Pauline Fathme, Christian Rufo and the Early Missions to the Oromo
The news of Fathme’s baptism traveled fast, because she was the first known Oromo convert.
The missionaries Friedrich Spittler, Johann Ludwig Krapf, and Martin Flad were particularly interested in her story. Krapf and Flad had in fact traveled to Ethiopia and Splitter was at that time planning to send missionaries there. In his brief contacts with the Oromos, Kraft had become impressed by their intelligence and was convinced they would... Continue Reading
Towards a Jesus-Centered Apologetic (Part Two)
If Jesus can really change so many lives, we might consider his claim to be God in the flesh.
Immerse yourself in Scripture and develop a biblically informed muscle memory for recalling the life of Jesus and using his story to counter misconceptions about God. The more you are familiar with Scripture, the more you can reflexively respond when someone says God is like this or that, when you know good and well Jesus... Continue Reading
Some Trust in Numbers How Counting Can Ruin a Ministry
David's story is a warning to all of us who feel tempted to give numbers a louder voice than the Lord our God’s.
The Lord of the universe does not need large numbers to defeat large armies. He knows how to form a galaxy of stars from the offspring of one man (Genesis 15:5). He is able to grow a mustard seed into the largest of all trees (Matthew 13:31–32). He can even take one fallen grain of... Continue Reading
Knowing God’s Beauty Through Correspondent Love
The perception of God’s beauty is an experience known through participative love.
Correspondent love pursues the good of all that God is; it pursues the pleasure of God himself. Christians love God because of what God is for them, and because of what God is. They love his need-meeting ability, and they love his excellence. What can we conclude about God’s beauty and how to perceive... Continue Reading
World
Worldliness, however, is not something we do, but rather it is something we believe.
This domination of the world over man is seen today in every area of life. The popular phrase, “I am my own person,” is false and foolish, because every person is dominated by the world. For example, most people just “follow the trends,” the trends of dress, hair style, morality, and countless other things. Most... Continue Reading
Looking To God
The Lord rules this world.
This truth seems simplistic. God is in control. While we want more answers to questions about the hows and whys of God’s plan, this is enough to give us peace and strengthen our faith. This basic and simple truth of the Scripture puts us on solid ground so we can stand in a world turned... Continue Reading
A Sincere and Pure Devotion to Christ: Why the Sufficiency of Scripture Means Rejecting Secular Sociology
The fusion of Christianity and sociology, of truth and error, has infiltrated the ministry of the Church.
Today, teachers of God’s Word regularly join biblical doctrine with unbiblical sociology. The chief example of this is the failed attempt to combine Critical Race Theory with the Bible. Yet, it’s not just conjoining two systems that is the issue. That is usually spotted and discarded from the start. The more pernicious practice takes place... Continue Reading
The Precedent of a Persian King
We can all, like human princes, be pretentious in flaunting the assumed importance and extravagance of our own kingdom-building.
With the unnamed author of Esther, we laugh in line with heaven at the pretensions of human princes. There is beyond the facade and the farce another kind of kingdom. For that, we look not to the country between the Tigris and Euphrates, or even the land ensconced between the Atlantic and Pacific, but to... Continue Reading
“The Hatreds of the Hour”: The Greek Thucydides on Human Nature
One of the advantages of reading a historian’s work from 2,500 years ago is that he cannot be accused of being a mouthpiece for any political camp.
The History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides provides an account at once remarkably insightful as well as deeply disturbing regarding the unchanging character of human nature. It is truly a work for the ages as he hoped it would be (while not flawless, it is the only surviving source for many events). One of... Continue Reading
The Eternal Purpose of Temptation
The real test in temptation is to see if God’s Word will rule.
Mark it down: The more Scripture you know, the harder it will be to sin. Along with that my brethren, the more you are immersed in being a living sacrifice being transformed continually by the Holy Spirit as you stay in the Word (Romans 12:1-) how could your world view become temporal? How could you... Continue Reading
