This past weekend, I had the following article published in the religion section of our local paper. I posted a slightly different version on The Voice of One two years ago. Given America’s current political climate, I feel like the thoughts in this article are especially relevant. *** “The Idiot” is a book by Russian…
Category: Book Reviews
A Demon’s Advice on Prayer
Recently, I began re-reading CS Lewis’s classic, The Screwtape Letters. For the uninitiated, Screwtape is a series of letters in which a senior demon, Screwtape, instructs a junior demon, Wormwood, on the finer points of capturing a human soul. The letters begin when Wormwood’s subject is an atheist; they end after Wormwood’s subject becomes a Christian and later…
God Bless Us, Everyone!
As I’ve written elsewhere, A Christmas Carol is a favorite holiday story in our house. To many, it’s a familiar tale. Scrooge is a selfish, old miser. Financial gain is his one great love. He thinks little of the poor and even comments that they should die to “decrease the surplus population.” (Uh…WOW). Scrooge’s heart…
Wanted: A Few Good Idiots
The Idiot is a book by Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (b. 1821, d. 1881). The story begins with Prince Myshkin returning to St. Petersburg from Switzerland. Myshkin convalesced there because of fragile health. Having recovered, he hopes to go on with life as peacefully as possible. But on re-entering Russian society, he finds a socio-political clash….
Can Wrestlers Baptize? (Part 2)
In part one, I asked readers what they thought about something John Calvin said about baptism in his book Institutes of the Christian Religion. Several readers made good comments on my Facebook page, and I thought I’d share them: [V]iewing the sacraments as only being able to be administered by clergy takes the emphasis off ‘Christ…
Knowing the Satisfied God–Rabon Byrd
Knowing the Satisfied God–Rabon Byrd A few months back, one of my Facebook friends posted a quote that caught my attention. The quote was from a book he had written, and he was meditating on it. I asked for a copy of the book and a pdf version of Knowing the Satisfied God appeared in my…
Change or Die: A Post-Christmas Wrap-up
Image from A Christmas Carol (2009, directed by Robert Zemeckis) This year, I introduced my daughter to Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. We read the book then watched a couple film versions. The 2009 animated version (with Jim Carrey playing Scrooge) is her favorite. It’s my new favorite as well. While adding flourishes here and there, it follows…
Predestined Controversy
I have been reading John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion…for about a year. It’s an enormous, exhaustive work of theology. Ironically, Calvin laments that he has a love of brevity and is unable to expound on religious matters as thoroughly as his forebears. If Calvin hadn’t loved brevity, I shudder to think of how much…
The Storm of Martin Luther
Martin Luther 1483-1546 A few years ago I decided to read writings by major reformers. I started with Martin Luther’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians. Luther dedicated his life to God while out in a thunderstorm. He was afraid for his life. History suggests that storm transferred into Luther’s soul. As the lightning rod…
The End of America? Review of “The Harbinger” by Jonathan Cahn
Recently, two different people asked me to read The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn. What follows is a digest of my review. Reading the digest will give you the gist of what I think but I recommend reading the full review. *** Will America suffer devastation in the not too distant future? Was 9/11 merely a warning…
The Voice of One 