The trailer makes the book sound like it will be a total redefinition of the Christian faith, and I suppose such a trailer will be quite a tease for some people. Nevertheless, it sounds like the same song, second verse. That’s why I doubt that this book will attract the same attention among evangelicals as... Continue Reading

What is Marriage is what’s called a “natural law” argument. It makes no claim about the morality of homosexuality. It doesn’t have to. The authors explain that marriage is something and that something simply can’t be changed without fundamentally altering the nature of things. It’s like this: We all remember the atomic structure of water... Continue Reading

As he rightly says: ‘One mark of intelligence is an ability to live with as yet unanswered questions.’ True, but one way of avoiding having to do this is to pretend that questions have been answered, when they have not been. While wholly satisfied with his own supposed proofs that God is not necessary for... Continue Reading

Apparently, this book is too cool for a subtitle. Carl Trueman has a market on cool by rebelling against cool. Especially skinny jeans. But I digress. I’m thinking something like, “The Indicatives are Imperative.” But that’s just me. Does your church catechize or teach with creeds? Sure it does. Trueman makes the case that all... Continue Reading

Prothero does undress the situation for us on how little most Americans know even about the popular faith that they profess to follow. Here is a small sample of the astonishing condition he reports we are in: Only half of American adults can name even one of the four Gospels. Most Americans cannot name the... Continue Reading

Most courageous new chapter: Brothers, be Bible-oriented – not Entertainment oriented preachers (13) Here Piper bravely takes on the flippant, funny, feel-good entertainment-type preaching that can be found in so many churches. He says the main problem with this “is that it is out of sync with the subject matter of the Bible, and diminishes... Continue Reading

My advice, essentially, is to rip out the introduction (the fruitfulness stuff) and maybe chapter 10 (the “A” to “B” stuff) which sets up chapters 1 to 30 as the key to successful ministry, and read chapters 1 to 30 because most of them are really, really good.    I was recently on a conference... Continue Reading

What shocked me in both books were the examples, case after case, every one well-documented, wherein “tolerance” demands acceptance, and even promotion, of actual beliefs. Simply making allowance for people to hold those beliefs no longer qualifies as tolerance. Here my naiveté became apparent; I always thought “diversity” had to do with disabilities, different ethnicities,... Continue Reading

The nation’s falling fertility rate underlies many of our most difficult problems. Once a country’s fertility rate falls consistently below replacement, its age profile begins to shift. You get more old people than young people. And eventually, as the bloated cohort of old people dies off, population begins to contract. This dual problem—a population that... Continue Reading

Gamble’s book is a clarion call to reassess whether and how America is indeed exceptional. Does it have a special relationship to God and a divinely-appointed mission in the world? He faults Christians for both misapplying the city on a hill metaphor and failing to recognize America’s shortcomings and “lust for domination.” He correctly challenges... Continue Reading