pilgrim people

The Pope and the Christian Reformed Church. Read about it here. (HT Shane Lems and Kim Riddlebarger)

No, those are not representatives from the CRC kissing the pope's ring in the picture to the left, but hopefully the picture makes the point. The question is this: Does the CRC believe the Three Forms of Unity or not? If so, will someone please give a copy to Rev. Dykstra? Apparently, he has forgotten what it says with regard to justification sola fide and the marks of a true church. Our unity as Christians is in the truth we confess. Attending the Pope's ecumenical prayer service led by Pope Benedict XVI does NOT "demonstrate that unity." And what exactly is this nebulous thing called the "Reformed world and life view"? How about a Reformed confession? You know, that thing to which Reformed ministers subscribe and promised before witnesses to uphold and defend.  

I realize that there are still some faithful ministers in the CRC, but as far as I am concerned, the sooner the denomination drops the title "Reformed" from their name, the better it will be for everyone.

USA Today article. Get it here. (HT: Eric Landry)

Just about anyone from my generation (i.e. an American teenager during the 1980s) recognizes Ben Stein's famous line in Ferris Bueller's Day Off as the teacher with the monotone voice calling role: "Bueller? Beuller?...Bueller?"

What I didn't know, until I read it on the Heidelblog, is that Ben Stein is also (in the words of Scott Clark) "an academic, and former presidential speech writer...[and] starring in a documentary about the movement by neo-Darwinists to suppress discussion of intelligent design." Based on the trailer (which you can view here), the movie looks very interesting.

One of the toughest things for American evangelicals to do is to distinguish between the city of God and the city of man. There seems to be this natural tendency for many people to think of America as a new type of Israel, as if we were in a national covenant with God similar to geo-political Israel in the Sinaitic covenant. There also seems to be this idea, latent in the American evangelical psyche, that America needs to be Christianized through the law.

If you thought presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee's statement about amending the Constitution "so it's in God's standards" was a good thing, then I highly recommend two books for you:

1. Mike Horton's Beyond Culture Wars

2. David VanDrunen's A Biblical Case for Natural Law

If understanding the two kingdoms is something you are struggling to grasp, then please take the time to read these very helpful books.

For the gospel,
MGB

Archeologists uncovered a 2500-year old stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylon. Read the article here.