First Kanye and now it’s Justin Bieber who claims to be a Christian. In a popular youtube video, Bieber describes hitting bottom and how he turned to follow Christ. It is an interesting story, laced with a few expletives. He sounds a little confused, but not much different from some new believers I have had…
As interesting as this may sound, that may actually be what’s afoot in the Southern Baptist (SBC) world. For the record, my roots are there. Before college, I was a member of an SBC church. I was baptized in one, married in another one, and earned a PhD from an SBC school. Much of my…
There is a lot of confusion in the church today about the Holy Spirit. People may know a lot about God the Father and Jesus Christ, but it seems like few have a Biblical understanding of who the Spirit is and what He does. Some think that the Spirit is a feeling or impression that…
An interesting law suit developed in 2016 between the electric car maker Tesla and a Korean man who bought one. That’s because Tesla offers a self-driving mode where the car is supposed to recognize walls and park itself. The plaintiff was inside his car when it drove through the garage wall, destroyed several structural posts,…
One of the doctrinal errors I warn our church about is found in the New Hampshire Baptist Confession of 1833. It says, “We believe that the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired…” According to 2 Timothy 3:16, God inspired the “graphe” or Scriptures, not the men. While the Holy Spirit carried along the…
As the election draws near the discussion about the appropriate protection of religious freedoms will continue to rage. This topic matters to us—a lot. Religious freedom is a historical novelty and is still denied to billions in our world today. Most credit the historical genesis of the idea of the separation of Church and State…
Cutting Straight Conspicuously It has always been essential for preachers to ground their sermons in a text. But I’m persuaded that postmodernity necessitates our doing so far more conspicuously. That is, I believe that the nature of contemporary culture compels us to establish visibly and indubitably that our content is what texts are actually saying.…
When you set out to shine the light of the gospel to nonbelievers and believers alike, you may not anticipate the adversity that may come your way as a result. The apostle Paul himself experienced an intense degree adversity to his teaching ministry. His candid response to this adversity provides us with a Christlike example…
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep my words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him (John 14:23). Many different things make up genuine prayer. Usually we say that prayer is communion with God. In the next…
Debates over animal rights have grown increasingly loud in the last few years. Animal rights activists have taken aim at zoos and theme parks. Just 2 years ago the historic Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus closed operations in part over pressure from animal rights activists. We are also debating what is appropriate care…