“Given this apparent cultural distance between New York and rural America, it may surprise you to hear me say Keller’s new book on preaching should be required reading for all preachers, precisely since it equips us to preach to our culture. But that’s my point.”   “Most Christian speaking and preaching still assumes that listeners have... Continue Reading

Heaven is so heavenly that it’s often hard for earthly creatures to understand what it will really be like. That’s why the Bible often describes heaven in terms of what will not be there. For example, the last two chapters of the Bible tell us eight things that will not be there: 1. No Sea... Continue Reading

I am therefore somewhat less confident that our world really is becoming more adult in its approach to life than, say, that which Christianity fostered in the Middle Ages and beyond. It glories in Reality TV and the Kardashians. It weeps inconsolably for Cecil the Lion but sheds no tears for the victims of Planned... Continue Reading

Pastors generally like people and, like most people, tend to prefer being liked to being hated. As most people in the congregation have an opinion about the pastor, it’s very easy for pastors to fall into a pattern of people-pleasing. This is very different from a servant’s heart, which all pastors should have. People-pleasing is... Continue Reading

There are other major, often unreached for the Gospel demographics that are maybe not as prestigious but no less spiritually important and in some cases far more numerous. A gun-owning middle aged white man in West Virginia or central Pennsylvania who’s a truck driver or living on disability is not a major part of the... Continue Reading

Behind this “take your medicine” approach to the biblical languages are a couple of assumptions that need to be challenged.  First, the characterization of pastoral ministry as somehow incompatible with the languages (due to busyness, or other causes), is an unfortunate misunderstanding of what a pastorate is all about.  No doubt, pastors should be busy... Continue Reading

Paul was not a sexist nor was he “hopelessly patriarchal” as one polemicist said in the 1990s. Nevertheless, we should not confuse Victorian prejudices with biblical teaching. Paul does not argue that men are inherently smarter or more rational than females. Peter recognized differences and similarities between men and women (1 Pet 3:7). We are both... Continue Reading

Hillary Clinton accuses those who wish to end the harvesting and sale of baby parts of leading a “full-on assault on women’s health.” She represents Planned Parenthood as “quality, affordable, healthcare for women.” The “quality” is dubious; it is “affordable” only because taxes support the massive killing machine to the tune of half a billion... Continue Reading

Tweaking history to feel good about the past can be dangerous, as some Russians are now rediscovering. Shortly after the red flag came down at the Kremlin, I wrote the professor under whom I studied modern Soviet and East European history—a Russian ex-patriot named Vladimir Petrov—stating how happy I was that he lived to see... Continue Reading

Allowing hunters safe and affordable access to lions liberates and empowers the hunters. For far too long they have been oppressed and I will not sit quietly while hunterphobes try turning the clock on hunting rights back a hundred years. 1). Although I am personally opposed to the practice, I do not want to impose... Continue Reading