In keeping with the journalistic tradition of looking back at the recent past, we present the top 50 stories of the year that were read on The Aquila Report site based on the number of hits. We will present the 50 stories in groups of 10 to run on five lists on consecutive days. Here are numbers 21-30.
In 2015 The Aquila Report (TAR) posted over 3,300 stories. At the end of each year we feature the top 50 stories that were read. The top story this year had over 112,700 hits.
TAR posts about 8 new stories each day, on a variety of subjects – all of which we trust are of interest to our readers. As a web magazine TAR is an aggregator of news and information that we believe will provide articles that will inform the church of current trends and movements within the church and culture.
In keeping with the journalistic tradition of looking back at the recent past, we present the top 50 stories of the year that were read on The Aquila Report site based on the number of hits. We will present the 50 stories in groups of 10 to run on five lists on consecutive days. Here are numbers 21-30.
The New Testament contains no “magic bullet” verse to abolish one side or the other in this debate, although both sides sometimes act as if it does. The New Testament does not say, “You shall baptize the infant children of believers when they are 8 days old, just as Abraham had them baptized when they were 8 days old.” Nor does it say, “The infant children of believers must not receive the sign of baptism until they make a credible profession of faith.” Those verses simply do not exist. Biblically, this issue of baptizing the infant children of believers remains difficult, even upon close examination, and that is why good Bible teachers remain divided by it.
The fact that many of us Christians believe these unbiblical statements shows our unfortunate overall biblical illiteracy. Instead of swallowing popular statements hook-line-and-sinker; may we be like the Bereans in the Book of Acts. When they heard Paul preach, they wanted to research the Scriptures themselves to authenticate what he was saying: “The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:10 – 11).
Anna Duggar can forgive Josh without continuing their marriage. She can separate from him, divorce him, remove his kids from him, because he violated the vow he made to her–and she can still forgive him. To forgive does not mean that you return to the same relationship you had with someone before they hurt you. In fact, sometimes wisdom demands that you make changes to a relationship even as you forgive.
“My dad was the most uncomplicated person I’ve ever known in the world. He believed the Bible from the front to the back. If the Bible said Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days then you know what? Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days. There was none of this stuff about how the story might have been exaggerated or interpreted differently over the years. My dad believed it exactly the way it was written. He kept things very simple.”
And there you have it. Those are the last vestiges of the US left untouched by Ashley Madison — though of course there is the possibility that there are other bastions of innocence that have fake accounts registered to them. Even so, the ubiquity of Ashley Madison is striking.
Tchividjian and Driscoll are both products of the way American showbiz aesthetics and values drive so much of the evangelical subculture. Style and swagger and soundbites — and little else. And they both benefited from the fact that nothing immunizes one to accountability in America like success. As long as you are successful, no-one calls you on your behaviour, no-one makes you answer the hard questions, and plenty of people are happy to use your name to sell tickets to their gig.
I still have many regrets. Many. Regrets over the things I have done and the people I have hurt. These regrets are not only over those things directly related to my ministry-disqualifying sin, but over a whole host of other things – things that my exposure in this area brought to light in other areas. At the same time, I am beyond grateful for God’s grace toward me, and I celebrate Jesus’ willingness, in full view of my ugliness, not to be ashamed to call me his friend.
Worse, as ordained ministers formerly operating under the oversight of their home church, (but no longer) listen to how the brothers decide to move forward with the themes for each of their movies. It isn’t from the Bible. God tells them: We go through the better part of a year, saying, ‘Lord what do you want us to focus on, what do you want the plot be?’ It’s usually near the end of that year. It could be eight months, ten months, or a full year… it’s almost like he downloads something to us. … It wasn’t something where we sat in a room and said ‘What do you want to do?’ We’ve never done that. For the movie Fireproof, Kendrick says his team heard God give them a theme of marriage. For the movie Courageous, fatherhood. And so on.
It’s taken me a long time to hit “publish” on today’s post because, when I raise an issue, I like to provide solutions or alternatives. But I don’t have a solution to this one. So today’s post is not about answers. It’s a public recognition of our shared private pain. With the hope that we can find some sort of solace by knowing we’re not alone in these feelings. Here are some painful truths many of us have felt when people leave our churches.
These churches had submitted to the process for withdrawing set up by the RCA Classis of Illiana Florida. A number of conditions were included in the agreement. For example, each of the churches was allowed to withdraw with their respective properties and assets. However, if a church should withdraw from the PCA within five years of the approval of the agreement, then the property is to revert to the Classis of Illiana Florida.
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