I wish I never had to deal with conflict. I am a card-carrying conflict avoider. Whatever the reason (character, context, sin, etc.) I would rather run away from conflict than take it head on. It wasn’t until I began my training as a counselor at nearly...
If Leviticus has stressed anything for the reader it is the essential nature of holiness in the life of the people of God. This holiness is necessary because it is reflective of the God with whom we are in relationship. See how often the phrase “I am the Lord” is...
A statement made by a professor at a leading evangelical college has become a flashpoint in a controversy that really matters. In explaining why she intended to wear a traditional Muslim hijab over the holiday season in order to symbolize solidarity with her Muslim...
Very few, if any, awake one morning and decide all of a sudden, “Today is the day I’m going rogue. Enough with all that honesty stuff. From now on, I’m all about corruption.” It typically begins as an indiscernible leak of integrity, at least in terms of...
I spent last week cleaning up the remains of tomato vines from my garden. It’s easy work because once vines are dead, they lose all strength and break apart with little effort. While the remains of a tree can be made into a range of items from paper products to...
Andy Naselli recently wrote two pieces that encourage and equip believers to memorize whole books of the Bible. At the same time that I noticed his articles, I celebrated 25 years of systematic long-term Scripture memorization (SLTSM). Together, those events...
Over the past two centuries, much has been written in evangelical circles on the deity of Christ. This has been good and necessary, for many people deny that Jesus is the Son of God incarnate. Sometimes I fear, however, that this emphasis on Christ’s deity has led...
Secular scientists have challenged creation scientists to explain the Ice Age. Also, they claim that there were numerous ice ages, possibly up to fifty, at intervals of 100,000 or 40,000 years over the past 2.6 million years. Bible believers need to respond to this...
The Law comes from our good God. The Law comes as a good gift from our good God. The Law is a good presentation of God’s standard of goodness. It tell us that which is really good in the sight of God. The Law is a good magnifier of our non-goodness. It does...
There are desires inside of you that want to destroy you. They will try and lure you to anything and everything except God and His glory. In this lab, John Piper teaches us to fight remaining sin in our own hearts. He end by giving two strategies for abstaining...
I’ve always been amazed by Jesus’ response to Satan’s first temptation: “if you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread” (Matthew 4:3). I picture Jesus there, looking at the stones. His ribs are poking out, and his body is worn away after...
Can you explain why you exist in the world? When God created you, and then saved you and made you new, why did he do it? The Bible gives us unbelievable clarity. In this lab, John Piper explains the purpose of your life. We exist not to call attention to ourselves,...
You’d think Pavlov invented it, that characteristic sound of a new instant message, the "buh-ding." That’s what Jack heard in his cubicle that morning, before caffeine had cleared the fog in his head. He clicked over to his messenger application as routinely as if...
Adam Francisco (who has a Ph.D. in Islamic-Christian relations from Oxford University) is professor of history at Concordia University in Irvine, California. His work on the history of Islam is nuanced and informed. As one online bio notes, “He has a unique ability...
This intellectual revolution began with four lectures in late 1915 presented to the Prussian Academy of Sciences. The lectures were given by Albert Einstein, and before the end of the year Einstein would publish his argument for a “General Theory of Relativity.”...
On the very first page of the Bible the absolute transcendence of God above His creatures comes to our attention. Without strain or fatigue He calls the whole world into existence by His word alone. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of...
When a person becomes a Christian, they take on an entirely different identity, the pinnacle of which is being God’s prized possession. In this lab, John Piper looks at two of the most explicit and most profound verses on Christian identity. What we learn should...
When I was young, I only thought of my future: Whom would I marry? What vocation would I pursue? Where would I live? Now that I am the father of four children, I think only of their futures. As he approached the final days of his ministry, the Apostle Paul set his...
Often Christians, pastors, and theologians who try to fit millions of years into Genesis 1 object to a literal, recent six-day creation by arguing, “So Adam never stepped on an ant in the Garden of Eden? That can’t be true. There had to be death before sin.” But is...
There are some areas of life and the Christian faith where the smartest thing you can do is to hold your position with a certain… latitude. It tends to go wrong when you dig your heels in and you won’t recognize that there are other valid points of view. One that...
Are we just another animal? We can argue about DNA, brain size, and upright stature, but Genesis 1 emphasizes an infinitely greater privilege that sets mankind apart. Atheism views man as simply a material being like all other animals. In many ways, this is the...
