Posts Tagged ‘Theology’
Dispensationalism
FrontLine | November/December 2021 | VOLUME 31 | NUMBER 6 Welcome to Dispensationalism! “Dispensationalism” is a big word, and people struggle to understand its meaning. Some people assume that if you believe in dispensations, then you must be a dispensationalist. But all Christians recognize that God has administered His plan in different ways at different…
Read MoreHow can a church be healthy with so many views?
“Long-held Christian beliefs about everything from the nature of God to morality have been reshaped and have become unimportant to many people.”1 Mark Dever’s statement is a sad testament to the reality of the church today. As we continue our discussion on the topic of the health of the church, we must consider the beliefs…
Read MoreOur Righteous Savior
I think we often take the fact of Christ’s sinlessness for granted. We often emphasize the impeccability of Christ, which means that He could not have sinned. The Bible is clear that Jesus is God. God is perfectly holy, and “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” God cannot sin; therefore, Jesus could…
Read MoreDoes God destroy people for only one sin?
In his blisteringly skeptical book, The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins gives his view of the God of the Old Testament: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal,…
Read MoreThe “Goodness” of Unbelievers
The interpreter of the New Testament faces an apparent contradiction when he reads that Cornelius was a “devout man, and one that feared God,” although he was clearly not yet regenerated, and then hears Paul affirming that “there is none righteous, no, not one. . . . There is none that doeth good, no, not…
Read MoreThe Hero of the Story is Always God
Everybody loves a good story, and Scripture has some of the best. Try to read through the story of Esther without laughing at the ironies. Try to read through the account of the man born blind (John 9) without crying. Or even better, trying reading out loud through a story with dialogue like Daniel 2,…
Read MoreVisualizing the Church
Having something important to say is like landing a private jet in a jungle. You need a nice long runway to land your plane safely. You don’t want to crash! That’s what Paul is doing in Ephesians. From the start of Ch. 1 to the end of Ch. 2, he prepares the way for an…
Read MoreBiblically, What Can and Can’t We Say about COVID-19?
One of the tremendous benefits of a crisis is that it forces people to think. We have a strong tendency when things are good to go on “autopilot,” become absorbed with our routine, live for frivolous pleasures, and distract ourselves to death. But when business as usual suddenly comes to a halt, the game is…
Read MoreSeeing God’s Sovereignty in Our Suffering
“These are the times that try men’s souls…” the well-known words of poet Thomas Paine came to mind as I drove to the grocery store yesterday in my fearless quest to acquire the rare jewel of toilet paper. Never in my short lifetime has the world faced such so much uncertainty. The hopelessness, despair, and…
Read MoreMisunderstanding God: Greg Boyd’s non-evangelical approach to spiritual warfare
In “What’s War? The Existential Question of Spiritual Warfare,” pastor Matt Walker introduced the subject of spiritual warfare. In today’s piece he describes an approach to the topic which all Christians ought to reject. We offer it today as something of a respite to the “all virus all the time” coverage we are getting on…
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