The Noose of History
We cannot lynch the body of Christ with the noose of history for some sense of personal satisfaction.
I think it behooves us to acknowledge when this historical record has wrapped a noose around our necks and circumvents seeing present-day realities with sober judgment. This is where past transgressions dictate our interactions such that all we can see is the oppression of the past and want to impose that on the present. Sadly,... Continue Reading
Unorthodox Christology
Recently, it has come to light that William Lane Craig, professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, propagates an unorthodox view of Christology.
Rather than avoiding the Appolinarian heresy, Craig embraces a form of it which he personally calls, “Neo-Appolinarianism.” How very sad that we are re-living the early church heresies in our own day. Instead of staying with the orthodox notion that Christ is fully God and fully man–two natures in one person, “without confusion, without change,... Continue Reading
Tyndale Sued by Boy Who Didn’t Come Back from Heaven
Subject of retracted afterlife account demands damages for using his name.
Malarkey has sued on the grounds of defamation, financial exploitation, and publicity placing a person in a false light, saying that Tyndale went forward with initially publishing and promoting the book knowing his opposition. He states that he did not write any part of the book or consent to the use of his name as... Continue Reading
Three Things to Remember When You Fear the Future
It's hard not to worry and fret about the unknown. It's hard not to fear. And it can be hard to trust God with the future.
Because the future is in God’s hands and no one else’s and because he is good and only does what is good, we can trust our future to him. We can rest in his sovereign care for us. The trials and circumstances we fear, while not good in and of themselves, are always used by... Continue Reading
Are There Degrees of Sin?
Calvin and every one of the Reformers strenuously maintained that there is a difference between lesser sins and what they called gross and heinous sins.
It’s clear that we have different degrees of sin when we consider the warnings of Scripture. There are at least twenty-two references in the New Testament to degrees of rewards that are given to the saints in heaven. There are different levels, different rewards, and different roles in heaven. The Bible warns us against adding... Continue Reading
I Was A Disney Princess, I Had An Abortion, And It Almost Ruined My Life
Recently, Planned Parenthood tweeted, ‘We Need a Disney Princess Who Had an Abortion.’ No, we do not.
On Monday, I got up and went to work. I wondered if anyone would notice that I had been crying all weekend. I put on my costume. I worked hard to put my eye makeup on to cover the tear stains. I fixed my hair, brushed on my blush, applied lipstick, and tried to smile... Continue Reading
Macrina the Younger – The Fourth Cappadocian
Basil’s and Gregory of Nyssa’s sister Macrina is less known, in spite of the powerful influence she exercised on her whole family.
Macrina’s enthusiasm for an ascetic life was contagious. When her mother transferred the family to their estate in Annisa, Pontus (on the southern coast of the Black Sea), Macrina persuaded her to turn the place into a religious community. There, the family and some like-minded people lived together, devoting their time to prayer, service to... Continue Reading
Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: The Church in Culture – Part 7
Despite the degradation of the culture, Schaeffer believes there is hope for the Christian church.
Postmodernism essentially posits the view that there is nobody in the universe. There is “nobody to love man, nobody to comfort him, even while he seeks desperately to find comfort in the limited, finite, horizontal relationships to life (Death In The City, 215). The result is that “God has turned away in judgment as our... Continue Reading
Are We Proclaiming a Hell We Don’t Deserve—and a Christ We Do?
The way we think about hell is always a reflection of how we think about sin and, in turn, how we think about Christ.
No one will ever be punished in hell for being unlike you in some superficial way. No, they will be punished for being so profoundly like you. That’s what is really shocking about hell. It’s shocking that we all deserve this fate, not one of us excluded. When Paul writes that “all have sinned and fall short... Continue Reading
How the Church gets Justice Wrong (and How to Begin Getting it Right)
There is no better time to explore the relationship between making disciples and living as disciples in the world, or the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.
At their simplest levels, the Great Commandment and the Great Commission follow the distinction between law and gospel. A young lawyer asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.... Continue Reading