A helpful (but longish) piece on Halloween's antecedents and influences over at The Calvinist International. The brief Christian response toward the end seems clear-headed and balanced.
You might also want to see President Al Mohler's piece on Halloween.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Have You Ever Noticed This Contrast?
Writing to his friend Owen Barfield, C. S. Lewis remarked:
Talking of beasts and birds, have you ever noticed this contrast: that when you read a scientific account of any animal's life you get an impression of laborious, incessant, almost rational economic activity . . . but when you study any animal you know—what at once strikes you is their cheerful fatuity, the pointlessness of nearly all they do. Say what you like, Barfield, the world is sillier and better fun than they make out.—C. S. Lewis, Collected Letters: Books, Broadcasts, and War, 1931-1949, ed. Walter Hooper (New York: HarperCollins, 2004), 930, as cited in Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 57.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Anastasis
"The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD" (Job 1:21).
What we've suspected for some time now was confirmed yesterday: our little baby, our little Anastasis, isn't going to be born into this world.
We grieve the loss of new life, but not as those without hope (1 Thess. 4:13). Anastasis means "resurrection" in Greek. We've named our lost little one after our great Christian hope: our God raises the dead.
He lives blessedly forever. His Son possess life in himself (Jn. 5:26). So in him we hope; and his name we praise. Blessed be his name—he's Lord of the living and the dead! (Rom. 14:9).
God is good. Always. He's just, faithful, wise. Always. And we trust him. Fully. He's totally sovereign over all our losses and crosses. And in all things "we are more than conquerors through him who loved us" (Rom. 8:37).
"He who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all—how will he not also with him freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8:32). "All things are ours" (1 Cor. 3:21). Even "life or death" (1 Cor. 3:22).
What we've suspected for some time now was confirmed yesterday: our little baby, our little Anastasis, isn't going to be born into this world.
We grieve the loss of new life, but not as those without hope (1 Thess. 4:13). Anastasis means "resurrection" in Greek. We've named our lost little one after our great Christian hope: our God raises the dead.
He lives blessedly forever. His Son possess life in himself (Jn. 5:26). So in him we hope; and his name we praise. Blessed be his name—he's Lord of the living and the dead! (Rom. 14:9).
God is good. Always. He's just, faithful, wise. Always. And we trust him. Fully. He's totally sovereign over all our losses and crosses. And in all things "we are more than conquerors through him who loved us" (Rom. 8:37).
"He who did not spare his own Son, but handed him over for us all—how will he not also with him freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8:32). "All things are ours" (1 Cor. 3:21). Even "life or death" (1 Cor. 3:22).
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