Which Christian leader has ever been as honest as Paul? “We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.” Paul sees God’s hand in all of this: “But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on... Continue Reading

The impassibility claim, therefore, primarily recognizes the creator and creature distinction. God has no body, neurons, hormones, hunger, and so on. Hence, he cannot be passible like us. But according to his being (immaterial, etc.), he loves, grieves, and so on. He does so without ever deviating from the course.   Adolf Harnack advanced the... Continue Reading

Barnabas was not convinced by Paul. In fact, in Paul himself, Barnabas showed that he was a man to give someone an opportunity to serve in ministry when others would not (cf. Acts 9:26–29). Barnabas was apparently convinced that Mark had learned his lesson and was worthy to serve again. But, as it was, “a sharp... Continue Reading

I watched my godly mother suffer in many ways, often emotionally as she reared three children who didn’t always walk in the ways of the Lord. I watched her suffer the death of my wonderful father, her husband of fifty-eight years. Finally, I watched her suffer the loss of her health and her mobility, and... Continue Reading

God is no idolater; he will have no other gods before him. And one of the most bracing and clarifying and (counterintuitively) steadying things we can do is to rehearse what God himself has told us in Scripture about why he does everything that he does. He is the most God-centered person in the universe,... Continue Reading

Here’s the sad, hard truth: it will be nearly impossible to completely shield your child. Porn infiltrated my Christian elementary school in 1979, and now the ubiquity of digital devices (forty years later) means porn is always at our fingertips. It is more realistic to plan how you will respond when exposure to porn occurs... Continue Reading

Since Paul is the earliest Christian writer, he’s our most important source for the Christian faith. And since he speaks next to nothing about Jesus’ earthly life and teaching, maybe he’s not even real. Plus, Paul’s resurrection appearance was just a vision, not a physical appearance, making it sketchy. So does Paul really know “next... Continue Reading

I have chosen to use “Third Way” for two reasons: first, because it strikes me as less charged than “race” or “clan” or “tribe”; and second, because early on, Christians were known as followers of “the way.” This translation fits well enough, but only if we understand it as conveying a larger meaning than merely... Continue Reading

Slander occurs when someone shares something about someone else that is not factual, or perhaps partially true, but results in damaging the individual’s reputation. The subtlety of slander can occur over a casual coffee conversation among friends or it can happen as a means of asking prayer for someone who left your church or a... Continue Reading

Anthony Burgess, one of the pastors at the Westminster Assembly, once compared the difference between the knowledge of biblical truth and true saving knowledge of biblical truth, as a man studying a map versus a man walking the streets, meeting a city’s people, and experiencing sites and sounds first hand. The difference between these two... Continue Reading