Does God use people in his work? If so, are those people perfect? Is everything they say perfect and correct? If not, does that negate their message? If God can use imperfect people, and our imperfections don’t rule out everything we say or do, do we need to take an all or nothing approach to
Category: Theology
Book Review: The New Tolerance, Part 3: “Absolutes” (Moral Truth)
(This post is a continuation of the reviews found in part 1 and part 2.) While the authors complain about the use of the word “tolerance”, I was more confused by the way they used the words “absolute truth”. Being as it is that I have grown up in conservative evangelical circles, I’ve heard people
Problems With Focusing on Sin
I once heard a preacher in a sermon briefly mentioned the corresponding dangers of legalism and license (or sometimes referred to as libertinism). The latter is the fallacy of thinking we have freedom to act any way we choose because of God’s grace and forgiveness. It seems as though this preacher understood legalism to be
Secret Church Review and Problems of Focusing on Sin
Secret Church is an annual event put on by David Platt and his church in Alabama. The event is promoted widely and simulcast to groups meeting across the U.S. and world. Some friends of mine had participated before and organized a viewing locally this year. So I joined them. It was scheduled for a single
Course Review: Living by the Indwelling Life of Christ
Last fall Frank Viola released a course entitled “Living by the Indwelling Life of Christ”. It contains nine audio messages (with an additional introduction) and an accompanying PDF workbook. The workbook doesn’t contribute greatly in my opinion. The contents of four of the chapters only take up a page each, and three additional chapters only
Is the Emphasis on Creationism Harmful to Christianity?
The creation-evolution debate is back in the news this week as Ken Ham held a public debate with Bill Nye. Ken Ham’s organization, Answers in Genesis, is representative of a certain segment of Christianity (primarily in the U.S. I believe). They believe and promote the idea that the Bible and specifically Genesis are inerrant, factual,
Start with Theology or Life?
I love this recent post from Kathy Escobar. For me, she captures one of the things I’ve been trying to express for years: why I don’t like “abstract theology”. I obviously have an interest in theology, but I hate when preachers and other Christians just emphasize their systems and doctrines. It seems so detached from
The Gospel is Jesus
The Gospel is a topic I’ve addressed on a couple of occasions. But it is important enough to revisit. I have some new insights since I last wrote about it. Many of us are aware that “gospel” means good news. This is true, but there is more to it that just this. One specific and
On the “Depravity of Man(kind)”
As you know, it is written “In the beginning… God created them male and female… and it was very good.” God created us good. We have become broken and warped, and that is a tragedy. But we are fundamentally still valuable, there is still something good about our fundamental nature. And God loves us—God desires
Offensiveness of the Gospel
At times I’ll hear someone talk about how the gospel is offensive. In virtually every case, what the person has in mind is something along the lines of “non-Christians don’t like the ‘gospel’ because it confronts them with their sin.” Yet I want to suggest that this doesn’t match with what we find in the