Here’s How Anti-Conservative Academic Discrimination Works
Students loved Keith Fink’s free-speech classes at UCLA. Other professors did not.
If you frame scholarship primarily in leftist terms and limit inquiries to more left-leaning areas of interest, it should shock exactly no one that mainly leftists apply. Leftist academics are often the proverbial fish who don’t know they’re wet. They’ve created and inhabit a world that by its very terms and definitions is inhospitable to... Continue Reading
6 Characteristics of a Generous Person
Generous people have the amazing ability to say “yes.” Do they have more money than everyone else? No. Do they have more time than everyone else? No. Do they have more possessions than everyone else? No. But they may manage money, time, and possessions in a way that allows them to say “yes” more often.... Continue Reading
Just What is Godly Sex?—Part 1
Scripture is unashamedly positive about sex.
Shame surrounds our nakedness and sexuality because of sin. It’s not the design of our loving Creator. Jesus came to restore our sexuality, that we may know God’s joy in it. God designed sex to be pleasurable. He’s the one who crafted everything, including orgasms, and declared it all “very good.” This is hard for... Continue Reading
“I have Laboured to no Purpose”
There are many in the Christian ministry who have laboured long and faithfully, but with seemingly little visible fruit.
Strangely, the one source of genuine help in such circumstances is the one that is literally in our hands as we seek to minister to others, but all too often fail to use as we seek to minister to our own souls. It is, of course, God’s word in Scripture. Indeed, we too easily forget... Continue Reading
A Note on Experienced Pain, Truth and Developing Doctrine
My experiences, my position, my place, my psychological make-up incline me in a particular direction theologically.
It’s an obvious truism that all theology is done by humans, from particular perspectives, who inevitably have their favored theological paradigms informed by their experiences. But are we at least trying to give priority to God’s self-revelation, his self-testimony in the Gospel and recorded in Scripture? Are we at least attempting to let God’s Word... Continue Reading
Should Christians Attend Gay Weddings? Does It Matter Whether They’re Religious or Secular?
There are countless ways you can love those who identify as homosexuals without joining them to celebrate their marriage, which in God’s sight is not a marriage, and not to be celebrated.
When you attend a gay person’s birthday party, you’re joining in celebrating their birthday, right? That’s great. When you invite your gay or lesbian friend over for dinner, you’re celebrating friendship and life—no problem. When you toast to good health, great. But when you raise your glass and toast to a wedding that you are... Continue Reading
Doing Violence to Scripture
Christian pacifism became untenable for me because the God who punished, killed, and destroyed in the Old Testament remains the God of the New Testament.
The picture is clear: God is a just and holy God who punishes sin. He has to do so because God’s perfect justice and holiness require it. That is the God of Israel. This realization has led many today and in the past to reject the Old Testament. Some of the earliest heresies in the... Continue Reading
The Rich Comfort of Justification by Faith Alone (Bavinck)
The biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone (apart from works) in Christ alone (and nothing else) has truly given me a rock on which to stand and comfortably rest.
“But the believer whose eye has been opened to the riches of this benefit, sees the matter differently. He has come to the humble acknowledgment that good works, whether these consist of emotional excitements, of soul experiences, or of external deeds, can never be the foundation but only the fruit of faith. His salvation is... Continue Reading
“Thinking That They Are More Merciful Than God”
Phrases like sexual orientation suggest that homosexual desire is just one of many available “orientations.” Such language falls far short of that which the Bible uses.
“In trying to be helpful, many churches have failed, because they have failed to be truthful. They have failed not out of hardness of heart, or lacking of kindness, but in thinking that they are more merciful than God. I shudder to think about how much more rigorous, painful, and dangerous, and difficult my conversion... Continue Reading
The Humility of Caleb
Humility is learned when the giants come, and God says, “Not now.”
This is the humility of Caleb. What do we do when faced with a tremendous trial and our hope is deferred? What do we do when that which we long for seems so far away? What do we do when there is nothing that we can do except endure the pain? What do we do... Continue Reading