It had been many years since I had read Basic Christianity, but somehow that didn’t sound right. Are young people—or were they in the 1950s—really opposed to anything that “looks like an institution”? They didn’t seem opposed, for example, to universities back then. So I took down my old copy of the book, a 1971... Continue Reading

You see, as I sat on that plane early in the morning, I was a bundled knot of anxiety, fear, worry, and sadness. I was worried about my son’s ear and how it would handle the flight. I was anxious about all the details that go with travel. I was grieving over broken relationships with... Continue Reading

“I have long advocated treating ancient texts, biblical or from elsewhere in the Near East, as ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ rather than ‘guilty until proven innocent.’  In other words, if a text, be it Egyptian, Assyrian, or Hebrew, makes a claim that X happened at location Y, or King A built a temple at site... Continue Reading

“One Nation Under God” is a perceptive and peaceable volume. Throughout the material the authors thoughtfully interact with several thinkers, to include Lesslie Newbigin, N.T. Wright, Martin Luther King Jr., Richard John Neuhaus, Abraham Kuyper, and Richard Mouw; and have crafted a handy, useable resource for Christians as we think sanely about our Nation, elections,... Continue Reading

Heath traces the devastating impact of sin in every dimension of human existence and carefully distinguishes between three different ways we experience sin — the sinful world we live in, personal sin, and the sins of others. As Heath says, “typically, counseling is a complex combination of each of these contexts.”   I’m conscious that... Continue Reading

“Heaven Is For Real: A Book About Heaven From The Perspective Of A Four Year Old Who Had A Near Death Experience And For Some Reason We Believe Him More Than The Bible”   What would happen if Christian publishers were actually honest with their book titles? You’d probably end up with books like this.... Continue Reading

Lee-Barnwell pleads that our theology of ministry for both men and women “should be able to show how the ministry of leaders points toward God, not the leaders themselves, and highlights the power of the cross, not just personal areas of competence and responsibility”(168). What I see so often is clamoring of the loudest and... Continue Reading

“Edward Fisher’s book, The Marrow of Modern Divinity, was published in London in the 1640s. It contained a series of dialogues about the law and the gospel, with four suitably named characters: Neophytus, a young Christian; Evangelista, a gospel-preaching pastor; Nomista, a legalist; and Antinomista, an antinomian.”   This is an article about a book... Continue Reading

Suggested Clarification #3: Although both biblical and Christian counselors may accept insights of secular sources, they differ in (1) the degree to which they do this, (2) the priority they give to secular sources, (3) the significance they attach to secular sources, and (4) the filter they use to read secular sources. Each of these... Continue Reading

One thing that I have noticed is how different Pohl’s writing on gratitude is to another very popular book on the topic. It has perplexed me how even prominent voices in the Reformed community have helped to promote Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts, despite the concerning theological problems in her teaching on gratitude. It led... Continue Reading