Kurt, your wise sage-in-waiting has appeared in the comments at Back of the North Wind (thanks for the link, Kent). I was feeling bad and considering a public apology for the snide remarks I made in this commenter’s general direction yesterday. But not after reading what he wrote to Mr. Algrant (assuming that it isn’t tongue-in-cheek). I stand by what I said in the comments (now gone, sniff).

This morning we had our Session meeting. The elder who led the devotional spoke about a passage in Matthew 7 that he keeps coming back to and which continues to haunt him. Here’s the dreadful passage: “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ “

When he talked about the dread and terror that he still feels at these words, I interrupted and lectured on Kierkegaard for 45 minutes. (jw!) Seriously, though, that’s just the sort of real-life, honest, flesh-and-blood experience that the Word makes us face. And if we find ready comfort in doctrinal purity, then, I submit for your consideration that we really aren’t hearing those words of our Teacher. I am so blessed by God to be in the company of men in our church that wrestle with these questions and aren’t afraid to confess to their brothers: “I’m scared.” Because I am, too.

Which is why I find the cocksureness of the theological analysts so sad. I don’t think I’m being condescending when I say that because early in my Christian life I was probably on the path that JW is on. I know he or his friends could easily lift that written statement of mine and take deep offense to its apparent pharasaic…er, pharasaicalisti…ah, pha…, arrogant “And thank you Lord for not letting me become like them.” But I am speaking from my own personal experience, of the core of rotteness that I learned was in my heart. I believed I had a passion for the truth, but the way I lived that passion around fellow believers betrayed me. If I spoke any truthful words in those days, I fear they were only heard as noisy gongs and clanging cymbals. You can possess objective, absolute truth and be in error. I am NOT saying that these are mutually exclusive conditions. My feathers get mighty ruffled when I hear people say that all lovers of doctrine and theology are necessarily cold, heartless, unloving people. Apologetics can be done right. It can be edifying and God-honoring. I couldn’t do it. Some can, and are. Some should, but aren’t. Some shouldn’t, and are. I am grateful that God showed me my wickedness in this regard (at least as much as I could bear to see). My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will use the recent kerfluffle around here to work in all our (Christian blogdom’s) hearts and lives, so that the outward truth is not impeached by inward untruth.

Now I would like to tell Reformed blogdom, beginning with Matthew, why they are all wrong about postmoderism (jn). Actually, I was encouraged by his post this morning. But be careful Matthew, don’t let your guard down too far. You might blink and find yourself a friend of the dark side, like Michael. BTW, Michael, how does it feel to wear that ‘pomo’ label? Is it going to stick? Just remember: it’s not a set of doctrines about knowledge and reality. Rinse. Repeat. Proponents of pomo who use it as an excuse for relativism are just as wrongheaded as opponents who reduce pomo to relativism. Proponents of pomo who turn it into skepticism or cynicism are just as misguided as opponents who reduce pomo to skepticism or cynicism. Is it worth finding out what it’s about? Possibly not. Take some and leave some. The acid test to me is: can one faithfully manifest the gospel of Christ to others with the pomo world-and-life-view? Or is it too much work or compromise to be an effective “paradigm?” My point is that perhaps this is more of a principled pragmatic question and not one for which we can argue conclusively with a set of universally agreed-upon justifying criteria.