PCA Minister + Executive Director of Magnalia Foundation
Utah, USA
Joined July 2024
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"The moment duty calls, desire and inclination must be silenced."
Herman Bavinck, Reformed Ethics, vol. 2, p. 77
Puritan Ames on the two-fold limit on rulers' power: "This power is not absolute, but carries a double limitation, one from the will of God, whose Minister every Magistrate is....Another from that will of man, which is including in those conditions and Laws" (Conscience V.25)
He says that some may by necessity functionally enslave themselves to a king (even though it's against custom and natural inclination), but even so, this can never be the king's aim:
Tim Fox retweeted
I built a new data center in my house last weekend.
Don’t know why everyone complains about them. 10/10 would recommend.
Technology, platforms, and portfolios promise some piece of the world. Bavinck reminds us what it can't buy:
"The value of virtue surpasses that of the world; the soul possesses nothing even when it gains the entire world."
(Herman Bavinck, Reformed Ethics, vol. 2, p. 88)
Bavinck thinks Naaman was right to carry Israelite soil home to worship Yahweh, even while his office required him to stand in a pagan temple. Faithfulness inside an imperfect calling is an old problem.
(Herman Bavinck, Reformed Ethics, vol. 2, p. 84)
Bavinck, Reformed Ethics, 2.77, criticizes the stingy man who hides behind a cloak of "duty", then says: "every violation of duty tries to cover itself with another duty." We are great at making excuses for sin!
AI promises to take the friction out of thinking. But that leaves you floating in the warm goop of nothingness:
"Ease without resistance is a wheel spinning in place, motion without progress."
— Jennifer Vail, Aeon aeon.co/essays/why-a-world-w…
"Christianity does not revolt, but reforms. ... Christianity scraps only what is in irreconcilable conflict with [God's law] and animates and sanctifies the rest anew."
Herman Bavinck, Reformed Ethics, 2.55
Calvin on 1 Cor 7: God's calling anchors the heart against status anxiety. "People may know their ordinary, mundane, limited efforts are fully sufficient in the sight of God."
xitter.cf/Jon_Balserak/status/21… @Jon_Balserak
Herman Bavinck, contra pietists who "view the world only from its bad side": "Although Christians must flee the world, Christianity is nevertheless a life of freedom and delight" - (Reformed Ethics, 2.42, 45)
Bavinck says that the conscience bridges the gap between the universal moral principle and applying it in an actual situation. "The conscience is for morality what genius is for art" (Reformed Ethics, 2.34)! Hence he adds: moral education is a must.
True Christian freedom doesn't get you away from or above God's law: "Freedom exists within the law" - Herman Bavinck, Reformed Ethics 2.3
Tim Fox retweeted
This will produce less ministers at a time when we already have a shortage of them.
Monetary debasement is a ministry issue.
Compared to two years ago, the average Southern Baptist pastor’s pay package and total compensation grew slightly while still trailing inflation. research.lifeway.com/2026/09…
