Support First Things by turning your adblocker off or by making a  donation. Thanks!

The Center of God’s Revelation

It never ceases to amaze me how often I forget this profound truth:“The center of God’s revelation is Christ. All that God is to us, He is in Christ. All that we know of God, we know through Christ.” (Henry Eyster Jacobs, Elements of Religion, p. 170).So often we are tempted to . . . . Continue Reading »

No “End Run” Around the Cross

Here is a graphic that, Rev. James Douthwaite, at St. Athanasius Lutheran Church in Vienna, Virginia, uses to explain how we should always factor in the Cross when we consider our relationship to God and His relationship to us. (A parishioner made this visual image.)So, in God’s relationship . . . . Continue Reading »

Desiring the Kingdom: Final Thoughts

I am grateful that Professor (or is it Agent?) Smith took a little time to address some of the concerns I raised regarding his excellent book. He would have been justified to take the route of Stanhope from Charles Williams’ Descent into Hell, who, when asked about the meaning of his play, . . . . Continue Reading »

Are We a Small and Arrogant Oligarchy?

I can’t think of a more foolish attitude I harbor at times than when I look back on previous generations and assume they were ignorant, unenlightened, unaware and totally outside of what I’m thinking and experiencing today. I was reminded of something the British writer G.K. Chesterton . . . . Continue Reading »

A Different Kind of Party

It’s funny because Linus makes the grave reading of Luke 2 for Charlie Brown and says, “That’s what it’s all about, Charlie Brown,” and we feel like something really important® has been said by Dollie Madison cakes and Coca-Cola. But Luke 2 isn’t in a vacuum. The matter of what happened on the night in question in the city of David when there was no room in the inn is not really about anything – unless there is something more to this child than a birth in poverty into an indifferent world. Continue Reading »

Temple Prostitution: A Modest Proposal

Last summer, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted  to accept actively homosexual persons as members of their clergy and to condone gays and lesbians living in “lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationships.” This has caused a firestorm of controversy in that church . . . . Continue Reading »

Tags

Loading...

Filter First Thoughts Posts