Getting Grace Backwards

I have always hated this bumper sticker...

I stumbled across a post on TheGospelCoalition site the other day that left me shaking my head at how modern theological perspectives are capable of completely inverting the New Testament message they’re ostensibly based upon. The post is “The Pitfall of Perfectionism,” by Tullan Tchividjian, in which he begins with several poignant anecdotes borrowed from [...] Read more »

Children and Santa Claus – Lying or Harmless Fun?

Little girl Santa Claus Pagan Troll

It inevitably comes up every year: the question of how parents of young children should handle Santa Claus. For some, this is a highly impassioned subject; with many liking to remind everyone as often as possible that “Santa” is an anagram of “Satan”—or, if not giving this trite spelling lesson, at least asserting that Santa [...] Read more »

“Flesh” is not “Human effort” in Gal 3:3

Stephen Carlson has put up a good post on why the translation of σάρξ as anything other than “flesh” in Gal 3:3 is “weak tea.” Carlson observes that Paul is making a point concerning literal flesh—the foreskin—but many translations unfortunately treat Paul’s language as metaphoric, translating σάρξ as “human effort” or other related phrases. I’ll [...] Read more »