Facebook ‘Dead and Buried to Teens’, Research Finds
Comprehensive European research has found that teens are leaving the service in droves - and the biggest deterrent is their parents
“What appears to be the most seminal moment in a young person’s decision to leave Facebook was surely that dreaded day your mum sends you a friend request,” wrote Miller. Facebook is ‘dead and buried’ to older teenagers, an extensive European study has found, as the key age group moves on to Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and... Continue Reading
Anti-Calvinist No More: I Repented
A young pastor's journey to the doctrines of grace.
At a low-point in my ministry, when I was 21 years of age and in my first full time youth pastor position in a Southern Baptist Church, with the pastor out of town I held an altar-call during morning worship to pray for the SBC because there was a heresy sweeping the convention. This heresy... Continue Reading
How I Escaped the Mormon Temple
After being in the LDS Church for 30 years, I began reading the New Testament. What was there shocked me.
When I read what Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them,” I knew I was being drawn—sucked, pulled, conveyed, transported. In physics, an event horizon is a boundary beyond which the gravitational pull is so powerful that there is no escape. This was... Continue Reading
A Plan To Read Through The Bible In 2014
How to read all the books of the Bible in canonical order in one year.
Christians need the Bible like humans need water. The Bible is our life-blood. The Lord Jesus plans to perfect His people by means of His word. That is why He prayed,“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:17). Since the Bible is the word of God written, our progress in sanctification relies... Continue Reading
What We Lose When We Manipulate Jesus
It's very popular - always has been - for people to pick and choose the aspects of Jesus they like and invent other aspects out of thin air.
The idea that Jesus was a “community organizing” “revolutionary” in some Marxist sense is anachronistic (an out-of-time reference). It’s not helpful or accurate. He did not organize protests, sit-ins, revolts, etc. In fact, quite the opposite, He said things like “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” and “My kingdom is not of this world.” (Luke 20:25 and... Continue Reading
Are New Year’s Resolutions Sinful?
While they are not sinful, one must be careful in how to carry them out
On the other hand, one must be careful in how to carry them out. This is because a resolution is defined as a promise to oneself do or not to do something. James, the earthly brother of our Lord, commanded us to “let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no, so that you may not fall... Continue Reading
Learning to be a Grateful Critic
People tend to either uncritically defend or hyper-critically condemn well-known pastors/theologians
The Scriptures teach us to work through proper channels of criticism and to speak when necessary. This is not always easy to navigate. On the one hand, the Bible tells us to go privately to a brother if he has sinned against us personally (Matt. 18:15) and not to bring an accusation against an elder except... Continue Reading
Why We Don’t Pray to Mary or Any Other Saint in Heaven
When you look at the Biblical evidence for praying to the saints, you cannot find any whatsoever
To exalt Mary to such a status as mediator is truly misguided and we should shun any arguments to the contrary. Was she special? Absolutely. But she was still just a servant of God in need of a Savior just as much as we are in need of a Savior. We are not to look... Continue Reading
How the Church Makes the Trial of Infertility Better (or Worse)
Infertile People Need the Church's Love and Accountability
Infertility is a terrible plague, a legacy of the fall we’re forced to confront all too often in the church. But if God has put infertile people in the pews next to you—and he almost certainly has—he’s given you a tremendous opportunity to sympathize with them, to love them by being a friend, and to... Continue Reading
Duck Dynasty and Natural Law
Natural law is the truths communicated through the design of nature; they are self-evident by design
Gary Brown raises the natural law question. Is homosexuality so much a reversal of the natural order—including the way that God made men and women—that it cannot stand? Did Phil Robertson upset GLAAD so much because he stated in his blunt way some physical truths that the gay lobby cannot gainsay? We’re getting lots... Continue Reading