Category Archives: Uncategorized

Graveyard Science

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Doug Wilson recently posted Seven Theses on the Age of the Earth.

Theses #4 — The fossil record is a record of death. The fossil record is a graveyard. We have exegetical reasons for believing that this paleontological graveyard was planted after the fall of man. We have a time stamp for Adam in the genealogies, and because of what the Scriptures teach about the nature of death, the recorded deaths of all sentient beings needs to be dated after that point.

“Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.”

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“When your congregation prays ‘Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory,’ the folk at City Hall ought to get nervous. The church exists to sign, to signal, to sing about the tension whereby those who are at the bottom are being lifted up and those who are on top are being sent down” (William H. Willimon & Stanley Hauerwas, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord’s Prayer and the Christian Life, 97).

Celebrations of a Sola Scripturist

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“We should not attempt to escape from our embeddedness in the Christian tradition, but should rather celebrate it” (Stephen R. Holmes, Listening to the Past: The Place of Tradition in Theology, 13).

In light of the doctrine of creation, Stephen Holmes is contemplating the goodness of “historical locatedness” (6).

Let me add that it is the doctrine of sola scriptura which enables the believer embedded in the Christian tradition to celebrate, to borrow a phrase, both “in spirit and in truth.” God’s revelation teaches us first and foremost that God is God and we are part of his creation. Scripture is our chief authority, it is God’s Word given by the inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life (WCF. I. 2.), and in Scripture we learn to be thankful for “historical locatedness” (i.e., creatureliness) and to celebrate tradition, which is a “subsidiary authority” (6).

Aphoristic Commentary: Numbers 27:16-17

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What Moses said to God when looking for a successor: Numbers 27:16-17, Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the LORD be not as sheep which have no shepherd.

Moses was a shepherd over the flocks of Jethro in Midian (Exodus 3:1) before becoming the shepherd of Israel (Exodus 3:10). Moses was a true shepherd, he was concerned that the flock would still be shepherded when he was gone.

Prayer of Allegiance

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“The Lord’s Prayer is training in how to understand the political significance of God’s Messiah, Jesus. It is a pledge of allegiance to a king and his kingdom that throws all other allegiances into crisis” (William H. Willimon & Stanley Hauerwas, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord’s Prayer and the Christian Life, 96).

Emily Dickinson: Envelope Poem – A 128

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A 128

All       men       for        Honor
hardest        work
But            are      not      known
to     earn –
Paid      after        they   have
ceased     to        work
In          Infamy           or   Urn –

(Marta Werner and Jen Bervin, Emily Dickinson: The Gorgeous Nothings [a collection of Dickinson’s “envelope poems”], 28).

George MacDonald – The Girl That Lost Things

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The Girl That Lost Things by George MacDonald

There was a girl that lost things—
Nor only from her hand;
She lost, indeed—why, most things,
As if they had been sand!
She said, “But I must use them,
And can’t look after all!
Indeed I did not lose them,
I only let them fall!”
That’s how she lost her thimble,
It fell upon the floor:
Her eyes were very nimble
But she never saw it more.
And then she lost her dolly,
Her very doll of all!
That loss was far from jolly,
But worse things did befall.
She lost a ring of pearls
With a ruby in them set;
But the dearest girl of girls
Cried only, did not fret.
And then she lost her robin;
Ah, that was sorrow dire!
He hopped along, and—bob in—
Hopped bob into the fire!
And once she lost a kiss
As she came down the stair;
But that she did not miss,
For sure it was somewhere!
Just then she lost her heart too,
But did so well without it
She took that in good part too,
And said—not much about it.
But when she lost her health
She did feel rather poor,
Till in came loads of wealth
By quite another door!
And soon she lost a dimple
That was upon her cheek,
But that was very simple—
She was so thin and weak!
And then she lost her mother,
And thought that she was dead;
Sure there was not another
On whom to lay her head!
And then she lost her self—
But that she threw away;
And God upon his shelf
It carefully did lay.
And then she lost her sight,
And lost all hope to find it;
But a fountain-well of light
Came flashing up behind it.
At last she lost the world:
In a black and stormy wind
Away from her it whirled—
But the loss how could she mind?
For with it she lost her losses,
Her aching and her weeping,
Her pains and griefs and crosses,
And all things not worth keeping;
It left her with the lost things
Her heart had still been craving;
‘Mong them she found—why, most things,
And all things worth the saving.
She found her precious mother,
Who not the least had died;
And then she found that other
Whose heart had hers inside.
And next she found the kiss
She lost upon the stair;
‘Twas sweeter far, I guess,
For ripening in that air.
She found her self, all mended,
New-drest, and strong, and white;
She found her health, new-blended
With a radiant delight.
She found her little robin:
He made his wings go flap,
Came fluttering, and went bob in,
Went bob into her lap.
So, girls that cannot keep things,
Be patient till to-morrow;
And mind you don’t beweep things
That are not worth such sorrow;
For the Father great of fathers,
Of mothers, girls, and boys,
In his arms his children gathers,
And sees to all their toys