“Scholars” vs. Scripture: The Battle for Final Authority
Does the survival of evangelical Christianity rest upon the authority of science and scholars or on the accuracy of the claims of Scripture?
Whether he knows it or not Dr. Giberson has surfaced an issue upon which we agree: This is a matter of authority. Who will have the final authority? God’s divinely given Word or an ill-defined company of “scholars?” While Giberson is alarmed at the prospect of Christianity losing “many of its scholars” he’s rather sanguine... Continue Reading
Jesus and the Church
Jesus mentions the church, the ekklēsia, only twice
The New Testament church looks nothing like an organization built along lines of affinity, unless we are talking about affinity for Christ. Many of the problems with which the Apostles and the epistles are dealing in the New Testament arise precisely because of the diversity of age, class, and ethnicity of the members of the... Continue Reading
How Much Did the OT Writers Know? (2): The Spectre of Bibliological Eutychianism
When OT writers wrote passages interpreted by the NT as references to Christ, did they consciously have these Christological meanings in view?
The insistence that the OT writers must have had NT Christological meanings in mind when they wrote smacks of bibliological Eutychianism…. By staking their case on a curious and speculative argument about what must have been in the minds of the biblical writers, they have not only placed themselves at odds with a significant portion... Continue Reading
Canadian Lawyers Rally Against Christian Law School Grads
The Law Society of British Columbia reverses a previous decision to recognize future graduates from the planned Trinity Western University School of Law
Trinity Western first submitted its proposal for an accredited law program in 2012. In December 2013, the Federation of Law Societies of Canada and the British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education issued back-to-back approvals, citing “no public interest reason” not to grant preliminary permission. Provincial law societies, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island, all... Continue Reading
Where Does Reformation Begin?
We think others need to change, but we are the ones who need to be fixed first, to repent and confess our sins; change begins individually.
If reformation is going to happen in the church today it must begin with reformation in our hearts. When we divide over issues, each side believes its arguments have more veracity and necessity. These arguments claim to find scriptural, confessional, or constitutional warrant. Modern automobiles have built into their braking system a warning sound... Continue Reading
Louis Zamperini Gains His Final Freedom
World War II POW, who forgave the captors who tortured him, died July 2
Zamperini returned to Japan in 1950 and spoke to 850 prisoners held for war crimes. About half of them received Christ. Eight of his own former guards, now prisoners themselves, came forward. Zamperini forgave his torturers, “hugging them in the process.” Louis Zamperini, a 1936 Olympian, World War II Japanese prisoner of war, and... Continue Reading
Review: ‘Unbroken’
Louis Zamperini was called home to glory on July 2, 2014
Zamperini’s story of survival and resilience will grab most readers’ attention. But it’s his testimony of redemption that makes Unbroken perhaps the most exciting and encouraging book published in 2010. You won’t feel even a tinge of worry when sharing the book with unbelievers. It should provoke fascinating conversations. Unbroken memorably illustrates both the depths of human depravity and... Continue Reading
A Different Kind of Millennial Problem
Some of the reasons I believe millennials have been drawn to our church
“We do not wish to be more conservative, or more liberal, than the Bible. If God had wanted to add things to the Bible or take away hard truths, He would have done so. We have exactly what we have for the most perfect of reasons: the loving providence of God. Neither pharisaical additions nor... Continue Reading
Young, Restless and… Nietzschean?
Ghostwriting is lying, and plagiarism is stealing, and there seems to be a lot of it going around
“For some time now I have been harping on and on about the corrupting effects of celebrity culture on conservative evangelicalism. I think I was wrong: we are not dealing these days with mere celebrities; the ethical transgressions we are witnessing would indicate that we are actually dealing with a form of evangelical Nietzscheanism whereby... Continue Reading
Presbyterians Embrace Terminal Irrelevance
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) met in Detroit from June 14 to 21, 2014
“The vote on same-sex weddings in Presbyterian churches was very skewed–429 to 175. Regional presbyteries still have to vote, but that is unlikely to change what occurred in Detroit–many if not most of those opposed to same-sex marriage have already left the denomination, either by joining more orthodox splinter churches or by swelling the ranks... Continue Reading