Is God Angry with Sin?
Thoughts on the PCUSA's decision not to include "In Christ Alone" in their hymnal
In choosing to remove this beautiful song from the hymnal, the committee suggests that this notion of God’s wrath is no longer compelling to the majority of PC(USA) congregants. I fear that this is yet another symptom of our loss of any sense of sin that is personal (rather than systemic) and of our cheapening... Continue Reading
Sanctification, Homosexuality, and the Church
The “Jesus + Nothing = Everything” approach to sanctification is error of such prodigious import that it threatens the very essence of the Christian church
But those churches who would accept sinners “as they are” (whether homosexuals or any other variety of sinner) into their memberships, and who would encourage such sinners to ponder the glories of justification rather than repent, engage in a great evil. Such acceptance violates this and every biblical text on church discipline, destroys the purity... Continue Reading
Mark Driscoll, Tribalism, and the Church
We need pastors and churches that preach the gospel, not "tribal leaders" and Twitter accounts
I find this distasteful. The church is the body of Christ. From the church’s institution, the office of pastor has been of central importance. Christianity has its own traditions, language, and culture. Why would Driscoll jettison those things in favor of trendy jargon? Tribes and tribal chiefs. Sounds decidedly pagan to me. I don’t... Continue Reading
Are the Metro Evangelicals Right?
Metro-Evangelicals have developed a kind of “theology of the city” that roots city-centric strategy in biblical proof-texts
Of course, God blessed Paul’s urban strategy to build the church, but I’m not sure metro-evangelicals are gathering the right lesson from this history. It is true that Paul avoided the countryside for the most part, but not because he expected to find more open-minded folks in the cities. ‘Cause that isn’t what he found.... Continue Reading
The Church Should Be A Taboo Free Zone
If someone confesses a sin or struggle to you, don’t be shocked.
There are certain things we don’t talk about much in church. Like eating disorders. Or cutting. Or depression. Or same sex attraction. Or sexual enslavement. The list could go on, but you get my point. The reason we don’t talk about these things is because, frankly, they make us uncomfortable. If we struggle with a... Continue Reading
Evil, Evil, Everywhere
I’ve found that my students — often steeped in relativism — have to be prodded to consider “evil”
Most students then agree that those things are evil, if by evil we simply mean profoundly immoral….What about Jim Crow, for instance? I encourage them to forget about the United States. Regardless of whether the United States was/is just as evil or less evil or pretty good, was Soviet tyranny evil? I do this exercise... Continue Reading
The Sexual Secularization of Our Society
Intellectual and sexual rebellion rages on in our day, but the final epitaph has not yet been written
There are thus only two ultimate alternatives: either the thinker, activist, or leader can subject sexual desire to truth or he will subjugate truth to sexual desire. If a person is dominated by desire, i.e., Eros, then that desire will be the surest explicator of his thought. The turning away of the mind from truth... Continue Reading
The Arrogance of the Urban: Part 2
It is time to abandon the evangelical quest to be “relevant”.
We have an unfortunate tendency to chase what is cool in our culture and make it the centerpiece of our ministry (often denigrating other ministries that don’t share our vision). Meanwhile, we don’t realize that we are really about 10 years behind the cultural trends anyway. We are perennial late-comers to what our world thinks... Continue Reading
Same American Dream, Different Zip Code
Like the suburban planning of a few decades ago, New Urbanism promises to set up the conditions for everyone’s social success.
It is not where you pursue social success but the Dream lies in the fact that one expects planned success to be tangibly achieved. In this regard, elites who planned the suburbs for social success, through public/private arrangements, and elites in the cities are both driven by the same cause: a lust for planned social... Continue Reading
“Gay Marriage” Shows Us Why Theology Matters
Three ways Biblically sound theology will help in the same-sex marriage debate
To invite homosexuals to embrace themselves so that they are no longer lonely is agreeing with those on the left that God was wrong in ordaining the family as one man and one woman together in marriage. It is agreeing with those whom God is pouring out His wrath. It is agreeing with those who... Continue Reading
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 911
- 912
- 913
- 914
- 915
- …
- 1249
- Next Page »