The New Testament refers to teachings not clearly stated in the Bible. Some of it is a matter of studying the historical context. Some of it is necessarily experiential because it is fundamentally contextual. How God wants to work is not constrained by the human context, but it would be meaningless to us without some…
Month: August 2024
The Best Entertainer
In one thing I have been most unyielding: Politics in America is the single biggest waste of time for Americans. Activism will accomplish nothing of significance to the Kingdom of Heaven. That does not keep political activism from being entertaining. It can fall into the silliest follies of human ambitions. The biggest mistake you can…
Background Noise
There are several blogs linked to the Radix Fidem community. They are listed on the right-hand column here. Using the WordPress software, it’s easy for these blogs to reference each other and receive what’s called a “pingback” — a notice that one blog has linked a post to one on the other blog. We trade…
Fleshly Politics
Our current social and political trends avoid the obvious: A strong and stable nation requires a shared identity. Whether you like it or not, humans are fundamentally tribal. It’s not a question of whether tribalism is good or bad; it just is. The only question is settling on the fundamental identity of the tribe. Taking…
Bad Sunday Best
Insofar as there is such a thing as “Christian Law” it would include, at least in principle, that bling is sinful. It’s scattered liberally in the New Testament: 1 Timothy 2:9-10 and 1 Peter 3:3-4 are rather blunt about it. It is included in the broader concept of not catering to the flesh nor conforming…
Let Him Reign
How do I explain that it cannot be explained? To be honest, most of my blather is an attempt to get you to ditch blather itself. Much of what I’ve written since day one has been deconstructing the defenses in our minds that keep us from drawing near to our Lord. If He’s not inside…
That versus What
Preparing for tribulation is no small thing. It will consume every day, all day long. This blog and its predecessors stand on the necessity of preparing for the coming apocalypse — “unto the shedding of blood”. What we have faced so far is relatively light compared to what’s coming. I pray constantly for guidance in…
Defending the Covenant
Let’s make some distinctions. In general, the New Testament is neutral on self-defense. If you feel led by your convictions to defend yourself from various forms of physical attack, it’s no sin. When the attack is simply criminal or political/social in nature, you are quite free to choose that route. I’ve already made it clear…