Institutional and Theological Instabilities Threaten Evangelicalism’s Future
Conservative Evangelicalism seems to have invested more time and money over the last decade in building up a celebrity culture and publishing a disproportionate amount of fluff.
If you want an engaging preacher or a flashy conference, you turn to the evangelicals. If you want to know how to think, for example, about marriage, euthanasia, fertility treatment, issues of church and state — matters which are part of a pastor’s daily diet and which are becoming more, not less, complicated — then... Continue Reading
5 Reasons the Church Should Embrace Science
Science needs your insight, your unique background, your God-given giftings, your prayers as you collect and analyze data.
How better to solve the questions and problems we face than to combine scientific inquiry with the ability to petition the creator of the universe? Christians who pursue the sciences are in the unique position to do just this. Science can be one more tool we use to serve God and to serve our world... Continue Reading
There Are No Accidents With God
God has decreed all that has ever happened and ever will happen and ultimately brings about all things he has purposed.
God in his sovereignty even overrides our sins. Maybe you really blew it. You feel like your sin has wrecked your life. Maybe you are suffering long-term consequences for a bad mistake. Remember there are no accidents with God. God is not the author of sin and he doesn’t tempt us to sin. But even... Continue Reading
Reports of Evangelical Christianity’s Demise Are Overblown
Despite alarming evidence of decline, a recent Pew survey of religion indicates that the total number of evangelicals in America is holding steady.
Evangelicals, of course, believe that church growth and decline is ultimately in God’s hands. If America goes fully secular, we will receive that as part of God’s providential plans. But the clamor about the imminent death of traditional faith, in the short term, is much ado about nothing. Devout and secular Americans alike have... Continue Reading
China Doesn’t Want To Suppress Christianity, Just Control It
The real fight is not over whether China will become a country with a significant Christian presence, but who will control the burgeoning churches.
The Vatican knows this well. I have been told by insiders that the strategic thrust of Pope Francis’s diplomacy is all directed eastwards, towards the emergence of China as a great religious power. Chinese relations with the Vatican have long been fraught because of conflicts over the control of the Church, and in particular the... Continue Reading
Getting To The Root
Debates about any and all aspects of Genesis 1-3, like debates about the rest of the Bible’s content, are all rooted in the authority upon which we entrust our reasoning.
He who is God’s word made flesh trusted God’s written word through the power of God’s Spirit, and this has produced salvation. God’s word can and should be trusted. The First and Second Adam (1Cor. 15:45-49) reveal this. Who will you trust? We are given various historical examples and descriptions of sin in Scripture.... Continue Reading
Baphomet: The Satanic Tradition of Abortion
Before Christ was born, Satan killed millions of children in hopes of thwarting Eve’s promised Messiah. Now, after Christ, our children feel the wrath of a sore loser.
Christ has overcome the power of Hell and unleashed the power of grace, but as we endure these final days before Jesus’ Return, Satan is violent and venomous in his final throws. He seeks to exterminate children, to abuse children, and to deny children love, hope, and the knowledge of God. In modern America, Satan’s... Continue Reading
The Coming Of The Age Of Gibberish
As ever, in our aesthetic age, it is impossible to argue against a feeling.
This is where the New Left looks set to undo itself. The very language upon which it depends for articulating its moral and political ambition—e.g., equality, gender, humanity, rights, etc.—was predicated upon reality being more than a linguistic construct or the creation of individual egos. Every now and then I read something which seems... Continue Reading
The Sunday Worship Killer
You are meeting with the Triune God of the universe. Don’t let our adversary tempt you to do something less.
Instead of meeting with God, she played the cynic. Instead of hearing the voice of God, she heard the frail words of the preacher. Instead of a mind stirred by truth, it was stymied in criticism. Instead of a heart moved with joy, it was hardened in judgment. Few things harden the soul, deaden... Continue Reading
Reflections On SCOTUS Oberkeful Opinion #1
Christian outrage is crucial and right, but must lead to lament; lament must lead to repentance.
I am outraged that a nation claiming to be “under God” now legally, institutionally as well as culturally mocks the God of glory. Therefore, I lament that this ruling not only positions this nation under God’s judgment but reveals that we are already under the judgment of God. What about outrage? OUTRAGE: An extremely strong... Continue Reading