We must be alarmed that…the mayor of a major American city threatened to have the police take down the license plate numbers of cars gathered in a parking lot for an Easter worship service—people who were otherwise abiding by the CDC and other governmental guidelines. They are taking names. They are taking numbers. This is... Continue Reading

We need more theology, nuance, grace, compassion, and understanding in our churches, not less. But these things are made possible by orthodox doctrine, not in spite of it. Doubt and questions need not catalyze a pendulum swing from belief to unbelief.   In John 6, Jesus’s hard teaching causes a large number of his followers... Continue Reading

God has faithfully carried His people through pestilence, plague, persecution, and war all through history. And all through history it has been the most difficult times that have led to the greatest growth in the church. It feels like we are living a key moment in history right now —may it be a key moment... Continue Reading

Trinitarianism did not fall from the sky, nor did Jesus write the Nicene Creed on tablets and hand it to the apostles after his resurrection. Instead, the terminology changed over time for various contextual and missional reasons, particularly in response to the issues listed below. The biblical writers did not use the same terms as... Continue Reading

Donne has often been described as a poet of death. To some people, especially in a culture where thoughts of death are often shunned, he seemed obsessed with it. In reality, death and pain were a constant reality in his life, but he didn’t stop there.   In 1623, when a sudden illness brought the... Continue Reading

As our culture and society change, the church does find itself at a crossroads. Do we chase after our market share of the Christians in our community? Do we seek to discover what these people want in church and give it to them? Or, do we seek what God would have us to be as... Continue Reading

The measurement, analytic, and interpretive decision-making displayed in much (though certainly not all) of this literature is troubling, indicative of a lack of standards, poorly defined concepts, impressionistic conclusions derived from small numbers of interviews, the politicization of results, and the overall novelty of the field.   According to a purported deep dive into the... Continue Reading

One could accurately describe the progress of the reformation in England during that time as a repetitive dance of three steps forward and two steps back. And unfortunately that frustrating struggle did not cease during the “golden” years following Henry’s death under the youthful King Edward.   The topic of this and, hopefully, the next several posts... Continue Reading

What do we do when we are unsure of what God is doing? How do we know how to respond when that is the case? If we do not fully know his intentions, how can we see his mercy? In the same way that the hidden things belong to the Lord, the revealed things belong... Continue Reading

The foremost theme in these two biblical books concerns the reign of the single God of Israel who is sovereign over them and Creator of the world. He requires sole loyalty and worship. The story of Kings is the account of the manner in which rulers and prophets succeeded and failed in this requirement.  ... Continue Reading