Call it Covenant, that the Lord has made solemn promises to us. His character is on the line, he glories in what he commits to do for us. But wait a minute, those kind promises still have an ‘if’’ in them, if we do what he tells us. That’s the way life is, isn’t it? Over here is our only hope, the Lord and his promises. Over there is our ‘if’ part. How can they fit together?

How can the gospel be more meaningful? Is it enough that we think about it once a week for an hour or so, while the rest of the time our thinking and acting is driven by our secular culture?

Utah State was leading Oregon 7-0 early in the second quarter on Saturday evening, November 8.  Utah’s quarterback dropped back and lofted the ball long to wide receiver Kaelin Clay who caught it wide open and ran untouched for a 78 yard touchdown.  Fans screamed.  The announcers were ecstatic.  It was perfect.   Beautiful!  One problem: the referee did not signal “touchdown.”

 On June 28, 1914, one hundred years ago, an otherwise incompetent assassin fired a shot that killed Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand.  The pistol waving radical would never have received his chance had not the Archduke’s driver become confused, stopped the open car, and backed right up to the spot where the assassin stood.  Such are the chances that change the world. 

I ended my previous blog with this statement:    Not only do we not have to choose between “standing for the truth” and “promoting the good name of our neighbor;” WE MAY NOT DO THE ONE WITHOUT DOING THE OTHER.

I have recently been suggesting that telling the truth biblically involves considering and consulting the church and “giving due authority to the church.” There are problems when we try to do this and I want to try to address some of these problems.

Remember the point that I have been making  – we MUST tell the truth but we MUST do so in a way that “promotes the good name of the neighbor” about whom we are speaking.

[Note: The item below expresses the views of the individual to whom the item is ascribed and does not necessarily reflect the position of the WRF as a whole.]

Let this be clearly heard and understood:  Speaking the truth as we perceive the truth is not an option. It is a requirement. Here is part of the admonition from the Westminster Larger Catechism,

Transcendental Pretense--now doesn’t that phrase get your attention, just hearing it? One of my favorite philosophers, Robert Solomon, is the one who made it up. It describes in two words the whole history of philosophy for the last three centuries: everything that’s really important is what makes a difference to me.

The other day former Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg told the The New York Times in an interview, “I am telling you, if there is a God, when I get to Heaven, I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in…I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.” 

Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn was the greatest writer of the twentieth century.  He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970 for his novel, The Gulag Archipelago.  It told the horrifying story of the Soviet Union’s punishment of dissenters in prison camps during the rule of Stalin.

Sally and Stevie attend the same church, but they are not part of the same set. They greet one another in church and occasionally exchange a few pleasantries about some banal subject—the weather, the church picnic, or the general depravity of the nation. That’s about it.