As one sitting in the pew, I did not have time to go to all the meetings of the church….I often thought to myself – I am not able to go to this meeting, I do not need to go to a meeting….Standing behind the pulpit, I believed there could never be enough meetings for... Continue Reading

When the student thinks back on his fervent spiritual life as a high schooler there is significance and value there, but not as a part of the story to be rehashed. Instead, it should remind him that such connection to God is real and possible. Rather than being jealous of his own past he should... Continue Reading

Most schools with Calvin College’s financial profile and good credit carry debt service payments of between 5% and 7.3% of their operating budgets. Calvin College’s debt service payments are at about 6.1% now and will grow to 9.2% by 2017 if our revenue holds constant. The problem is that we have not built more than... Continue Reading

The numbers exceeded all expectations, especially the performance among younger adults, because it had been thought that the audience for Bible stories might be heavily tipped toward older viewers.   The record pace being set by cable programming continued Sunday night as “The Bible,” a series on the History network, reached 13.1 million viewers, the... Continue Reading

It is becoming clear that these arrests are increasingly less about actual Christian evangelism to Muslims, and more about Muslim hostility to Christians. When the Western media reported about the four foreign missionaries, they made it a point to state that the anti-proselytism law comes from the Gaddafi era.   Last week’s news of four... Continue Reading

Twenty years later, a less-than-scientific article in Scientific American claims that “Polyamory may be good for you.” A lot has happened in those 20 years, including the coining of new words to accommodate new thought. “Polyamory,” for example, refers to committed relationships among groups of people. “Polyfidelity” refers to the bond of such a group,... Continue Reading

It’s good to focus our attention on killing sin because we know that the wages of sin is death. We want to fight sin and temptation through God’s Word and by the power of His Spirit. But when fighting pride, we might be tempted to withdraw from serving due to a fear of sinning or... Continue Reading

There’s no way to stop this except by building up a culture of resistance within the character of children. Give them the courage to turn from this stuff if their friends get into it. This, I think, is where my friend is struggling. There are no few institutions in society that push back effectively against... Continue Reading

If the NT writers were citing other NT writers as Scripture, then that suggests the canon was not a later ecclesiastical development, but something early and innate to the early Christian faith. And that is a basic fact that all Christians should know.   One of the most controversial issues in the study of the... Continue Reading

Marriage was not considered merely a private arrangement. Every society regulates marriage, and most have adopted clear and punitive sanctions against adultery. But the moral and cultural revolutions of the past several decades have shifted the meaning of marriage from a public institution to a private contract.   The Colorado legislature is considering the repeal... Continue Reading