This is not just a lament for the evident slide of the CRC toward the American mainline (liberalism) but to note how that happened. The CRC didn’t become liberal overnight. Most of the CRC still probably isn’t classically liberal as much as it is broadly evangelical, which is the bridge between confessionalism and liberalism. Conservatives, even staunch... Continue Reading

The Lord took hold of Calvin, and Calvin thus could not help but take away “dominion and rule from his own reason” and yield it to the Lord alone. That is the glorious brilliance reflected by any study of Calvin. There was nothing in Calvin himself that was superhuman, super-theologian, or super-churchman. Calvin was a... Continue Reading

Why Enns is willing to welcome Bell’s aids to spirituality but keeps fundamentalist or evangelical helps to devotion at arm’s length is anyone’s guess (though Bell is hipper than John Piper). It would seem to me that if you’re in the business of pulling down the secular order, you take help from inerrantists as much... Continue Reading

All of this is interesting in itself, but I would propose that the most important fact here (only alluded to in the RNS article) is this: Compared with North America and Europe, most Christians in the non-Western World (now commonly referred to as the Global South) are much more conservative, both theologically and morally.  ... Continue Reading

To put flesh and blood on those statistics, all one has to do is look around. In Baghdad, Islamic militants stormed the Syriac Catholic cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation on 31 October 2010, killing the two priests celebrating Mass and leaving a total of 58 people dead. Though shocking, the assault was far from... Continue Reading

“He led a movement that translated traditional conservative Bible-based Christianity to a large segment of the baby boom generation’s counterculture,” says Brad Christerson, a Biola University sociologist who studies charismatic churches in California. “His impact can be seen in every church service that has electric guitar-driven worship, hip casually-dressed pastors, and 40-minute sermons consisting of... Continue Reading

With that qualifier, “Why me, Lord?” is impregnated with pride.  It shakes its fist at God.  That fist can be raised high in outright rebellion, such as in Psalm 139:20, or it can be more subdued, like fingers crossed behind the back.  The subdued version conveys a degree of protest often fostered by doubt or... Continue Reading

The most common knock against the M.Div, along with most academic degrees (the M.Div is technically a vocational degree), is that it is not practical. It does not prepare you for “the real world.” And there’s some truth to this.   James Miller is hardly the first to call into question the future viability of... Continue Reading

“We didn’t pick the fight,” Green explained. “We never imagined we’d sue our own government. We love our country. But the mandate requires us to become abortion providers, which goes against our conscience.” Green said his firm would “not provide abortive drugs for free and won’t prevent employees from accessing those drugs.”   Hobby Lobby... Continue Reading

As Christians find themselves more and more on the margins in American society, people are beginning to count the cost. While it used to serve Americans well to carry the label “Christian” in most circumstances (think about running for public office, for instance), it can actually be polarizing or considered intolerant now. So for those... Continue Reading