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Recent Articles
The End of Christendom: Its Demise and Rebirth
I was inspired to write this piece by a little book I’m re-reading by Malcolm Muggeridge. He gave a talk about the end of Christendom in 1978, the year of my new birth, for the inaugural address of the Pascal Lectures at the University of Waterloo. I just did a quick...
The “Nazi” Label as a Rhetorical Kill Switch and Cultural Marxism
The first part of this title came from a post I saw on Twitter by Joel Webbon, a pastor from Texas and leader on the dissident right, or New Christian Right, or whatever one calls that these days. Sadly, he was referring to other people on the right who use this “kill...
The Primary Importance of the Ascension: Why Do Evangelicals Ignore It?
That’s a good question. I was reminded of it when I was in Jacksonville, Florida, for my father-in-law’s 90th birthday. He goes to a Lutheran church, and we decided to go with him that Sunday. It so happened that was Ascension Sunday, June 1. What is Ascension Sunday,...
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
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...
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...
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
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...
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...
Articles on Parenting and Family
Christians: Have more kids!!!
When I saw the announcement of our latest Supreme Court Justice nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, I couldn't help notice that this practicing Catholic family had only two kids, daughters. As precious and cute as they were, I wondered why only two. Not too many years past,...
Americans Read an Average of 16.8 Minutes Per Day; Spend 166.2 Minutes Watching TV
One of my apologetic strategies for my children has been to annoy them, and if you ask them they will tell you I'm really good at it. Of course since the annoying has a purpose, they are willing to endure the annoyance of it all, most of the time. One thing I'm really...
There’s Nothing “Wrong”: It’s Called Life! Or The Curse and the Christian Life
Do you have a bad attitude? Do your kids have bad attitudes? If you and/or they do, I know why: wrong or faulty expectations. It's probably hard to overestimate how many people suffer from a bad attitude (sometimes it's called depression or anxiety or frustration or...