It is commonly reported that denominations are dying in America. Their demise is sometimes equated with Christianity’s decline, which is a mistaken equation.  By some measures overall church attendance has remained remarkably constant across 80 years.   How many Christians do you know under age 50, much less age 40, with passionate attachment to a... Continue Reading

One of my three favorites among new biographies is Scott Hendrix’s Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer (Yale, 2015), which shows how “separating religion from moralism was Luther’s revolutionary innovation.” Moralistic religion meant designating holy ground, building temples as places to make sacrifices, creating ceremonies, and going through procedures that, when checked off, would guarantee eternal rewards. But Luther... Continue Reading

Putting a human face on evil can make it more understandable—it’s no surprise that evil people do evil things. Nature’s violence can be more troubling. How do we deal with natural disasters that do not respect persons but rather indiscriminately claim the lives of the elderly, infants, and the handicapped along with able-bodied children and... Continue Reading

What we do at the Table is not only about what Jesus has done as our sacrificial Redeemer, but it is also about who he is as the Son of God and who we are in Him. And so it is that the Lord’s Supper is God’s gracious way of not only communicating this truth... Continue Reading

Our singing is more than a warm-up for the sermon or a filler in the service. Colossians 3:16 is clearly laying out for us that: Singing stands alongside of preaching as one of the two great ways that God has ordained for his Word to dwell richly in each one of us!   Have you ever wondered... Continue Reading

Wanting to leave is OK. You shouldn’t feel guilty when you wrestle with the call of God on your life. You don’t have to push the idea of leaving into the back of your mind. You do have to be honest with yourself, and you also must use caution as you face this issue. Here are five warnings to... Continue Reading

“Under H.B. 142, and with respect to public facilities that are subject to Executive Branch Defendants’ control or supervision, transgender people are not prevented from the use of public facilities in accordance with their gender identity,” read the settlement agreement, filed Wednesday.   Democratic North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has issued two orders to allow for... Continue Reading

It may initially seem absurd to claim a group of Christians who believe the KJV is divinely inspired is like a group of Christians who believe gender identity is so fluid it can change several times a day. But as I’ll show, both fundamentalist groups are strikingly similar in at least seven ways.   In the book of Judges,... Continue Reading

The Apostle Paul once viewed salvation as God’s work plus his own work, but after coming face to face with the living God he realized that those things of his didn’t add to the sum total, they subtracted from it. Whatever he thought was credit he found to be debit. We can’t be saved by faith plus... Continue Reading

When Martin Luther was brought into disputes with the princes of the church, they reminded him that his understanding of justification was not the traditional understanding, that the church long had explained justification in different categories. But Luther simply said: “Here is what the Bible says. My conscience is held captive by the Word of... Continue Reading