How Would Jesus Spank A Child?
Eric Holmberg wonders what Jesus would use to spank
…with a flexible switch made from an olive branch, across the fleshy part of the buttocks or upper thigh.
While this answer is only a semi-serious one − I would never presume to speak for the Lord when it comes to precisely how He would mete out His perfect justice – there is nothing facetious about the central truth behind it. To suggest, as some have of late, that the Son of God would never use any form of corporal punishment to discipline a child is to present, as the Apostle Paul warned the Corinthians, “another Jesus” (2 Cor. 11:3, 4). Such seems more and more to characterize our present time.
I am specifically referencing here a bill that has been considered by the Massachusetts’s legislature that would make it illegal for parents to spank their children. One of the prime movers behind it is Dr. Teresa Whitehurst, a clinical psychologist, co-founder of Christ-Centered Christians for ... Continue Reading
Posted by Eric Holmberg - 7/24/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
   
Pomp and Circumstance
RC Sproul Jr. attends the school of Christ, and you should, too
One of the great evils of the government school system is that it has taught us to divide up our lives. When we are young, we are learning, schooling, working toward graduation. After graduation we put education behind us, and set about getting to work. The Bible knows no such categories. Children, contra Rousseau, are not designed to flourish in a context of play that is to be extended as long as possible before the cruelty of reality breaks in. They are supposed to work, now.
The flipside, however, is likewise true. That is, we are not done learning. There is no graduation, at least until we die, from the school of Christ . We are His disciples, His students. Our calling is ever and always to move forward in this school, to become more and more each day like Jesus. This is why we read our Bibles. This is why we attend Bible studies. This is why we spend time in prayer, and why we meditate ... Continue Reading
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. - 6/5/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
Prince Caspian: A Worthy Sequel
Tom Askew reviews the new blockbuster take on Lewis' classic
“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”
“That is because you are older, little one,” answered he.
Having reviewed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, when it debuted in 2005, it seems only fitting that I pass on my thoughts about the newest film in the Chronicles of Narnia series, Prince Caspian, which I saw this past week end. And anyway, I have been a Narnian since before it was cool to be Narnian, so I can’t resist.
Just as Aslan seemed bigger to Lucy in her second visit to Narnia, so does the world of Narnia seem bigger and more believable in our second visit via film. Much of this is because of the nature of the plot (since we are fallen creatures, the introduction of wicked usurper into the otherwise idyllic Narnia doesn’t surpri ... Continue Reading
Posted by Dr. Thomas Askew - 5/20/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 3 Responses
Servant Leadership of Washington
George Grant glimpses into one of the most insignificant significant moments in American history
According to the majority of eighteenth and nineteenth century historians, the most remarkable event during America's Founding Era did not take place on a battlefield. It did not occur during the course of the constitutional debates. It was not recorded during the great diplomatic negotiations with France, Spain, or Holland. It did not take place at sea, or in the assemblies of the states, or in the counsels of war. It was instead when the field commander of the continental armies surrendered his commission to the congressional authorities at Annapolis.
It was instead a humble demonstration of servanthood. It was when General George Washington resigned his officer's commission.
At the time, he was the idol of the country and his soldiers. The army was unpaid, and the veteran troops, well armed and fresh from their victory at Yorktown, were eager to have him ... Continue Reading
Posted by Dr. George Grant - 4/21/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
No Intelligence Allowed
Tom Askew watches Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a movie review (almost)
I knew any movie exposing the academic prejudice against anyone who dares to question the omniscience of Charles Darwin (Amen!) by Ben Stein would be good. And I was not disappointed.
Don’t worry - I’m not going to give you any spoilers, or really even touch on the movie’s central or more controversial points. I was fortunate to be given advance screening access, but it will hit the theaters nationwide on April 18th and all I can say (emphatically) is: “Please go see this one for yourself!”
