Something strange has happened in evangelical churches over the past generation. Not in every congregation, but in the main, sermons devoted to the grim prospect of hell have become rare, and even talk of heaven is muted. Many have noted this development without making much impact. Along comes Rob Bell, founding pastor of Mars Hill... Continue Reading

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, goes the old saying. And, in the evangelical world, one might add that it’s paved with parachurch organizations which started well and then, at some point, went disastrously off the rails. Why is this the case? WHY DO PARACHURCH MINISTRIES GO OFF THE RAILS? The first... Continue Reading

Stark blames the rise of modernist theology and the transformation of mainline churches into centers for progressive political action. Whatever the reason, evangelicals no longer stand on the periphery, outside the prestigious mainliners. “The periphery is the mainline” now, says Stark, “and the mainline is the sideline.” When a leader in the National Council of... Continue Reading

It was November 1, 1755, All Saints Day in the Roman Catholic faith. The churches were full as the faithful worshiped. Suddenly, the earth began to shake and continued for more than three minutes. The city of Lisbon, Portugal soon lay in ruins from the quake that caused fissures that were 15-feet wide in places.... Continue Reading

Ultimately, however, it wasn’t about the questions he raised. It was about the answers he gave. “We have to be able to refute those who contradict because we see something poisonous here and if you believe this, you’re going to be blinded from what God wants you to see about him.” Ongoing controversy over Rob... Continue Reading

Yes, we have read this book before. With Love Wins, Rob Bell moves solidly within the world of Protestant Liberalism. His message is a liberalism arriving late on the scene. Tragically, his message will confuse many believers as well as countless unbelievers. The novelist Saul Bellow once remarked that being a prophet is nice work... Continue Reading

There is no reason to be impressed by the wave city center church plants in American evangelicalism. Socially speaking, it’s no different than planting a church in the suburbs. Protestants have been locating Christianity among the elite since the Reformation. Future city center planting in large cities will reach the same economic demographic as planters... Continue Reading

If Reformed Protestants followed the lead of Lutherans more, we might be spared many of those neo-Calvinist efforts to show the “Christian” meaning of calculus, Shakespeare, or Dutch history. Are Lutherans different from Reformed Protestants? Duh! The odd aspect of the arguments that distinguish Lutheranism from Reformed Protestantism is that the arguers don’t seem to... Continue Reading

Organizational division does not have to result in broken relationships between true Christians who find themselves on “opposite sides” of non-essential issues or in two different manifestations of Christ’s Church. The late Francis A. Schaeffer, in his important little monograph, The Mark of A Christian, referencing the statement of Jesus found in John 13:35 (“By... Continue Reading

How often do we behave like the Israelites – like children caught in the act – with tears and even an admission of wrongdoing, all the while ready to go our own way again to commit the same fundamental rebellion under a different disguise? Often what appears as repentance is really an attempt to minimize... Continue Reading