P. Andrew Sandlin

October 2012

  • Christian Ethics in the Wake of Hypocritical Relativists, Imperious Pharisees, Irrational Postmoderns, and Squishy Emergents

    Based on a talk delivered to the annual conference of the Center for Cultural Leadership in San Francisco, California, November 7, 2009    Scripture is God’s scepter … the instrument of his government. J. I. Packer[1] We read in Psalm 119:105 that God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our… Continue reading

  • The Cultural Paradigm of the Democratic Party

    Introductory remarks at the political symposium sponsored by the Center for Cultural Leadership in Saratoga, California, October 27, 2012  I want to start with a quote from Bill Clinton at the Democratic National Convention this past August: This Republican narrative — this alternative universe … says that every one of us in this room who amounts to… Continue reading

  • Don’t Sell Short Your Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ

    In “Beware of Under-Realized Soteriologies,” I took to task Mark Galli of Christianity Today and others for arguing that we shouldn’t expect to be transformed too much by the Gospel in this pre-consumate age, since most Gospel transformation awaits the eschaton. Gerald Heistand of The Society for the Advancement of Ecclesial Theology argues, from another angle,… Continue reading

  • An Evangelical Predicament: Two Kinds of Sinners

    The great division within humanity is not sexual, economic, racial, or social — but religious.  The great divide is captured by expressions like the City of God versus the City of Man (Augustine), covenant-keepers versus covenant-breakers (Cornelius Van Til), and by more explicitly Biblical terms like saved versus unsaved (Ac. 16:30) and Christians versus non-Christians… Continue reading

  • Apostasy Begins in the Heart

    And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart . . .  Deuteronomy 6:6 Few Biblical words are more frequently mis-defined and misunderstood in the modern church than the word heart.  It is usually understood as emotion. When evangelical ministers declare, “We believe in heart-felt religion at this church,” what… Continue reading

  • What Is the Gospel?

    So here is the problem. Man is a guilty sinner, God is a holy God. How can the two be brought together? The answer is the cross of Christ. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Cross[1]    “God was in Christ,” writes Paul to the church at Corinth, “reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing [counting] their trespasses… Continue reading

  • That Good Old-Fashioned Modernism

    In The Courage to be Protestant, David Wells observes that (post)modern “post-conservative” evangelicals (like Roger Olsen) really aren’t that different theologically from the old Protestant liberals (also called “modernists” at the time).  In an extended CCL interview published in “Christian Culture,” I posed this question to John M. Frame, and his answer, in essence, is… Continue reading

  • Dad and Mom, Equally Authoritative

    “Patriarchy” means, “father rule.”  The concept of father necessitates a child or children (“father” is not equivalent to “husband”), so the word patriarchy might be thought to imply that the father as father bears unique and final human authority in the family.  If so, this assumption is false.  From the Biblical teaching that the faithful… Continue reading

  • The Gospel Worldview

    Excerpt from Evangelizing the Mind: The gospel presupposes a worldview. The fact that this idea sounds unsettling to us shows how far we’ve come from the Bible’s teaching.  A worldview is a way of viewing the world.  It’s a set of assumptions that everybody has by which we interpret what goes on around us and… Continue reading