor […]

How about a little thought experiment? No hidden agenda; just a way to explore the contention that certain things make all the difference.
Imagine for a moment 12 Baptist churches (that may be enough for some of you right there) in my own little Appalachian corner of the world, southeast Kentucky. These 12 churches are scattered […]

UPDATE: A good and comprehensive collection of information on the various canon lists. Lots of good information.
This second post in our discussion of canonization is from a frequent Internet Monk guest, Lutheran blogger Josh Strodtbeck. Josh will tell us about the Lutheran concept of the Canon, which is quite different from what many may assume.
The […]

After reading Mark Shea’s By What Authority? and revisiting Craig Allert’s A High View of Scripture? I started making some notes on my own ideas about the question of canonicity.
This post will be followed later by popular Internet Monk poster and famous Lutheran blogger Josh Strodtbeck, who will give us the Lutheran view of the […]

I’ve had an idea running around in my mind for a few months, and I’m going to try and get it down on paper. It’s slippery, and rather than try to sound profound, I think it would be best to say this is a bit of advice for those in the mood to listen (which […]

The following incident is fictionalized from real experience.
I look at my watch. It’s time for a counseling appointment. I clear my desk, bring in the extra chairs and wait.
My appointment arrives and the conversation begins. This is a first time conversation, with someone I don’t know. I spend a lot of time listening. Then questions. […]

UPDATE: John H has a helpful Lutheran response.

UPDATE II: A Lutheran view of Assurance.

UPDATE III: Mark Shea comments on assurance in Calvinism and Catholicism. I think Mark’s experience with Calvinism is not very nuanced, but it’s on target. (Buy the Rosenbladt presentation.)
Q. 1. What is your only comfort, in life and in death?
A. That I […]

In the first place the situation in the actual world is much more complicated than that. The world does not consist of 100 per cent Christians and 100 per cent non-Christians. There are people (a great many of them) who are slowly ceasing to be Christians but who still call themselves by that name; some […]