Some of the most heartbreaking moments in a Christian’s life are watching other believers wander away from the truth. In this lab, John Piper tackles a couple verses that help us understand a Christian’s identity and give us great hope in pursuing a wandering...
The Necessity of Verbal Revelation QUESTION 1: Was revelation by the word necessary? Affirmative. I. Since the word of God is the unique foundation (principium) of theology, its necessity is properly investigated at the very beginning: was it necessary for God to...
Introduction: In taking a book of the Bible a week, we are not really doing justice to any of them. We can certainly give an orientation. We can describe the basic themes. We can perhaps give you a taste for the book, such that you want to pursue a deeper reading...
In this episode of Exploring Hope, Jamie Dew and Steve McKinion discuss natural theology in Christian thought.
Why are Christians so unkind to one another and the world? Why do we criticize, degrade, and dismiss? Why do we act like jerks? I have experienced the sting of Christian criticism many times as I’ve posted Scripture or encouragements online. I’m sure you’ve...
One of the key passages that comes up when talking about apologetics is 1 Peter 3:15-16. Every apologist out there cites it at some point, and everyone has a pretty similar take on it (seeing that many use the text to justify their very existence). It’s apparently...
“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) Jesus, during His crucifixion “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians, for they built the places of worship at the graves of their Prophets.” Muhammad, on his deathbed SYNOPSIS Although...
As the forty-second anniversary of Roe v. Wade draws near, we are reminded of how large and formidable the abortion industry has become in the United States. Planned Parenthood survives with a heavy dose of government funding, even as overall abortion numbers are...
Sadly, most Christians in the United States, when it comes to recognizing the dangers to their civil and religious liberties, sleep the sleep of ignorance that the disciples slept at Gethsemane before the arrest of Jesus. It ought to be obvious by now how “sexual...
“The more I probed the Bible,” Reza Aslan declares in the introduction to his bestseller Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, “the more distance I discovered between the Jesus of the gospels and the Jesus of history” (xix). The result of this...
If God has given us the Scriptures to be the canon or rule for our lives, it follows that we must regard them as the supreme authority for our lives. Paul tells us that they are ‘breathed out’ by God. There can be no more authoritative word than one that comes to...
I have a theory about why God seems to use pastor/theologians in the ways in which He does in the world. I have come to believe that God blesses the labors of pastor/theologians who give themselves to him and the work of the church in a way that He often does not...
It is surely an indictment of the Church today that in dealing with the subject of catechizing we have to begin by explaining the very meaning of the term. What was looked on as a necessary and beneficial practice by the early church and by the Reformers has now...
I love doctrine. Doctrine is simply the teaching of God or the teaching about God—the body of knowledge that he reveals to us through the Bible. I guess I’m one of those geekly people who loves to learn a new word and the big idea behind it. But I hope I do not...
Genesis as absolute beginning out of nothing Christianity has historically affirmed that the first chapter of Genesis describes God speaking the material universe into existence for the first time out of nothing. What is traditionally called creation ex nihilo by...
On Death, Dying, and Suffering Theistic evolution is the belief God brought about the present variety of life on earth by the process of evolution. In a manner of speaking, the very term “theistic evolution” is oxymoronic. A radical discontinuity exists between the...
God’s Character and the Doctrine of Inspiration Theistic evolution has emerged in recent years as the “go to” explanation that attempts to accommodate the historical narrative of Genesis with the evolutionary theory of life. Even though theistic evolutionary...
When we say that the Bible is ‘the Word of God’, what we are actually claiming about it? It is to answer this question, which is both theological and also deeply practical and vital, that the branch of theology called ‘the doctrine of Scripture’ has been developed....
What does the church most need today? In answering this important but rather general question, Psalm 81 is uniquely important and helpful. This psalm obviously contains beautiful promises and clear directions to help the people of God. But careful study of this...
'Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh.’ I Tim 3: I6. Q-xxvii: WHEREIN DID CHRIST’S HUMILIATION CONSIST? A: In his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the...
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His...
It is indisputable that even evangelical Christians demonstrate a neglect of and ignorance towards the first three quarters of the Bible. Ironically, the evangelical view of Scripture itself can make the problem worse. For the "modernist" is happy to dismiss as...
A Bible scholar walks into a friend’s kitchen and sees a magnet fixing a diet plan to the refrigerator door. It reads, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you … to give you hope and a future’ ” (Jer. 29:11, NIV). Is his...