Whether it’s on social media, the radio, or on TV, events like police officers being shot, Black...
Whether it’s on social media, the radio, or on TV, events like police officers being shot, Black...
I remember as a child reading numerous books in the Choose Your Own Adventure Series. This...
“I have my own opinions about things in the Bible.” This was a statement my daughter noted to me...
Something happened in Genesis 3 that shifted the course of history and impacted the entire universe. It seemed like such an innocent or unimportant action as after all, what is the big deal with eating something? We all need to eat right? Shouldn’t we as humans be...
In the book of Genesis, we find God as Creator. The first two chapters of Genesis outline God’s creative activity, most notably His description of that activity as being good with the conclusion by God that everything He had created was very good. It is vital to...
We spent some time last year engaging various issues I labeled as “Lesson from the Garden”. Why start at the beginning and focus so much on the book of Genesis? I firmly believe that until a proper and well-rooted foundation is built from those formative pages of...
Another Super Bowl has come and gone. All the hype over the actual game and all the excitement over what company produced the most entertaining commercial will soon be a distant memory. What might remain somewhat vivid in our memories is the halftime show which again...
Genesis 2:1-3, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, along with everything in them. On the seventh day God was finished with his work which he had made, so he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. God blessed the seventh day and...
There exists today a rampant problem of biblical illiteracy. Dr. Albert Mohler, in addressing this grave issue, recently noted, “The larger scandal is biblical ignorance among Christians. Choose whichever statistic or survey you like, the general pattern is the same....
Over the past couple of weeks at a Bible Study I have been attending, we have been exploring some fundamental aspects of Scripture and theology in general. As a starting point, a necessary one I might add, the discussion has centered on Genesis 1-4 for it is in these...
The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. It is stated to be that of course because it outlines the creation of the universe. Another reason it is labeled in that manner is because it is a book of foundations – skip this book and you truly will have a difficult...
There is one specific element of Genesis 3 that has recently fascinated me and that is the question as to why Eve is not portrayed as being surprised when the “Serpent” spoke to her. One of the traditional views can be found in the artwork that is often used to depict...
Other than the discussion over the issue of how long the days of Genesis 1 are, arguably one of the most heated debates among evangelicals on the issue of origins is whether there was any death and more specifically, whether the is a biblical case for animal death...
In Proposition 3, George Peters states: "The meanings usually given to this kingdom indicate that the most vague, indefinite notions exist concerning it." I find this true regarding a number of theological terms, perhaps most notably the recent focus on naming...
Late in 2015 I began a series titled “Lessons from the Garden”. It is my firm belief that in order to understand Scripture, one must begin with the beginning pages of Genesis. If we are to understand sin, we have to look at how Genesis presents life before and after...
It is that time of year again when people begin to think about their goals and aspirations for the upcoming year. A new year is a time of new beginnings and with it comes the so-called “New Year’s Resolutions”. For some their goal will be to lose weight (guilty). For...
The news broke this week that City Church San Francisco has reversed its prohibition against practicing homosexuals being admitted into church membership (see here). Previously, only celibate homosexuals were accepted as biblically faithful Christians. Senior Pastor...
Many Christian commenters today are expressing concern about antinomian tendencies in the church. We are especially seeing attempts to downplay the role of God's law as a guide to Christian living (the so-called third use of the law). One question that comes into play...
Genesis 25-26 After the death of Sarah, Abraham took another wife named Keturah. She bore him 6 sons. Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac as well as providing gifts to the sons of the concubines Abraham had, sending those individuals away to the East so as not to be...
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 down...
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 guy sitting across from me is a professing and practicing Christian. He drops by my office unannounced today to talk to me about his new online-dating life. Specifically, he wants to talk about the overwillingness of Christian women he has encountered on several...
“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 discovery—at...
Often we will read in the newspaper or see on the TV news about a road-rage killing or some other situation in which anger gets out of control and leads to a homicide. For example, a woman is attacked, her attacker was consumed with anger or lust, and then her...
Someone I know recently expressed an opinion that surprised and in some ways disappointed me. I said to myself, “I thought he would have more discernment than that.” The experience caused me to reflect on the importance of discernment and the lack of it in our world....
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 do...
When someone orders us to do something, or imposes an obligation, it is natural for us to ask two questions. The first question is, “Why should I?” and the second is, “Who says so?” The why and the authority behind the mandate are very important to the question of...
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 love...
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...
1. The Problems of Doubt Instinctively, we are accustomed to the concept of doubt. Living after the Fall, doubts are the struggles Christians have to believe, or trust, the promises of God in Christ. Doubt is uncertainty – or a struggle to believe – in the heart of...
A friend sent a text to share with me about an amazing restaurant she went to. She described the wonderful meal she enjoyed and included a photo. I began to text back, “I’m so jealous!” but paused, then hit delete and changed it to “I’m so envious!” before hitting...
“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...
"Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, amongst the gods! Who is like unto Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders!" (Exodus 15:11) This Scripture is this day fulfilled in our ears and before our eyes. That which God has already begun to do for this...
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 dieting...