During the fall of 2007, the book Unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity… and Why It Matters by David Kinnaman was hot off the press. I can still remember my peers telling me that they couldn’t wait to read it. As an employee at the Biola bookstore (what memories!), I figured I might as well give it a once over to see what it had to offer. I read one chapter. Hated […]
Having a high view of sin is crucial for sanctification. A high view of sin does not mean that you regard more things as sinful than actually are sinful. That would be legalism. Rather, it is the conscious effort to keep sin from becoming trivial. It is the removal of the frequent ‘but factor’ in the face of God’s commands (you are not the exception!). It is the self-control and humility to abstain from retorting […]
Harkening back to last week’s discussion about the film Divided, let’s continue our discussion on the issue of Christian pedagogy. Is it true that a) separation from parents in church worship and discipleship, and b) that the practice of age-stratified ministries are really the root reasons for why so many young people are walking away from the church today? According to the film, “the age segregated classroom hadn’t [been] seen before, hadn’t been a part […]
I remember when I was younger being told that Jesus could come back at any moment. Instead of erupting in joy at such a statement I would often think that Jesus should wait, perhaps until I have at least been married and had sex first. Now, I’m fairly confident that I’m not in the minority on this. But obviously, there is something completely backwards about this type of thinking. Do we seriously desire to postpone the grand […]
Disclaimer time: the views expressed here do not represent you know, whoever disagrees with them. Oliver O’Donovan’s The Desire of Nations is a difficult but spectacular book that seeks to ‘rediscover the roots of political theology’. It is essentially a long theological exposition of the concept of authority in the Bible, with a focus on the way in which earthly authorities are both established and relativized by the advent of God’s authority in Jesus. I […]
Jason Goroncy has the post for today: a nice little poem about the Sabbath. NT Scholar C.K. Barrett recently passed away. Cliff Kvidahl pays tribute. Michael Horton asks, can someone be Reformed and Charismatic? Nijay Gupta reminds us of the importance of context for exegesis with a helpful note about Bonhoeffer. James K.A. Smith on orthodox doubt vs. “emerging” doubt. You’ll have to jump in mid-discussion, but Peter J. Leithart defends a type of “biblicism”. Michael […]
Its 7:30 AM and I had just arrived at the dreaded DMV. I had arrived a half hour early in hopes that my time there would be cut in half as a result. As I took my place in line, everyone around me looked miserable and the scene was so depressing, so dreary, that a street preacher felt it a necessity to begin a 20 minute message about the upcoming judgment and the salvation possible […]
Disclaimer: After posting my initial critique of the biblical manhood movement last week, I received a number of responses. It appeared to at least one commenter that I was ungrateful for what the men I had critiqued were doing to help recover a vision for biblical manhood in the church. Before I delve into my critique any further, I want to be very forthright in saying that I am grateful for what many authors in […]
“Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 I can remember with vivid reality the shock that hit me on August 10th, 2009. I was driving down a long, drab, and straight road, flying by orchards of apricot trees in the central valley of California, when I was listening to voice messages on my cell phone (I was using my […]
Normally I’m not one to jump into discussions about presidential candidates before an election year, as you’ve no doubt noticed based on the one article I’ve contributed to this site, which you may or may not have read. But as I was reading a recent article by Westminster California professor of apologetics and theology Michael Horton (which was included in our Weekly Roundup post this past Sunday), my attention was drawn to a concern surrounding some […]
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