For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of . . . Continue reading →
Comes the question, Has the splintering of the Protestant church into thousands of denominations become a hindrance to our witness to the world? What can we do? This is an important question that we may not dismiss. Our Lord warned the visible . . . Continue reading →
One hears some interesting things on sports-talk radio. I listen for news about my Nebraska Cornhusker (American) football team. Sometimes, however, the hosts venture outside their fields of expertise. An Omaha station, to whose podcasts I listen, interviewed Harriet McFeely yesterday. She’s . . . Continue reading →
British comedian Stephen Fry is in a bit of trouble in Ireland because of his answer to a question about what he would say to God at the gates of heaven. He replied, “How dare you create a world in which there . . . Continue reading →
We now come to the closing scene of our redemption. For the lively assurance of our reconciliation with God arises from Christ having come from hell as the conqueror of death, in order to show that he had the power of a . . . Continue reading →
Around Good Friday it is fitting that we should think first of all about the Lord of Glory who was crucified for his people (1 Cor 2:8). It is he alone who obeyed on our behalf, as our substitute. He alone is . . . Continue reading →
A few days ago someone, somewhere on social media, in objection to something I wrote, used the arresting expression “biased facts.” I learned from the Dutch Reformed philosophical theologian Cornelius Van Til (1895–1987) that there are no such things as uninterpreted facts . . . Continue reading →
…The belief of the disciples in the resurrection, according to the New Testament, was due simply to the fact of the resurrection. Those disciples came to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead for the simple reason that Jesus had risen . . . Continue reading →
What is the duty of Christian men at such at time? What is the duty, in particular, of Christian officers in the Church? In the first place, they should encourage those who are engaging in the intellectual and spiritual struggle. They should . . . Continue reading →
We might think about this passage relative to how to defend the faith. We might discuss it under the method of apologetics (about which Peter says nothing) or we might discuss it under the message to be defended. Again, Peter says relatively little about what is being defended. Of course, he has already addressed that earlier and he will return to it again but here it seems evident that he was at least as interested in how we defend the faith as what we are defending. Continue reading →
The pagans have no frame of reference by which to understand what we are saying. The Christian faith is a mystery. We claim that a Jewish rabbi was crucified and raised on the third day, that he was and remain, in fact, God the Son incarnate. There is nothing about paganism that prepares them to understand that. Further. the pagans think about religion as a matter of works, as a matter of a quid pro quo. They think that the gods are powers to be controlled and manipulated. We make offerings and we perform duties and thereby, they think, we have obligated the gods to be good to us. That is not the Christian faith. We say that God has been gracious to us in that while we were sinners (disobedient and judgment deserving), God sent his Son to obey for us, in our place, and to die for us, as our substitute. We say that we are right with God not by anything we have done or can do but merely because God has credited to us who believe all that Jesus did for us. That is a supernatural religion. The pagan has a natural religion. He elevates nature (works) into a religion and seeks to use it to control the gods. Continue reading →
13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15but in your hearts . . . Continue reading →
Thus, “and in your hearts sanctify Christ the Lord prepared always unto a defense to everyone seeking a word (or reason) for the hope in you….” The scenario that Peter has in mind was not theoretical. About the very same time he was dictating these words (to his secretary) for the churches in Asia Minor (W. Turkey) Christians in Rome were undergoing a violent, horrible persecution at the hands of a madman, Caesar Nero. Peter and the other Christians knew that before the soldiers laid hands upon a Christian and hauled him before the authorities, one must have resolved some truly basic questions. Who am I? What is my only comfort in life and in death? Am I prepared to suffer and, if necessary, to die for Christ, who gave himself for me? Continue reading →
13Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15but in your hearts honor Christ . . . Continue reading →
Larycia Hawkins, an associate professor of political science, who studies and teaches courses on the intersection of religion and politics at a leading evangelical college in the USA, has created controversy in two ways: first, by wearing the Muslim hijab, as a . . . Continue reading →
In response to a post comparing the Bible to the Qur’an Gloria asks: How does one explain the passage in Mathew….”Jesus did not come to bring peace but to bring the sword…” Seems that is a “jihad” That passage in Matthew has . . . Continue reading →
It has been a conviction of a certain segment of scholars since at least the middle period of the German Enlightenment that all religions are essentially the same. The current twin controversies in the West (chiefly Europe and the USA) over what . . . Continue reading →
We live in the late modern world, at least in developed nations. There are benefits to living in late modernity. We might debate that we have these benefits because of modernity, however. It is frequently assumed that the world is better because . . . Continue reading →
III. Let then these things be premised. First. Reason signifies either that faculty of man where by he perceives, and judgeth, and distinguisheth truth from falsehood, or those maxims, aphorisms, or axioms, which are either self evident, or believed to be rightly . . . Continue reading →
Then last week the story began to crumble faster than an ancient papyrus exposed in the windy Sudan. Mr. Askeland found, among the online links that Harvard used as part of its publicity push, images of another fragment, of the Gospel of . . . Continue reading →