Archetypes are built around a certain core principle, which is the summation of a particular gendered abstraction. Stereotypes are a limiting oversimplification or a popularization of gender archetypes, and while stereotypes might partially draw on the archetypes for some element of truth, they end up being much narrower in their application.   Archetypes, born in... Continue Reading

To understand who Revelation 14 says we are, we need to ‘do the math’. John does his theology through maths and numbers, which will make some hearts sink—but others rejoice! It is clear from chapter 7 that the 144,000 are neither a special group of martyrs, nor an elite group of end-times Jewish evangelists (as some... Continue Reading

As apologists, it’s not enough for us to understand the arguments for the truth of Christianity. We also need to understand the people to whom we’re speaking. In particular, we need to understand the ideologies that shape their ways of thinking. Critical theory is one such ideology. It is rapidly growing in influence both on college campuses... Continue Reading

I set my alarm to get out of bed this morning. You probably don’t judge that as an act of rank mistrust of God’s providence. I made plans. I didn’t assume that God would rouse me supernaturally at 5:30 a.m. That was not an act of unbelief but a wise embrace of secondary means. On... Continue Reading

Called for the purpose of considering a Commission on a Way Forward report, which evaluates the church’s official stance on human sexuality (and, by implication, its qualifications for ministry), the General Conference voted to uphold its current standards. Not only does this move maintain the denomination’s stand upon God’s Word, declaring that “the practice of homosexuality is... Continue Reading

Physicist Paul Davies, the author of The Goldilocks Enigma¸which highlighted the unique fine-tuning of or planet for life, has now written a new book on life itself. The Demon in the Machine relates how the scientific study of life has shifted from focusing on life as a complex chemical system to an information processing system. This makes life even... Continue Reading

Jesus literally holds the entire universe together, and yet he’s never too busy for me. My Jesus walked on a Galilean sea, in the middle of a raging storm, and acted like it was no big deal. And another time, he told the wind and the waves that enough was enough: “Be still!” I can’t... Continue Reading

There are two ways to attack our sin nature. The first way is useless. It involves trying to stop doing the sin. It is equivalent to picking the fruit off of a bad tree in an attempt to kill it. That, of course, is silly, but that is what trying to use will power to... Continue Reading

Advocates of the social gospel believed the church should be engaged in the culture, fighting against injustice and working to uplift the impoverished and downtrodden—all admirable goals. The problem was they unwittingly allowed secular assumptions to inform their theology of cultural engagement.   Today’s social justice debate in the evangelical church feels eerily similar to the... Continue Reading

Many called him the last of the Calvinistic Methodist preachers because he combined Calvin’s love for truth and sound Reformed doctrine with the fire and passion of the eighteenth-century Methodist revival (Five Evangelical Leaders, 55). For thirty years he preached from the pulpit at Westminster Chapel in London. Usually that meant three different sermons each... Continue Reading