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Response Post: Kim Riddlebarger Against the Eschatological Optimism/Pessimism Paradigm
I was born-again in the Jesus Revolution era of the late 1970s and it seemed dispensational premillennialism was what every Christian believed about “end times.” I had no reason to question it, so I waited expectantly for the rapture to happen at any time. In due...
Response Post: Mike Horton and Culturally Irrelevant Christianity
In my last post I responded to Carl Truman and what I called two kingdom Pietists. These thinkers are every bit as dualistic as Gnostic Pietists, but with an intellectual bent. Mike Horton is another unfortunate example of this mentality and worldview. Horton is a...
Response Post: Carl Truman and Two Kingdom Pietists
Sometimes I read something and I just can’t let it go. I have to tell somebody about it and share my reaction. Much of the time it’s my poor long suffering wife, and since I got active on Twitter early last year, that allows me an outlet, but you have to be pithy...
Articles on Theology
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.
Thoughts on Dying: RIP Rush
I was going to write something on the dying of conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh, and before I got to that I listened to this interview from the Dallas Theological Seminary’s The Table podcast about embracing our mortality.
Every Birth is as Miraculous as the Virgin’s Birth
Since this is Christmas, and we’re focused on the miraculous birth of a baby over 2,000 years ago, a baby who would be the Savior of the world, I thought it an opportunity to broaden our focus on the one who made that birth possible.
Articles on Explanatory Power
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...
When In Doubt, Open Your Eyes
If you're like every human being on the face of the earth, you sometimes doubt what you think you know. It's part of what's known as the human condition, and being finite. We can only know so much. There is in fact much more that we don't know, way much more, than we...
When In Doubt: Is This All Really A Grand Cosmic Coincidence?
In my previous post I argued that secular Western culture often makes belief in God problematic. For those who go with the secular cultural flow, instead of continually challenging and fighting it, God can seem less than real, less plausible. This has nothing to do...
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
Apologetics315 – An Invaluable Website for Defenders of the Faith
If you've ever heard, read, or interacted with an atheist you'll be familiar with one of their most absurd tropes: there is no evidence for the veracity of Christianity. Thus they define "faith" as a religious term that means believing without evidence, or in spite of...
Telos: The Secularists’ Worst Nightmare
Back in 1968 as the sexual revolution was raging, Pope Paul VI wrote a profoundly counter-cultural encyclical called Humanae Vitae. One of the things that made it so profound (and something completely missed by the Evangelical leaders of the day) was its appeal to...
Not Made Up Stories: That we may know the certainty of the things we have been taught
In addition to writing here at The Persuasive Christian Parent, several years ago I started writing my way through the Bible. I gave that blog the uninspiring title of, My Walk Through the Bible. Recently I finished the gospel of Mark and moved on to Luke. As I was...
Articles on Parenting and Family
The Growth of the “Nones” Is No Threat to Our Kids Faith
The title of a recent piece at Scientific American tells us the "Nones" juggernaut continues: College Freshmen Are Less Religious Than Ever: Data from a nationwide survey shows students who list their affiliation as "none" has skyrocketed "Nones" are people who when...
Hey, Bill Nye, Fake Science Guy, There Are No “Extra Kids”
Who is this Bill Nye guy anyway? I only became aware of him recently, but it seems he's a popular "science educator." He got his moniker, "Bill Nye the Science Guy" from a PBS children's science show in the 90s, and we know that anything that has the word "science"...
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...