I gotta have my orange juice.

In his lectures on the Marrow controversy, Sinclair Ferguson shared this quote from Scottish minister Robert Traill:

That which concerneth our case is that the middle way betwixt the Arminians and the orthodox had been espoused and strenuously defended and promoted by some nonconformists of great note for piety and parts; and usually such men that are for middleways in points of doctrine, have a greater kindness for that extreme to which they halfway go, than for that from which they halfway come.

I think about this from time to time. It is obvious that this is true in the case of compromise, even among many who have no conscious intention to compromise but are simply drawn or carried along. But this is also true of those who are making a genuine shift in their convictions. It generally represents a temptation that must be guarded against even if we are not remaining in the “middleway;” it is possible for us to be over-enthusiastic and cover more ground than we ought. Christians ought to have great aplomb, to be complacent in the good sense of the word; very like ents. It is rare that we ought to despise our beginnings or purposely scandalize the normies.

When Logres really dominates Britain, when the goddess Reason, the divine clearness, is really enthroned in France, when the order of Heaven is really followed in China—why, then it will be spring. But in the meantime, our concern is with Logres. (C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength)

How very postmillennial of him! I look admiringly at Logres and Holland and other places in my patchwork family tree, but me and my house must work to establish—I don’t know, what shall we call it? Roanoke?

Every time I reread THS I’m freshly impressed by how prophetic it is. This time I’m struck by the presence of depopulation and homosexuality. But I’m also surprised that abortion is relatively absent.

Wendell Berry is suspicious of movements.

Institutions in any sphere can easily stray from their purposes if they are not constantly renewed in repentance. As Ken Myers says, it is possible to institutionalize rebellion against Jesus. This seems especially true for big institutions. If big banks come to take on the job of money laundering, then surely big media comes to take on the job of news laundering.

Is there a better indicator against investment than ESG? Look at this list of companies that are not gonna make it if they don’t repent.

Herman Dooyeweerd developed Kuyper’s idea of sphere sovereignty, suggesting the presence of many additional spheres. The idea is helpful; as is his insistence on irreducibility, even though I think his taxonomy of modes is a little too precise. I think of it this way: if you can imagine its developing a guild, then it’s likely a kind of sphere.

It strikes me how often God gathers his enemies in one place. He likes to tempt them with a great victory and then deal with them decisively.

The deer are after our tomatoes. I’ve tried garlic spray and fencing to compartmentalize our garden into smaller sections, to no avail. I’m working on a 7-foot fence now.

In college I played in our orchestra and our symphonic wind band. We recorded two albums during my time there: Crosswinds and At the Strongholds.

From Jon:

Do not give your strength to women,
​​Nor your ways to that which destroys kings. (Proverbs 31:3, NKJV)

It struck me reading this today: how much more and greater could Solomon have accomplished if he had but one wife?

And, how much is the one-woman-man who is greater than Solomon going to accomplish?!

Ken Meyers describes culture as “a system that has the power to make you feel guilty.” Although this is partly tongue in cheek, I think he is right. Culture is the cultivation of a standard of goodness, truth, and beauty, and it is inescapable. This means that Girardian systems are inescapable. It is not a question of whether there is guilt or even a question of whether you deal with it by scapegoat, but who is your scapegoat.

My friend Dave notes that premillennialism makes the exact same error as second temple Judaism: it expects that the mission of God’s people will fail but Jesus will make up the difference by means of the physical sword.