“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”[1] The beginning of any academic or even detailed discussion on the problem of evil has to begin with God’s original intention for mankind. A beautiful garden, perfect relationships between people and with their creator, and no death. Obviously this is a very different portrait […]
Category Archives: Culture
Heavy Hearts: A Christian Response to Suffering – Part 1
Unexpected events. Unspeakable tragedies. Unimaginable pain. If this past weekend in Orlando, and really this life, has taught us anything it’s that suffering is a part of the human experience. But why? If there’s a God, and if he’s good, why is there so much agony and evil in this world? Discussions about suffering can […]
The Passion Translation: The Bible of Bethel and the NAR
**Note: Since the original post of this article (in 2016), due to the scrutiny and pressure from many academic scholars, there have been dramatic revisions made to The Passion Translation. On one hand this is a good thing. On the other hand, it serves to show just how much personal interpretation/theology was woven into this […]
A Reflection on Current Church Culture
Every now and then you have that rare moment of reading something that sticks to you like a 5th grader’s spit wad sticks to the ceiling. That was my experience as I began reading Frank Turek’s new book, Stealing from God – Why Atheists Need God To Make Their Case. The book itself is an […]
Cheap Grace and the Problem of Sin
It’s interesting to me how much we hear about grace these days in contrast to how little we hear about sin. How can the two be so separated? Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor and theologian who lived in Nazi Germany during WWII. He wrote a book entitled, The Cost of Discipleship in which he identifies […]
The Battle of Busy – How to Avoid Ministry Burnout
I’m addicted to being busy, or at least I was. I’m currently in a process of recovery. It’s an aspect of both my personality and my approach to ministry over which the Holy Spirit has been convicting me. In order for you to understand the depth of this struggle in my life, let me provide […]
Well, It’s True For Me – Moral Relativism Part 3
For the preceding discussion on this topic, please see parts one and two. So far we have covered the different aspects of moral relativism. We will turn now to the opponent of ethical relativism, objective morality, to see what stability in understanding it can offer. This is not the first time in history that a […]
Well, It’s True For Me – Moral Relativism Part 2
For the preceding discussion on this topic, please see part one. When we left off last time, we saw that individual subjectivism failed in every way. Now we must examine the other vein of moral relativism, conventionalism. Conventionalism is the second form of relativism; and on this view morality is attached to culture. Thus, it […]
Well, It’s True For Me – Moral Relativism Part 1
In addition to the challenge of balancing classes, jobs and the new-found freedom that comes with college life, many Christian students, upon entering a secular university, find it difficult to defend their worldview as well. Is everything relative? Is it close-minded and judgmental to believe in truth that is true for everyone? Can something be […]