Tim’s Blog

New Video Section

November 21, 2022

For those who hadn’t noticed, I have started making short videos explaining various things about worship, the Bible, Christian discipleship, and so on. These are posted on YouTube, Rumble etc. I have now also added a video page to my web site where they’re all collected in one place.

Rest in Peace

February 26, 2022

This week, a dedicated but controversial servant of God went to be with Jesus.

https://www.garynorth.com/public/23334.cfm

When I was in my early twenties and an indie Pentecostal with Arminian tendencies, I became aware of Christian Reconstructionism through friends, and for a while I read Gary North (and other authors he published) ravenously. Over a period of a couple years, I probably read most of his then-completed books, including one session where I read his massive Tools of Dominion (nearly 1300 pages) in about three days.

While I ultimately exited the Reconstructionist orbit, largely because I couldn’t make sense of it when I read “with the grain” of numerous biblical texts (not least Galatians), the influence did lead me squarely into a Reformed direction — especially the recurring use of Cornelius Van Til and his emphasis on Romans 1. In particular, I became convinced that the natural man suppresses the truth of God. If that is so, how does he stop? Inexorably, I had to come to the conclusion that such suppression is ultimately only overcome by the sovereign working of God’s Holy Spirit. That is, what the Reformed call “irresistible grace.”

North was controversial not only for his theonomic/Reconstructionist perspective, but also due to his heavy investment (literally and figuratively) in the fiasco of Y2K alarmism, an investment that unquestionably harmed his credibility for some time.

Nonetheless, I thank God for his work, and for the peculiar way God used his influence in my own life.

See you in the resurrection, Gary.

Remembering Dad, 30 Years On

March 6, 2020

Thirty years ago today, my Dad went to meet his Lord. He was just 59 years old.

Paul was born January 4, 1931 in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. His full name was Paul Innis Gallant; by those initials, you will quickly discern that his mother was illiterate.

Paul was raised by his grandfather, who in the classic terminology was a “tough old S.O.B.” You know the type: When Dad came home crying after being beaten up on his first day of school, the old man let him know he had better learn to take care of himself, or he’d get it worse at home. Or there was the time that grandpa Cormier, who was legally blind, was attacked by a bunch of twelve year old boys. What they didn’t know was that he could see shadows, and he laid a good licking on them with his cane.

The family was a familiar sort of devout-not-devout Roman Catholic one where nobody goes to church except on Christmas and Easter, but God forbid you go a different religious direction (when my Dad converted, his aunt told him to get out of her house).

Growing up, my Dad was not exactly the studious type. The teachers used to get him out of their hair by sending him out to get them cigarettes (these were the 1930s and 1940s, okay?). Eventually, he ran away at 14, having achieved a grade three education. He was functionally illiterate in those years; he used to say that he “had a hard time with a Donald Duck book.”

After a rough and tumble life as pretty much a hobo, in 1958, Dad was in the southern U.S. It was winter, and from what I recall of the story, he went in to sort sort of church service to warm up. I’m sure he heard something of the gospel there, but he didn’t really indicate so.

It was the next day on the highway (Dad was an inveterate hitchhiker) that it all went down.

Rebirth

November 1, 2012

I tried migrating my old blog, but lost some configurations, so not sure anything can be salvaged. Looks like I may be starting fresh.