Sep 15, 2018 | Theology
I was reminded while reading Luke 8 recently, that God throughout Scripture, and ultimately in Christ, is completely counter cultural to all fallen cultures. Notice in this chapter how Jesus upends cultural expectations regarding women (several are named in this chapter as his closest disciples and supporters) and family. In the ancient Greco-Roman and Jewish world women were second or third class citizens, and family and clan determined your identity, value, and worth. The two instances in this chapter, among many throughout the gospels, show how Jesus challenged these expectations throughout his ministry. And Yahweh did the same thing all throughout the history of redemption.
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Sep 7, 2018 | Theology
These words of Jesus come from what’s known as his “high priestly prayer” in John 17 where he prays before his crucifixion not only for his disciples, but for those who would believe in him through their message. That would include we who claim his name these two millennia later. Many Christians, especially Catholics, but Protestants as well, lament that there is so much division in the Church, so many differing conceptions of the meaning and doctrines of the Christian faith. Skeptics are especially fond of claiming that all the disagreement is evidence that Christianity is a bunch of hooey. But I’ve always questioned this lament of Christians, and criticism of its enemies, even more so as I get older.
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Sep 4, 2018 | Culture
Life can be so ineffably sad sometimes, and when I recently read about the suicide of a high-profile pastor I couldn’t get it out of my mind. It made me angry even as it broke my heart. Commenting on a situation like it is fraught with danger in an age such as ours, so I will tread as lightly as I can. The reason for my trepidation is that our secular age imposes certain values and interpretations of reality upon us that are antithetical to our faith, and Christians have imbibed many of them. It’s very difficult not to because that’s the way culture works; you breathe it’s air, you absorb its values, and its way of seeing things, its interpretation of reality.
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Aug 29, 2018 | Explanatory Power
This phrase came to mind the other day as our family got word that my wife’s beloved stepmother, Dora Walston Haggard, had died unexpectedly. She had been going through some health challenges, but none that appeared remotely life-threatening. All of a sudden when death comes calling for those we love, the loss and separation is devastating. It’s difficult to comprehend that this person we knew so well, who was a presence in our lives, in a moment appears to be no more. But as Christians, we don’t believe they are no more. We trust that their souls continue to live, but in an altered state with God. As Jesus said to the thief being crucified next to him, “today you will be with me in paradise.” So are all those who die in Christ.
But my response to death’s reality and inevitability is to wonder if what we believe as Christians is actually true. Because I can’t “see” this reality beyond the grave I find it difficult to believe. It brings great anguish as I contemplate this person so loved by so many gone from us for what appears forever. But as I’m going through this anguish, the second part of the title’s sentence impinges itself upon me with even more strength; I find it even more difficult to not believe. I ask myself, What alternative belief makes death more palatable, or makes any more sense of death? Or life?
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Aug 20, 2018 | Truth
When I read the title of this post at WhatfingerNews, I thought for sure it had to be an Onion article. It’s gotta be satire, right? Wrong. A couple, postmodern relativist liberals through and through, who thought human beings are fundamentally decent and good, were killed by terrorists. How sad, but instructive: reality will not be mocked. This is an object lesson for the futility of a certain 21st century secularist mindset that says what we think about reality, as opposed to what we discover in it, is what ultimately counts.
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