A particular doctrine has come under heavy attack by “progressive Christianity,” and, while not a novel critique, it has recently entered the crosshairs of well-known figures such as Brian Zahnd, Greg Boyd, and Steve Chalke. The doctrine of which I speak is the doctrine of Penal Substitutionary Atonement…
Read MoreIf 2020 were a song. A person. An ice cream truck. A math problem. A pie. Or my favorite: If 2020 were a medical procedure (Drum roll please!)…
Read MoreA particular doctrine has come under heavy attack by “progressive Christianity,” and, while not a novel critique, it has recently entered the crosshairs of well-known figures such as Brian Zahnd, Greg Boyd, and Steve Chalke. The doctrine of which I speak is the doctrine of Penal Substitutionary Atonement…
Read MoreA certain book has masquerading as a Bible for the last 20 or so years right under the noses of most evangelicals. It has been read in many churches including my home church and no one says anything because they are unaware of just how unfaithful this book is to the scriptures. I am talking of The Message Bible.
Read MoreHere is a question for you. What does God in His holiness require as the cause or basis of His forgiveness of sinners? Is it a life of perfect obedience or faith in Jesus Christ? Yes, this is a trick question but an important one.
Read MoreThe first time you heard that there were so many variants in the manuscripts, you may have been a little shaken. This is understandable, but my intention is to settle your mind and heart on this issue by the end of this article.
Read MoreWe. Are. Not. Walmart. Greeters. We are not here to smile and wave and hand out shiny stickers.
Read MoreI know what you’re thinking: “What on Earth is the ‘pericope adulterae’?” I’ll tell you what it is; it is a very difficult subject to discuss with Christians for the first time. “Why?” you may ask. Well, if I told you that there is a very well known passage of scripture in your Bible that New Testament scholars believe was most likely not originally written by the authors, how would you feel?
Read MoreTweet tweet. Tweet tweet.
Welcome to 21st century American Christianity, a cacophonous medley of accusation, insinuation, and ultimately, distraction.
Read Morehere are not many books of late that I’ve purchased for others or recommended as highly - outside the Bible of course - as Dane Orlund’s Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers. There have been many reviews of this work, from many held in higher esteem than myself, but my humble plea is for others to read this book. Let’s dig into why Ortlund’s exploration into the heart of Christ matters for readers today.
Read MoreMuslims who study the Quran carefully find themselves in a bit of an uncomfortable situation. As I will explain in this article, if the Bible is the Word of God, Islam is false, and if the Bible is not the Word of God, Islam is still false. How can this be? Let’s take a look at some of the claims about the Bible found in the Quran.
Read More[A]fter 25 years or so of pastoring in Advent Christian circles (I only have pastored two Advent Christian Churches in my 39 years of ministry) I began to question if what I had come to believe regarding conditional immortality was indeed Biblical. I left the shire and went on this “kind of scary” adventure and after some time found myself rejecting conditional immortality and embracing the traditional view of eternal conscious torment of the wicked….
Read MoreMany today, even some professing Christians, believe that Muslims worship the same God of Christianity. Is this true? Let’s look at what Islam really teaches about God and compare what we find to the teachings of Christianity.
Read MoreIn response to my last article on Mormonism, an old classmate of mine from high school messaged me with this question: “What makes you feel that Christianity is correct when many other religions share the same amount of evidence that they are true? (Almost none, if not none)”
Read MoreGrowing up in my home church I heard about these people called “Mormons,” and I was told hardly anything about them or what they believe and I even felt that I was being told that Mormons were born-again Christians, but they simply had some weird doctrines. As I got older, I met some Mormons and befriended several. Even they, however, struggled to tell me exactly what they believed as Latter Day Saints. If I were to summarize all of the answers I received, It would go something like, “It’s complicated.” Eventually, I decided to stop asking people about Mormonism and investigate it at the source.
Read MoreOne of the most common attacks on the Trinity focuses on the deity of Christ. The skeptic might say, “If Jesus was God, then why didn’t He just say, ‘By the way, I’m God’?” For emphasis, they might even grab your Bible, flip through the pages, and challenge you by saying, “Show me one verse where Jesus said that He was God. You can’t do it, because He never said it!”
Read MoreIn order to defend the doctrine of the Trinity, one must first know what the Trinity is, and what it is not. I add “and what it is not,” because often skeptics will try to attack this doctrine by setting up a “strawman” (A distorted version of an opponent’s position that is attacked rather than the real thing).
Read MoreA certain cultural attack on Christianity has been more commonly used in the last fifty or so years than it may have ever been. Believers nowadays are often blindsided with the following two questions:
“Oh you’re a Christian? Let me ask you something. Do you think homosexuality is wrong?”
*Christian answers, “Yes,” and perhaps even references a relevant Bible passage*
“Oh yeah? Well do you eat bacon? ‘Cause your Bible says that eating bacon is wrong too!”
Read MoreAlthough 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.
Read MoreI 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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