However, I did find one interview in the film to be of great pertinence to this web site, and the kind of discussions we have here. After citing four main perpetrators of the Darwin myth, the fourth being “the courts,” Stein takes off to Poland for an interesting interview with a scientist there. During their discussion Ben asks the Polish professor if he was forced to teach only ... Continue Reading
Posted by Dr. Thomas Askew - 4/14/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
Abstraction and Christian Education
“Everyone knows that blue and yellow make green. Well, actually blue paint and yellow paint make green paint, and blue light and yellow light make green light. Nevertheless, we still want to say, using an abstraction as a form of shorthand, that blue and yellow make green. But in the real world, the world God made, blue and yellow do not exist independently of the nouns they modify. It is true that blue and green can be considered as abstract nouns, and that is fine as far as it goes. Abstractions like truth, beauty, and green are necessary in order for us to communicate at all. But we must be careful here because our entire problem rests in what we have though we are allowed to do with abstractions.
“This lack of ‘existence’ is true of all adjectives, including those adjectives we call numbers. One, three, and seven do not exist independently of the nouns they modify—e.g., one truck, three beers, or the seven churches of the province of Asia.
“It follows from this that addition occurs in the world God made, and multiplication does not so occur. But in the world we live in, the world of clouds and rain, earth and sky, gravel driveways and cars that go, multiplication never occurs—only addition. Division never occurs, only subtraction. What we call multiplication is nothing but a mental shortcut that enables us to calculate the results of the more time-consuming and laborious addition. …
“Numbers do not exist on their own. If I add one apple to another apple, the result is that I have two apples. By the same token, if I add a green apple to a red apple I get exactly the same result—two apples. Numbers are only adjectives, descriptive of those things that exist in the world God made. They have names, and because we intend to call them by their names, we are nominalists. These adjectives do not stand alone in some realm of the Forms or in any realm or dimension like the realm of the Forms. Using one as an abstract noun is fine, as long as we do not forget ourselves and begin thinking of it as having its own free-standing reality.”
- Douglas Wilson, The Paidea of God and Other Essays on Education Posted by Jamey W. Bennett - 4/14/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
Slacker Nation
R.C. Sproul Jr. discusses C.S. Lewis and postmodernism
For a recent Highlands Hall class on the wisdom of CS Lewis, we read together that most potent tiny tome, The Abolition of Man. Here Lewis enters into a critique of postmodernism that is prescient, gracious, and devastating. Of course, exposing the soft underbelly of postmodernism is like exposing the soft underbelly of a soft underbelly. It is not a difficult task to gainsay those who say, “We don’t know from nothing.” Epistemologically, postmodernism is clear and immediate hooey.
What so tickles me about Lewis, apart from the fact that he saw this coming before most people, is that he then turns his attention to the question of telos, or purpose. Relativism not only destroys truth and goodness, but it destroys purpose. If there is no good and bad, there is no good to pursue. If there is no true and false, there is no true direction to move. If, in other words, our world is ever and always under the sun, then of necessity, all is vanity.
I wonder if it is less the numbing influence of media and more the deadly poison of relativism that has given us a generation of youth who are not only directionless, but are listless. Could it be they have no get up and go because their telos has got up and went? If nothing matters ultimately, then securing the high score on some video game is just as important as serving your country. Why should we be puzzled, to borrow Lewis’ idiom, that the geldings we have made are not fruitful?
The mirror to all this is our own blessing inside the kingdom. We have been given the truth in Jesus. We are being made to be good, to reflect the character of Jesus, And we have the most sacred of callings, to make known the glory of His reign. We have not just a reason, but the reason to get up in the morning. We of all people are the most blessed. We cry out to those who would abolish man, to behold the Man, to embrace the Man, to become more like the Man. May He bless us them with ears to hear.
Be sure to check out the weekly (or so) email from the Highlands Study Center, The Kingdom Notes, featuring a short, encouraging word from R.C., as well as the latest news, specials, and other interesting things going on in their neck of the woods. To subscribe, send an email to info@highlandsstudycenter.org and tell them that you want to receive the Kingdom Notes. Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. - 4/10/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
Folly of Teaching in Government Schools
R.C. Sproul Jr. on why Christian teachers ought not teach in government schools
"Your wife was a public school teacher. My wife and I are both public school teachers. My parents were also public school teachers. We are all believers in Christ. It seems that in your articles and books (Bound for Glory, Eternity in our Hearts, and Every Thought Captive) you have a severe dislike for the 'government schools' and the 'priests of the government schools'. Why are you so strongly against Christian's in the education field? Don't you think we need Christian teachers in public schools?"
