5 Ways to Be a Godly Grandparent
Scripture doesn’t let grandparents, or even seniors without their own children or grandchildren, off the hook for impacting the next generation.
The Christian life is a race, and we’re called to run to the very end (Hebrews 12:1–3), not just to an arbitrary retirement age! God can use you to make an impact on the lives of those around you regardless of your age (young [1 Timothy 4:12] or old!). Of course, we will likely have... Continue Reading
Should Christians Withdraw from the World?
When Christ calls people into His kingdom, He doesn’t pull them out of the world forever. He sends them back out with the gospel.
Just after His resurrection Jesus came to the upper room, where the Apostles were hiding in fear, and told them that they were to wait for the Spirit to be poured out. But at that point, there was to be no more waiting. Once the Spirit came, they were to go out into the world... Continue Reading
‘Til Kingdom Come
"On the one hand, 'kingdom of God' is the narrower, and 'church' the wider concept...On the other hand, the 'kingdom of God' or 'of heaven' is a broader concept than that of the church."
The complexity of these two concepts necessitates that we give the utmost care to our consideration of both their distinctness and interrelatedness. It is only as we do so that we will profitably enter into conversations about the mission of the church, social justice, mercy ministry, the individual and the corporate, the sacred and the... Continue Reading
The Gospel According to Progressive Christianity: Is it Really Good News?
Why does Charles Wesley find the blood of Jesus to be soul-saving good news, and Michael Gungor find it to be gruesome and horrific?
Gospel is a word that literally means “good news.” It’s used a lot in the Bible, and Christians say it all the time. The Apostle Paul said he wasn’t ashamed of it and anyone who preaches a different one should be cursed. He called it “the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.” Jesus... Continue Reading
Why Pastors Should Engage Francis Turretin
it is Turrretin’s precision that makes him so necessary for pastors today.
Covering the whole range of systematic theology, Turretin offers twenty topics. Each topic is addressed through a series of questions. The questions are answered. Objections are raised. Objections are answered. With the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel, Turretin addresses problems, works through all the angles, and brings the reader to a pinpoint resolution—aided by logic,... Continue Reading
God Is Not Small
As Packer puts it, God is barely a “smudge” on the page of our secularized lives.
Ever since the garden of Eden, Satan has been seeking to convince each of us that we can “be like God” (Gen. 3:5). The clear assumption behind this lie is that you and I can actually be like Him. It is an explicit denial of the “Godness” of God, an obvious rejection of the Creator-creature distinction,... Continue Reading
Pilgrim Theology Versus Ethnic Theology
Those ethnic groups who have suffered, who have been politically, culturally, or economically oppressed, have had an important experience but does that suffering define them?
Over against the panoply of ethnic and sexual theologies that emerged in late modernity (post-1968 in the USA and post-1914 in Europe) this essay argues that we should doubt the major premise upon which any ethnic theology is constructed and that Christians ought to abandon such projects and embrace the traditional trans-ethnic designations: Christian, Patristic,... Continue Reading
We Can’t Take our Platform to the Grave
God wastes nothing. Our suffering always serves his purposes—even in the darkness.
I know we are supposed to be humble in this whole Christian writer world, but I’ll be honest and lay my cards on the table here—before last year, I secretly obsessed over platform. My second book came out three weeks before I was admitted to the hospital and I spent nearly every day of those... Continue Reading
Is Anyone Born Gay?
I was wholly convinced my sexuality was the core of who I was — not simply what I desired or did.
Should we simply accept sexual orientation as the way things are, as the only terminology to describe enduring and unchosen same-sex attractions? Or should we step back and critically assess this idea in light of God’s truth about who we are? Honestly, we cannot begin to understand human sexuality until we first start with “theological anthropology,”... Continue Reading
Innocent as to What is Evil
“I want to see you experts in good, and not even beginners in evil.”
We don’t even begin to know evil. We are truly innocent of it. And that is what stopped me cold. I am not innocent. I know way too much of the ways of this dark world and the ways of depraved humanity to be innocent of evil. From the shows I watch on TV, to... Continue Reading