Every church has a specific liturgy that it follows—from a more biblical background to a more contemporary and pragmatic order—every church follows a specific structure. In many cases, the worship service is centered around a pragmatic arrangement in order to guide the emotions of people. In such cases, the worship becomes man centered rather than... Continue Reading

Camus, in his classic novel, The Plague, describes the agony of a priest trying to come to terms with the horrible death of a child. In such circumstances one of the key questions that Christians seek to answer is: where is God in all of this? The answers fly out from the keyboards and on the airwaves.... Continue Reading

It is good to self-examine and learn from our failures. Yet, perhaps more important than lessons learned is the question: how is God glorified in this? Is it possible that even in our self-inflicted trials—when we are acutely aware of our fallen, sinful nature—the glory of God is manifested by his work in and for... Continue Reading

The foundation of social gospel redefinitions of Christianity was the modern historical-critical method of biblical study, which argued that the virgin birth, miracles, and the resurrection were myths used by the biblical writers to express how Jesus had influenced their lives. Critical scholars in the nineteenth century had challenged the reliability of the Gospel accounts,... Continue Reading

The wisdom literature is often rather neglected in our churches. Its sapiential character does not fit well within the narrow constraints of our information and doctrine-focused teaching. Its more open-ended and less definitive forms of knowledge unsettle the security of our dogmatisms. Its empirical and pragmatic focus discomforts our ideological abstractions and our personal detachment.... Continue Reading

Well, let’s first think of the Apostle Paul.  What was Paul’s beef with the Jewish leaders regarding salvation?  Simply put, they had pursued righteousness as if it could be obtained on the basis of their works (Rom. 9:32).  In other words, Cara says, Paul was arguing against a legalistic works righteousness view of salvation.  ... Continue Reading

It might sound like I’m describing the present worldwide Covid crisis, but actually I’m summarizing Revelation 18, where John sees the end of the world. ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!’ (Rev. 18:2). In the Bible generally, and in Revelation in particular, Babylon represents the world against God — fallen, sinful humankind. So the fall... Continue Reading

Should Jesus have desired to become sin (2 Cor 5:21)? Should Jesus have desired to be forsaken by his Father, to drink the cup of his Father’s wrath (Matt 27:45-46)? If Jesus is holy man, he should not desire to become sin and should not desire to be forsaken by his Father.   Introduction Matthew... Continue Reading

In Scripture, fear is more than feeling terrified. The fear of man certainly includes that, but it also means revering people, needing them, or valuing their opinion so much that our decisions end up being controlled by them. We obey what we fear.   They were trapped. On one side a massive Egyptian army coming... Continue Reading

Since the beginning of the Enlightenment, questions of authority had remained at the forefront of philosophical and theological thinking. The authority of Scripture and/or the church was no longer taken for granted by most, but what was the alternative? Many Enlightenment thinkers had placed human reason in that exalted role, but others, such as those... Continue Reading