Context Matters: Your Body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit
If we learn to read the Bible for what it is—and not as a collection of independently assembled proverbial sayings—we’ll discover that some of our most familiar passages don’t actually mean what we’ve always assumed.
If this verse prohibits alcohol, tobacco, or piercings, then how much more does it also prohibit caffeine, chocolate cake, bacon grease, late nights, failure to bathe, steel factory employment, vasectomies, and drivers’ licenses? Each of these things either 1) introduces harmful substances to the body, 2) puts the body at significant risk of harm, or... Continue Reading
No Special Providence?
It is one thing to profess to believe in God's sovereignty respecting His ability to intervene in certain affairs and quite another to believe that He is sovereign over the circumstances of our lives when things seem to go terribly wrong and when they seem to be going quite well.
When we contemplate God’s sovereignty, we delve into the doctrine of divine providence. God is in absolute control of every moment, interaction, event, provision, protection, trial, difficulty and conflict of our lives. He has determined all of the events of our lives and is governing His own accordingly. Many Christians profess to believe in... Continue Reading
The Statement on SJ&G Explained: Article 2, The Imago Dei
God is the origin and source of all things, He defines them, and gives them meaning.
The Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel, after proclaiming the highest view of Scripture, affirms, briefly but forcefully, the reality of the creation of mankind, all ethnicities, all tribes, all peoples, in the imago Dei, the image of God. While this affirmation would have been supercilious only a few centuries ago, today, especially in Western... Continue Reading
10 Things You Should Know about the Most Famous Verse in the Bible
John wants us to reflect in our hearts upon the immeasurable character of so great a love, and that we do so by placing in contrast, one over against the other — God and the world.
What is the finite sum of mankind when set opposite the infinitude of God? As B. B. Warfield once said, we could as well measure the strength of the blacksmith by declaring him capable of supporting a feather on an outstretched palm! The primary force of this text is certainly to magnify the infinite quality... Continue Reading
God the Father: A Name Is More Than a Metaphor
Leaving aside the problems of presenting the Father bodily (Ex. 20:4), the manifestations of the Father seen in The Shack are carefully calibrated in order to meet the perceived needs of Mack.
The themes of the book are heavy, at times harrowing, and inescapably theological, though they are presented in such a way that the reader can forget it is indeed a work of theology. The theological themes touched on include the character of the church, the problem of evil (theodicy), the nature of revelation, the depiction... Continue Reading
What is Natural Revelation?
The Bible teaches that God made all creation and has put His attributes on display for us in it.
We call this “natural” revelation because it is something that God has made known in creation. This does not mean that the creation is God but only that God makes creation to reflect aspects of His glory. We can also call this “general” revelation because it goes out to all people. Everyone can see and... Continue Reading
Disillusioned with Jesus
John’s disillusionment with Jesus is surprising because of course, John was the one who recognized the voice of Jesus’ mother, Mary, while John was still in the womb.
There is no question that John knew who Jesus was. The question he is asking Jesus is about what Jesus was doing. In effect, John is saying to Jesus, “Why are you are not acting like the Messiah?” It would be similar to hiring a plumber to fix your pipes. When the plumber arrives, he... Continue Reading
That is Revival
Throughout Lloyd-Jones’ life and ministry, his conviction regarding the crucial importance of revival––and of preaching about it––never wavered.
Revival is, therefore, more than the rededication of believers; it is also the awakening, or quickening, or impartation of spiritual life to the unregenerate. Additionally, we may also identify revival as the conversion of sinners to salvation in Christ. Quite significantly, these two meanings (rededication and regeneration) appear in the spiritual and scriptural concept of... Continue Reading
Rebuilding Parental Authority
I believe the responsibility for much of this lies at the feet of parents.
In the way we structure our lives, we repeatedly, though maybe unconsciously, give up our role and unwittingly give it over to others. Much of our time is spent occupying our children and reacting to them, rather than engaging them in relationship. Our kids are in school all day and then involved in sports, lessons,... Continue Reading
We Won’t Miss Anything in the New Creation
In his book Miracles, C.S. Lewis addresses this concern and offers an analogy I think is helpful for allaying our worries.
Jesus’ teaching that those who will be resurrected to eternal life “neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Matt. 22:30) has often led to wonder (and/or panic) about what embodied existence without one of the greatest of physical pleasures humanity knows will be like. In the 1980s, a... Continue Reading