Because the atonement is at the heart of who God is and what he has done for us, we can never fully exhaust the riches that flow from this event. But recognizing our inability to mine all the theological treasures represented in the cross of Christ should not keep us from pondering the beautiful truth... Continue Reading

Once upon a time (back in the Jurassic age, when I was in university), the most progressive forces in society believed passionately in free speech, tolerance, pluralism and diversity. They still claim to believe in those things – until someone says something they don’t like, at which point they fight to shut them down.  ... Continue Reading

“Theologically speaking, what we are talking about here is the concept of apostasy. This term comes from a Greek word that means “to stand away from.” When we talk about those who have become apostate or have committed apostasy, we’re talking about those who have fallen from the faith or at least from the profession... Continue Reading

“Singing beautiful and truthful songs of yesteryear should always be part of the Christian worship experience. Nevertheless, the command to sing to God in the present implies that believers will be working hard to craft hymns and songs that build on Scripture and the genuine Christian tradition, but nevertheless report the experience of a 21st... Continue Reading

“First, I’ve never come across the term “dys-evangelical” before.  George appears to have coined it.  A Google search for the term turned up nada, zilch.  But, second, it’s a wonderfully accurate word for describing  how fragmentation among Christians works against the Great Commission.  In the Greek, the prefix “dys” means bad, abnormal, disordered; while the... Continue Reading

“Cutting herself isn’t the only way that she calms down. She burns herself too. Cigarette lighters, irons, they all work. They temporarily stop the chaos within, but what stops the insanity best—is blood. These strategies substitute a lesser pain for a greater pain, a physical pain for a psychological pain. And if cutting and burning... Continue Reading

The gift of salvation is a gift earned… by Christ. The penetrating bitterness and anguishing labor of Christ have delivered real grace. Grace is no empty package of neat ribbons and bows; it is a gift of actual substance, historical and redemptive work accomplished. Christ’s redemptive ministry renders “such a great salvation”….And his work of salvation... Continue Reading

We should shrink in horror from the idea that God actually died on the cross. The atonement was made by the human nature of Christ. Somehow people tend to think that this lessens the dignity or the value of the substitutionary act, as if we were somehow implicitly denying the deity of Christ. God forbid.... Continue Reading

If you had asked any of us 30 or 40 years ago which campaign would prevail in the quest for preeminence—women’s rights, gay rights, and Islamic rights—who among us would have guessed Islam would emerge victorious. And yet here we are. A one-time backwater religion from a small town in Saudi Arabia is bringing the... Continue Reading

The recent document, “Zionism Unsettled,” produced by the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA), takes us farther from this goal. In “Unsettled, “released in January, the IPMN makes its case clearly: Zionism is at the heart of the problem, destroying both native Palestinian lives and thriving Jewish communities around the world in a... Continue Reading