If Politics Undermines Theology, Why Is Your Theological Affirmation So Political?
The church has one purpose, the state another. And if you mix the two, politics could well undermine theology.
When “political leadership” undermines the government, then the church must intervene and become the state’s conscience. There goes separation of church and government. And to avoid the call to keep politics and theology distinct, the authors invoke not the Bible but Martin Luther King, Jr. Yet another evangelical statement is seeking signatures. Reclaiming Jesus is a... Continue Reading
Dhuoda and Her Handbook – A Mother’s Cry
Moving back and forth between poetry and prose, gravity and playfulness, she included prayers, theological lessons, word games, and some medieval interpretation of numbers.
Deprived of her children and fretful about their future, she set her mind to write a long letter to her firstborn son. This task was, in a way, to her benefit as much as to his, as it eased her anxiety and her “longing to be useful.” It turned out to be an actual book... Continue Reading
Why “Liberalism” Needs Natural Law
There is an ambiguity marking many of these sallies against liberalism (itself a term that’s invested with often-contradictory meanings).
Do today’s anti-liberals believe that the core problem is an ideology of radical autonomy, one that preaches liberation in the name of “tolerance-respect-diversity” while simultaneously shoving unscientific gobbledygook like gender theory down our throats? Or, do they also regard what I’ll call “liberal institutions” as antithetical to the good life? To put it more crudely: are particular... Continue Reading
Sexual Sin Is a Corporate Affair
Our response to sexual sin within the church reveals a lot about our own spiritual, relational, and sexual maturity, as well as those with whom we fellowship.
Privatized spirituality is at the root of privatized sexuality. For the past twenty-two years, I have focused on the problems of pornography and adultery within the church in America, and I see sexual sin from a unique perspective. Numerous indicators tell us that it is in our midst. I also know for a fact that... Continue Reading
Can We Preach to All People?
It is because I believe Jesus laid down His life effectively for a particular people that I preach the gospel and want to see it preached everywhere.
“Moreover, it is the promise of the gospel that whoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish but have eternal life. This promise, together with the command to repent and believe, ought to be announced and declared without differentiation or discrimination to all nations and people, to whom God in his good pleasure sends the... Continue Reading
Thou Shalt Not Put Your Friends to the Test
Personal Holiness as a Grace to Others
We sometimes neglect to remind people that walking in repentance and integrity is a good gift to leaders (Hebrews 13:17) because it keeps them from having to enter conflict. Us folks under accountability can take real burdens off those holding us accountable by striving to act right. “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill... Continue Reading
Dawkins and the God Question
God, I guess, is just too interesting to ignore.
Our church recently surveyed people from within and without as to the most pressing questions they’d like to ask Christians. We received a rich pot pourri of responses—the existence of aliens, the Christian understanding of gender, the failures of the Church, will my dog be in heaven and so forth. However, the number one question was surprising... Continue Reading
For Now We Rejoice in Part: Happiness Here and Not Yet
Ours is a life characterized by sorrow in many ways. For now, we rejoice only in part.
Though the Father’s will to make us happy does not change, and though the Son’s work of securing our happiness is complete, the Spirit’s work of showing and bestowing happiness to us and upon us has only begun. By God’s triune mercy, we have been reconciled to the order of beatitude, what Augustine calls “the perfectly... Continue Reading
Why Winning the Lottery Is Dangerous
Winning the lottery has been described as a “curse.”
According to the National Endowment for Financial Education, 70% of those who receive large cash windfalls lose them within just a few years. Winning a large amount of money can be physically, emotionally and behaviorally dangerous because money, at it’s core, can be spiritually dangerous. Not long ago, a single ticketholder won the Pennsylvania Powerball jackpot valued at 456.7 million... Continue Reading
We Hold These Truths: Defending Liberty in a Perilous Age
Things are falling apart. The center cannot hold.
Religious freedom, freedom of speech, and the freedom of the press, along with the other rights recognized and respected within the Bill of Rights, are all threatened even as other rights are marginalized. Even more distressingly, a new regime of invented rights threatens to replace the rights that are clearly enumerated within the text of... Continue Reading
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