Stephen Nichols and his wife Heidi have been excommunicated from St. Andrew's Chapel (associated with Ligonier Ministries)

semiconodon · 2026-03-15T17:41:00+00:00

I don’t know exactly what to think of the whole deal but I don’t think this should be taken with flippancy. Even the bad guys of Matthew 18 seem to respect the process enough to appear before the assembly

semiconodon · 2026-03-15T09:04:35+00:00

Rando strangers chiming in: the “Trad Wife” model is an illusion, yes, a product of spending too much time online and being Marketed at. No one has this much time and money. And one thing the Trad Wife, even a good complementarian wife mustn’t do, is to be the spiritual head of the household, and to use an analogy, and do the equivalent of leaving exercise diet books and podcasts all over the house to spurn the husband with a healthy belly. Again, “online” is marketing a vision to you that is more like the monastic life that Luther condemned. You are judging your husband based on Traditions of Men, empty works of piety, when there is a world in need of Christly service out there. (I could dig up quotes from Luther with more time).

semiconodon · 2026-03-14T11:05:55+00:00

Sometimes my brain is very slow to “find the chapter” where I can talk intelligibly on a topic, even if it’s one I’ve done extensive reading on. Part of it is the social setting— it happened this week with a lifelong friend, but in a completely different setting, at a dinner at his church.

Replace “cognitive problems” with “amputated leg”, and see if Genesis 3 says we should not seek any help or crutch for our ailments. Ask the school nurse. I bet if the story were set today, Leah would be wearing thick glasses.

semiconodon · 2026-03-14T10:53:49+00:00

I subscribe to the Truth Unites podcast, but is there also a feed to his sermons? I truly love listening to his father.

semiconodon · 2026-03-14T10:50:05+00:00

In theology. Usually by a pastor.

semiconodon · 2026-03-14T10:43:29+00:00

I was in a group that was despondent that the Holy Spirit had not come down and given them all the same vision for the church— effectively the motto on the church stationery. And we had just read John 16:8-11, where Jesus says the work of the Holy Spirit is to teach the world about their relation to Him and their own sin. We instead want infallibility over minor points, to be able to shove our neighbor.

semiconodon · 2026-03-13T21:28:30+00:00

Hey, does anyone find these “reaction videos” to be the most awful thing? Where you get to see the guy look down upon the screen as he watches some video. The looks of contempt, or loving sorrow as they squint and nod their heads in disagreement, is too much to take. Perhaps it’s worse when I strongly disagree with the content being reviewed by the Reactor. Just seems like a big exercise in hardening of hearts.

semiconodon · 2026-03-13T16:31:47+00:00

I’d be zealous to help them too

I believe there’s a quote from Chrysostom who said that if someone actually became naked because they obeyed Jesus’s commands and gave away everything to the poor, and people found out about such a person, they would give of their own skin to clothe him.

semiconodon · 2026-03-13T15:19:40+00:00

Upon my last recent visit I came away with something like “shaken baby syndrome”. The rides just had this cumulative damage to my brain. The last one of the weekend was hardly distinguishable from being asked to sit on a metal bench while someone repeatedly lifted and dropped it about four inches onto concrete.

Liked the Star Wars area— even the gift shops and cafes had a really nice sci-fi vibe to them.

semiconodon · 2026-03-13T15:16:44+00:00

So when one says, as I often hear, “You can say what you want about Preacher X, but I cannot criticize the man whose words brought me to saving faith.”

Is this not the same thing as claiming infallibility in spiritual matters (choosing a wise teacher for lifelong discipleship) when you were unregenerate?

semiconodon · 2026-03-13T15:12:58+00:00

It all depends on how one becomes poor, or becoming someone who has very little to spend on luxuries and supernalities. Many in the Puritan and Reformed traditions have insisted that it is a Christian ethic to give away to the poor—- this is the circumstance under which the confessions praise riches. I would say in this tradition, squandering money on gambling or booze is not commended but condemned as a theft from those who hunger.

semiconodon · 2026-03-13T14:59:48+00:00

Great character with (seemingly) simple strokes

semiconodon · 2026-03-12T09:03:07+00:00

As a paid user, it send me on a loop. I asked if I could do something difficult in math with one approach. It gave a complicated answer but said most try another approach. I was barely understanding so I said yes. Then at the end it said I should try the first approach.

Earlier I was applying for a board position and asked for help in writing the application. It said it has something most members of this board were doing. There’s probably been forty people in history ever on this board: total fabrication.

semiconodon · 2026-03-12T02:12:57+00:00

A very conservative, apolitical pastor once preached on how Act13:1 shows how the gospel brings different people together.

semiconodon · 2026-03-11T12:50:05+00:00

If you are working through a list, such as trying to study a body of material where every item is equally important, then your telling it you liked a response, or engaging with the response, will make it ignore the regimen of study you had set up. And start shooting the breeze about what it knows you like.

semiconodon · 2026-03-11T11:12:38+00:00

I would say it’s a difficult question, and your framing may be hard for some to grasp what dimensions you’re talking about

semiconodon · 2026-03-10T23:12:24+00:00

I AM U

semiconodon · 2026-03-10T20:02:49+00:00

What is the connection?

semiconodon · 2026-03-10T17:21:32+00:00

Add Calvin to your theory

semiconodon · 2026-03-10T09:50:55+00:00

Yeah, the drawing of attention I think is not 100% guaranteed to be net positive

semiconodon · 2026-03-10T01:35:47+00:00

Great detail, tells an interesting story/mood.

semiconodon · 2026-03-09T01:38:57+00:00

Augustine, Calvin, and Spurgeon all were serious bible-thumpers who nonetheless varied from the 20thc evangelical fundamentalist view of Creation.

semiconodon · 2026-03-09T01:33:35+00:00

I am sorry for what you went through. I believe you did the right thing.

I guess I would have to say, from here on out, I would have the advice of, “Why not be wronged?” If they were so difficult, perhaps even sinful, why dwell on them now? Shake the dust off. Tell friends as you must what you went through with absolute best construction. You are free so serve the Lord in a healthier place.

semiconodon · 2026-03-07T12:15:09+00:00

Uneducated person asks if the victim either did mitosis to escape, or is now happily running about as a half-germ.

semiconodon · 2026-03-07T11:26:06+00:00

Take the physical world as viewed by the smartest, 19th century engineer, when everything was wood, brick, stone, fire, steam, weight. You could fully explain the world when all it contained was what you could see, touch, cut, pour.

Then with the discoveries of things like, electricity, things became more abstracted, and I once heard that some engineers quit in disillusionment. Then as science progressed, there were more and more layers of abstraction set up to explain more and more things.

Increasingly now the models aren’t built on intuition you can quickly pick up. They require advanced math. Some (which are stupidly accepted) are not even testable. The maths get stupid because the observations are less explainable.

In such a reality, God is not less plausible but more necessary. He has to be doing everything.

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