First, to the gracious gentleman who asked this question, my thanks for the kind and tactful way in which the question was asked. This is especially gracious given that my own rhetoric tends to grow rather warm on this issue. I will try to answer honestly and graciously, without giving away the store. Second, it is important to make an important distinction. While in the end I think it important for both Christian students and teachers to leave the government school system, the case for getting the children out is by far the stronger ... Continue Reading
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. - 4/4/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 1 Responses
Blessing Upon Blessing
R.C. Sproul Jr. on those who want children and their want-able children
My friends Dan and Kimberly Smythe have a new son, Simeon Jedidiah. Born at a whopping 9 pounds 13 ounces, he is a welcome addition to what is already a prodigiously productive family. He is Smythe child number twelve. It goes without saying that both the world, and that which is of the world finds this to be loony. What surprises me is how often we miss some fairly obvious corollaries. While the Sprouls have not yet been blessed with twelve children, we do have seven. And we have been known to take them out in public. We get plenty of delightful and encouraging responses. We get precious few negative comments. But we get most often some variation on this theme: “Wow, seven kids? I can’t keep my sanity with only two.” Why is it, I wonder, that so many large families, like my own, are eager for more children, while so many small families regret the ones they already have? My guess is pretty s ... Continue Reading
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. - 3/12/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
Spelling Bee Review
Thomas Askew reviews the 25th Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee
Last week I accompanied some drama students and their parents from a local Christian high school to a production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The production had the great music, choreography, acting, and staging that I was expecting from a troupe of traveling professionals. Unfortunately, the script had the philosophical bankruptcy I have come to expect from our diseased and vapid culture.
The characters were stereotypes, the mores depicted groaned with political correctness (one contestant had two “dads,” while the most sympathetically portrayed character was a “gangsta” doing community service), and every attempt at serious commentary came up empty and confusing. It may have been supposed to be redemptive that the Asian contestant overcame her perfectionism (a stereotype in itself), or that the over-competitive nerd and the parentally neglected girl awake ... Continue Reading
Posted by Dr. Thomas Askew - 3/10/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
The Institute for the Obvious
R.C. Sproul Jr. finds child-rearing isn't about mixing together the precise formula of this peculiar habit and that one
If you find yourself in a grand quandry, chances are you are missing the obvious. No, I don't mean that all difficult questions come equipped with easy answers. The point isn't that every complex question can only be reached through muddling up simple questions. Instead what I mean is that most of the time we spend on real brain teasers would be better spent on kid’s play.
Suppose, for instance, I'm trying to figure out a healthy way for my children to spend time with other children. I've read all the arguments back and forth on age segregation. I've heard all the anecdotal evidence there is on both sides — Suzy's son ran off and joined the army because she wouldn't let him play with his cousin's Gameboy — or Jim's daughter ran off and married a roadie because Jim let her attend a slumber party at the pastor's house when she was ... Continue Reading
Posted by Dr. R.C. Sproul Jr. - 2/19/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
Quo Vadis
George Grant recommends a bracing dose of Quo Vadis
Henryk Sienkiewicz was an international phenomenon a century ago--at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. He was trained in both law and medicine. He was a respected historian. He was a successful journalist. He was a widely sought-after critic and editor. He was an erudite lecturer. And in addition to all that, he was an amazingly prolific and wildly popular novelist--selling millions of copies of his almost fifty books in nearly three hundred editions in the United States alone.
He wowed the world with his grace, his learning, his courage, his depth of character, and his evocative story-telling. His writing includes some of the most memorable works of historical fiction ever penned--raking with the likes of Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Samuel Johnson. Indeed, in 1905, Sienkiewicz (pronounced sane-KAY-vitch) saw his brilliant career capped when he was aw ... Continue Reading
Posted by Dr. George Grant - 2/16/2008 | Link to this post | Print this post | 0 Responses
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