Illustration from History: Substitution
While Grover Cleveland is not remembered as one of America’s great presidents, there are a couple of distinctions that make him unique among the forty-five men to serve as the country’s chief executive. Most notably, Grover Cleveland is the only president to serve non-consecutive terms.1 Four years after he lost his re-election bid to Benjamin…
Holding Pastors Accountable
It was news nationwide, The elders at Trinity Bible Church of Dallas announced this week that lead preacher Steven J. Lawson had been removed from all ministry responsibilities after he confessed to having an “inappropriate relationship” with a woman. This one was a shocker, and a deep disappointment to many in conservative evangelicalism and fundamentalism.…
Kept through Faith: Eternal Security in 1 Peter 1:1-9 (Part 1 of 3)
This is the first of three parts in a series. Contemporary Americans evidence a disturbingly shallow knowledge of the Bible. Unfortunately, even professing Christians are not immune from this trend. Evangelicals in the US demonstrate a shocking level of ignorance in regard to basic scriptural doctrines. One of the most revealing indicators of widespread theological…
Land: An Important Biblical Theme for God’s People
The land of Israel is disputed territory. Today it is the center of competing political claims. Israel is also the center of competing theological claims. Do the Biblical land promises have any present relevance? Does Israel have any claim to the land promised to Abraham and his seed? These are matters of theological dispute. You…
What is a Christian?
The Bible tells us that the “disciples [of Jesus] were called Christians first in Antioch” (Acts 11:26). Over the centuries, the term “Christian” has grown in its embrace of peoples and practices that are anything but what those who coined the term observed of believers in first century Antioch. Reviewing the term in its…
Seriously Unserious
You can learn a lot about your culture by what it mocks. Mockery is a great way to teach what is to be avoided and despised. Scorn also has the advantage of avoiding explanations or argumentation. The group of laughing scoffers don’t offer reasons for why they point and laugh – it’s just assumed that…
Interesting Headlines From Around the World
In The News
Muslim vigilantes colluding with authorities to entrap Christians | World
Muslim vigilante groups are working with federal authorities to lure young people into sharing blasphemous content on social media in order to put them behind bars, according to an investigation by Pakistan’s National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR). A steep increase in blasphemy cases this year, many of them filed against Christians and other religious…
ANDREAS KÖSTENBERGER Joins BJU Seminary Faculty
AWARD-WINNING NEW TESTAMENT SCHOLAR AND AUTHOR, ADVANCING 500x5x5 VISION TO EQUIP PASTORS THROUGH UNCOMPROMISED, NEXT-LEVEL TEACHING BJU Seminary today announced that award-winning New Testament scholar and author Dr. Andreas Köstenberger will join its faculty, the latest milestone in the Seminary’s 500 x 5 x 5 vision to equip pastors through uncompromised, next-level teaching in a time of historic challenge to…
Apathy Among Christian Voters Could Be ‘Gamechanger’ in 2024 Election – Arizona Christian University
Barna’s latest research shows that only 51% of all faith voters are likely to vote in November. That means a full 104 million faith voters are unlikely to vote this election—including 41 million born-again Christians (defined by their beliefs regarding sin and salvation, not self-identification), 32 million regular Christian church attenders, and 14 million who…
Opinion Pieces
Christian conservatism and realism vs. Christian nationalism | Opinion
Nearly all self-identified Christian nationalists are Calvinists, typically Presbyterian like Wolfe, but often theologically Reformed Baptists. The latter can be confusing because traditional Baptists are most associated with religious liberty. Source: Christian conservatism and realism vs. Christian nationalism | Opinion
Should a Christian Skip Voting on November 5? | RealClearReligion
While the Bible does not speak directly to the issue of voting because elections didn’t exist in Bible times, a relevant passage that presents a principle to guide our contemporary context is 1 Timothy 2:1-2. When Paul gave Timothy instructions concerning how to lead the church, his first instruction was to urge church members to…
End Abortion: Rebrand Babies – The American Mind
But abortion is at its tiny beating heart not, I repeat not, a political issue. It never has been, actually. It is not solvable at the federal, or even state, level. It cannot be eradicated via executive order, law, or any craft we here possess. “Abortionist” is the second oldest profession after “prostitute.” Humans are…
Home & Family
Can a fighting spirit help conquer cancer? The limits of positivity for cancer patients | National Post
The idea that cancer progression or disease survival can be influenced by a positive attitude or by keeping up a “fighting spirit” isn’t grounded in scientific evidence, he and other doctors said. Anecdotally, however, “you’ll hear from people, ‘I beat this because I was positive, I had the right thinking, the right attitude,’” Isenberg-Grzeda said.…
The false promise of keeping a loved one ‘alive’ with A.I. grief bots | America Magazine
With the creation of A.I., anthropomorphized chatbots are one critical example of how the rapidly advancing technology is testing the limits of the human condition. Source: The false promise of keeping a loved one ‘alive’ with A.I. grief bots | America Magazine
It’s Not Politics: Fatherhood Decline Causing Rise of Religious Nones | RealClearReligion
But, in the years since we met this couple in the early 2000s, some sociologists, pundits, Christian thinkers, and church leaders have been persuaded by the idea that politics – particularly socially conservative politics – is playing a major role in driving the societal-wide decline in church participation. But the evidence doesn’t bear this out.…