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Judgement as God’s Mercy Unto Repentance
A sentiment I came across on Twitter is common among some Christians: God destroyed Sodom for the same sins the world now celebrates. Judgment is coming. My reply: Actually, brother, judgment is already here. We see it in the fallout of the sexual "revolution." This...
Mere Christianity: Moses and the Bronze Snake in the Desert
This story we find in Numbers 21 is one the strangest in the Bible, and one the skeptics love. It’s absurd and clearly made up because looking at a bronze snake on a pole can’t heal anybody, obviously. You know, science and all that. But God isn’t limited to what...
Yes, Christian Western Civilization is Superior to Every Other Civilization
This assertion was unquestioned in the West for 1,500 years, not until one Karl Marx declared Christianity the enemy of his inevitable coming communist revolution. In their little Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, Marx and his benefactor, Friedrich Engels,...
Articles on Theology
A Porn Star and the Awesome Power of the Gospel
I've been a Christian for more than 42 years, and I am more blown away by the grace, mercy, and love of God in Christ than I have ever been. It continually astounds me how God in Christ can take lives wrecked by sin and guilt and shame, and turn them into something...
The Doctrine of the Incomprehensibility of God: Live It, Learn It, Love It!
It should be obvious that God is by definition incomprehensible, yet human beings, you and me included, somehow think we can comprehend him. This happens in subtle and not so subtle ways, but the pretension is the same. Somehow we think that our finite brains are...
When Death Comes Knocking, Our Hope: I Am The Resurrection and the Life
Death is, so to speak, a favorite topic of mine, and I’ve written about it here many times. I say “favorite” tongue in cheek, of course, because death is the topic we mortals most want to avoid talking about, let alone experience, whether that’s our own, or the death of those we love.
Articles on Explanatory Power
There is a God! Is There a Better Explanation for the Complexity of Tendons?
A popular narrative in secular Western culture goes like this. There was a time called The Dark Ages when religion reigned in Western civilization, and all people were benighted, miserable, and poor. Then came a Renaissance when ancient literature and languages were...
Secularism and the Berlin Wall, Part 5 – The Power of Explanatory Power
As I've argued in these posts, secularism as the fundamental worldview (religion) of Western cultural elites is as weak as the Berlin Wall proved to be. For the time being it appears as durable as the Wall circa 1970s, but as I contend, it's every bit the paper tiger...
Secularism and the Berlin Wall, Part 4 – Secularism Unmasked
In my previous post I dealt with why secularism might be appealing in our modern context. I argued that it's not anything inherent in secularism that makes it more appealing than Christianity, but the cultural messaging machine that promotes it. That's why it's a...
Articles on Culture
Chick-fil-A to Christians: You ARE Bigots!
By now you've surely heard that the Chick-fil-A Foundation, the arm of the chicken giant ($10.5 billion in revenue and growing fast) that gives money to various causes, has changed its giving mission. Part of the announcement included the news that they will no longer...
“This Beautiful Fantastic”: Beware Secular Indoctrination
Secularism is the religion of the 21st century West, and all the most powerful messaging cultural machinery indoctrinates us into its view of reality. At the top of that list has to be our entertainment mediums, especially movies and television. Stories on screens are...
My Take on Kanye: A Profound Cultural Moment
Most people are familiar with the name of Kanye West, even if they think it an infamous one. After all, he's married to a Kardashian, and with that comes a cultural ubiquity of not the best sort, at least from a Christian perspective. Plus I've always thought of him...
Articles on Apologetics
The Jewish Context of Jesus’ World: A Psychological Apologetic
Did you know Jesus was a Jew? That he grew up and lived his entire life among religious Jews? Did you know that this fact is critically important in establishing the credibility and plausibility of the gospel stories? If you don't, then you may not be familiar with...
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: Can We Trust the Gospels?
I'm listening to a wonderful series of lectures by pastor of Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim, California, Kim Riddlebarger called "Apologetics in a Post-Christian Age." He argues, persuasively, that the central fact of the apologetics enterprise is the resurrection....
You Can Use The Ontological Argument With Your Kids. . . . No Really
A favorite tactic of skeptics to justify their rejection of God is to take some example of what God has ostensibly done or does, and assert that if there was a God he certainly wouldn't have done it this way or that. The silliest direct example of this in my life...
Articles on Parenting and Family
God To His Exiles, Strangers in a Strange Land – Do Not Decrease!
In my previous post I made the argument that, for Christians, having children is not an option. Just this morning I was reading Jeremiah and discovered God actually agrees with me! I'll admit, though, that I did get the idea from him first. The book of Jeremiah is a...
Christians: Having Children Is Not an Option
No, I haven't turned into a Catholic, but Catholic teaching regarding having children is something Evangelicals should embrace. I thought of this when I read a piece recently by John Stonestreet at Breakpoint: "Fur Babies:Pets, Children, and the Triumph of...
The Importance of the Family Mirrored in the Trinity
Since the Enlightenment and the drive by Western cultural elites to make secularism the default plausibility structure of reality, the family has been under attack. It may not have appeared this way to the average mom and dad in the street until the 1960s, but many...