Although there are virtually no historical scholars today who doubt whether or not Jesus existed, there are still plenty of skeptic laymen (and women) who have only a pop-level understanding of the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth.
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I remember how tense the classroom felt that first day. I had chosen this class to help fill out my degree program in Ethics & Society at Gordon-Conwell. I had chosen it with a great deal of apprehension, knowing how uncomfortable it might make me. Nevertheless, I believed I should take it.
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In his book The God Delusion , Richard Dawkins says the following: “If you tell me that God created the universe, then I have the right to ask you, ‘Who created God?’”
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A couple of years ago, a Christian man desired to make a compelling TV series based on the Gospels. His desire, as I understand it, was to write and produce a show that Christians would want to watch: clean, wholesome, and with good story telling. Fast forward to 2020 and that show is a reality.
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Over the past few months we have all had a lot to think about. Few people alive today had experienced a global pandemic prior to this year. This is a new experience across the board…
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Sometimes I see something or hear something that makes me want to scream, “Hypocrite!” However, to make such a statement in person or online would in fact reveal my own hypocrisy. Usually it surrounds the things of Christian Liberty.
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We never thought we would be here. More than a month has passed and our church buildings remain shuttered, the members of the Body of Christ scattered and isolated from one another. Yes, on the basis of our duty to love one another and our neighbors, it is has been justified. Yes, God has been at work in the Body, revealing our weaknesses and idols, forging us in the flames of hardship to acquire a strength heretofore unknown. Yes, this whole season has the makings of a fast, if we would but embrace that aspect.
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These last three weeks have felt like a California tule fog. We are forced to drive blind without any sense of where we are, where we are going, and what the path ahead looks like. We are disoriented and unable to get our bearings. All around us we find sickness, death, job loss, and we wonder if we’re next. It is easy to wonder where God is in all of this.
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Seven days after I broke a man’s tractor, I mounted it to finish the job I told myself another would complete.
Strange how a moment might trigger at random a memory from the past. On a crisp September morning, I was sixteen again….
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Every time an election rolls around, I wonder what Christian voters are expecting to receive from their preferred candidates…
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Without belaboring the basics, I thought it would be interesting to consider what special contribution Adventism can make to the season of Lent. At first glance, the two might appear to be strange bedfellows. While Lent looks to our past and present condition, Adventism by its very nature looks forward to the future. To the uninformed, the essential message of Adventism is that the Christian’s hope should be fixed upon the day of Christ’s return, that day in which the reign of Christ will be fully revealed along with new heavens and a new earth. It is the message that God promises to set everything aright in the end, bringing all of Creation to the glorious end instituted by her Creator. It is the promise of a coming age far removed from our present condition, but which carries with it the assurance that we who have been joined to Jesus Christ shall live again to see all things made new.
The value this conviction brings to the season of Lent is that the hope of resurrection is necessarily preceded by the need for death.
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When you think of the Advent Christian Church, what is your conception of it?
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“Left Behind.” That term was used in the Tim LaHaye/Jerry Jenkins books described as The Left Behind Series published in the first decade of the 21st century. The phrase refers to those who remain on earth to face God’s judgment after the “rapture” of the church which many evangelical Christians find in Paul’s first letter to the church at Thessalonica (4:13-18).
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Thirty years ago, Hurricane Hugo unexpectedly roared into Charlotte, and with it a number of things we assumed were true were turned on their ears.
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"And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her." ~ Luke 1:38
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I have not written in some time. To be honest, I have not had anything compelling enough to stir me to write… until today. I love the holiday season. I love the traditions, the time with family and friends. I love the reminder of all God has done for us in Christ. I love the decorations, the music, even the ugly sweaters out there…
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The scene of the Nativity, set among hay and humble beasts, fringed by scruffy shepherds with their meek lambs, drawn together at the center by the sweet affection shared between mother and child, fills our eyes with what would seem to be the very picture of peace. The setting seems far removed from any field of battle…
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A voice on Christ’s first advent from 115 years ago! (1904)
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