I Don’t Want Your Good Vibes. I Want Prayer.
There's no substitute for our communion with the Father.
The Bible does not offer us any spiritual placebo effect, by which a sugar tablet of good wishes just might have the same effect as the penicillin of prayer. Prayer is the thing that weak, sick, anxious, sinful, needy Christians must have. Do not substitute. On Thursday, Pope Francis stood on the balcony of... Continue Reading
Is Capitalism UnChristian?
Christian principles do undergird capitalism. And the biggest of these is capital itself.
“The engine of capitalism is the God-given drive, ability, and responsibility to create, to innovate, to conquer and subdue. When humans make something out of nothing, or when we make the same something more efficiently, we show forth the image of God in us.” I’m not interesting in commenting on the specifics of either... Continue Reading
Postmodernism: A Cautionary Tale
“Cognitive contamination” happens every day in our ordinary work-a-day lives
“The challenge of a growing suspicion toward metanarratives is that Christianity is unavoidably a metanarrative. Christianity is the one story that rules them all. It is the one narrative that explains mankind’s origins, miseries, death and ultimate destiny. Our faith testifies to an ontological and metaphysical reality that applies to all men – past, present... Continue Reading
The Most Invisible Christians in Washington
Even as Middle Eastern churches face extinction, their lobby struggles to be heard
“The world has watched and witnessed the targeted persecution of Christians, suffering violence, displacement, rape, enslavement, and even death,” said Kirsten Evans, executive director of IDC. “Do these crimes constitute genocide under international law, and if so, what the so what are the options the international community has in order to respond?” The woman’s... Continue Reading
The Desire To Be Desired
The desire to be desired fits nicely into the story of evolution
“The only way out of this bondage is fairly well known: desire being desired less, and desire God more. To desire less is done through confession and repentance. What could you confess? Narcissism, self-worship, fear of aloneness, a conviction that God is not so good—when possible, reach for something that is ruthlessly accurate.” At... Continue Reading
Why “Strategic Ministry” Makes Me Deeply Uncomfortable
The privileged need reaching because they are lost, not because they matter more
“It is easy for Christians to find themselves thinking that if only we could get a sports star, or celebrity, or high-profile leader converted, then it would be a great coup for the gospel. Such people, by virtue of their position, are deemed to be more strategically valuable than others, and so resources are apportioned... Continue Reading
Evangelicals Won’t Cave
Why evangelicals will not be surrendering to the sexual revolution
The first stumbling block to any Evangelical cave-in is the Bible. Evangelicals are not “fundamentalists” in the way many have come to use the term—characterized by uniformity on secondary or tertiary doctrines along with a fighting sectarian spirit. But conservative Evangelicals are—and always have been—“fundamentalists” in the original meaning of the term, within the context... Continue Reading
What Is a Christian’s Responsibility to Government?
For God’s sake we are called to be model citizens
“We are told to bend over backwards to honor the king or be obedient to the civil magistrates. That doesn’t mean a slavish obedience to the civil magistrates. There are occasions on which Christians not only may but must disobey the civil magistrates.” The New Testament gives us some broad principles on how we... Continue Reading
In Search of the Good Ol’ Days
The only truly good days in this creation were in Eden before the Fall, and the way back is barred forever.
If you go back to the days before those nasty feminists and pot-smoking radicals, what about segregation? What about civil rights for minorities? What about laws that protect women from domestic violence and give them legal rights apart from their husbands? If you step further back, what about child labor? What about slavery? What about... Continue Reading
On Headship and Households
What is the teaching in Genesis on this issue, and how is it further brought to light in the New Testament?
Burk is right that there are many questions left about the mystery of manhood and womanhood, and how that all plays out in culture. Neither Carl nor I deny there are many differences between the sexes, some cultural, and some innate. But I do deny that male headship is imperative to living out my womanhood... Continue Reading