When you sit down to eat with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you; And put a knife to your throat If you are a man given to appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, For they are deceptive food. (Proverbs 23:1-3) This summer the US government is going to start sending out checks—monthly—for families with children. $300 a month PER…
This week our theme came to be the roles of men and women in our various relationships, especially concerning ordination to Christian ministry. Recent controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention gave the impetus for these articles. Here are our contributions for this week: Ordination of Women: Some Issues Just Won’t Go Away by Jeff Straub…
Does the Bible allow women to be pastors and preachers? The recent ordination of three women to pastoral ministry at Saddleback Church in California makes the issue a topic of discussion once again. The discussion particularly roils the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), since Saddleback considers itself an SBC church. The SBC clearly disapproves of female…
[Editor’s note: This article first appeared in FrontLine in 2013, and we republished it here on P&D in 2014. Since women’s ordination is once again in the news (see the piece published yesterday from Jeff Straub), we thought it appropriate to revisit this article.] We don’t have women pastors in our churches. But those who do…
Some issues in theological discourse just never go away. Supporters on one side or the other are committed and tenacious in the articulation and defense of their views. Part of the tenacity arises from the belief that the stakes are just too high to surrender. The fight must continue no matter the consequences, or even…
1 Timothy 1:18-20 This passage is a very personal commission given from Paul to Timothy. However, it is also the commission that is laid upon every minister of the gospel and especially pastors. There will always be false teachers in the world and one of the essential aspects of ministry is fighting the good fight…
I recently completed Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley’s best-seller about the six U.S. Marines who raised the flag on top of Mt. Suribachi during the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. The flag raising was made famous by a photograph taken by combat photographer Joe Rosenthal. The picture became the model for…
Our jobs and careers are a major part of our lives. In 2019, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics conducted an American Time Use Survey. It found that employed Americans spend significantly more time per week working than in any other activity besides sleep. If you’re employed, I don’t need to tell you this since…
Has God preserved a fixed master copy of the Scriptures? God has preserved His written Word. We have the Bible. But He has done so providentially, not miraculously. Once upon a time, there were two brothers who printed a Greek New Testament in 1633. They wrote in the preface a bit of good advertising. Their…
From the time Emily and I first knew we were expecting, we sang “Jesus Loves Me” to our daughter Evelyn. She heard it in the womb, then in the first few moments after delivery, and even now she hears it every evening at bed time. Next, we immersed her sister Kyrsten in the tradition. We…