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The Innermost Meaning of the Cross
“But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.” -Isaiah 53:10 “God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation in His blood through faith, in order to demonstrate His righteousness.” -Romans 3:25 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us– for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’” -Galatians 3:13 “It is those who cannot come to terms with any concept of the wrath of God…
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Who Can Come to Jesus – John 6:36-51
I recently listened to an old country song that I haven’t heard in a long time. It came out the year I graduated high school—Bonnie Rait’s ballad “I Can’t Make You Love Me.” It’s a beautiful melody with absolutely depressing lyrics. It’s a about a woman who keeps going back into the arms of a man that she knows doesn’t love her. And she says, “I can’t make you love me if you don’t You can’t make your heart feel something it won’t Here in the dark, in these final hours I will lay down my heart and I’ll feel the power But you won’t, no you won’t ‘Cause I…
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I Am the Bread of Life – John 6:22-35
What kind of Christianity is it that desires the fruit but not the root? Is it really Christian for someone to say, “I’ll take Jesus’ gifts—life, social order, morality, beauty, law, the western tradition and western culture—I’ll take all of these gifts from Jesus, but I don’t want Jesus.” What kind of Christianity is that? It’s the kind of “Christianity” that allows you to hate Jesus while insisting that you benefit from his gifts. Some people may call that Christianity by slapping the label “cultural” on the front of it, but might I suggest that such a thing is no Christianity at all. At best, it is a form of…
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How Rejecting Gender Essentialism Can Lead to Transgenderism
On this week’s CBMW podcast, we discuss how egalitarian error can lead to transgender error. In Christa McKirland’s chapter in Discovering Biblical Equality (3rd ed.), she argues that some transgender people need to discern whether sex-change surgeries or hormone therapies “can be done in submission to the Spirit and in order to become more like Christ.” It is astonishing that this perspective appears in what purports to be an evangelical work on gender. That is what we discuss below. How Rejecting Gender Essentialism Gets You Transgenderism – On this episode, @DennyBurk, @colinsmo, and Jon discuss a chapter from the egalitarian book Discovering Biblical Equality called “Image of God and Divine Presence:…
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The Gospel on Joe Rogan’s Podcast
I just finished listening to Joe Rogan’s stimulating interview with a Christian apologist named Wes Huff. It really is a fascinating conversation, and I want to commend it to you. The occasion for the interview is Wes Huff’s “debate” with atheist Billy Carson late last year. I stayed up late last night and watched the debate. Huff dominated with facts and evidence, and he did so in a kind and winsome way. It was so one-sided, that Carson subsequently tried to keep the debate from seeing the light of day and sued Huff. It’s a big mess and has gotten a lot of commentary online, which is how Joe Rogan…
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Top 10 YouTubes of 2024
It’s time for my annual posting of the Top 10 YouTube Videos of the Year (see last year’s list here). This ranking is totally unscientific, and I gave up many years ago on limiting it to only ten videos. Only one person was polled to compile this list—yours truly. This year’s slate of videos has both humor and humanity with some other odds and ends thrown in. If you think I’ve left something out, let me know. I’ll think about adding an “Honorable Mention” category at the bottom. Enjoy! If you’re interested, here are links to lists from previous years: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |2020 | 2019 | 2018…
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Veiled in Flesh the Godhead See – John 6:1-21
I don’t know about you, but the older I’ve gotten, the more I have appreciated the gravity of Christmas. As a child, Christmas is all about the presents. It’s all focused on Santa Claus and Christmas morning. As you move into adolescence and young adulthood, you begin to have an appreciation for the entire season, the music, and the traditions. For many, nostalgia about childhood becomes a major part of the celebration. But the older you get the more you pile on experiences that make some of that wear thin. You have friends and family that go in and out of your life–sometimes through broken relationships and sometimes through death.…
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Witness and Glory from God Alone – John 5:31-47
One of the most dangerous traps we sinners can fall into is to think about God, to relate to God, or to speak to God as if he were the creature and we were the Almighty. It is exactly this sort of attitude that Jesus confronts in John 5:31-47. In this passage, Jesus explains two actions that are rightly performed by the Deity toward his creatures but must never performed by creatures toward the Deity. John 5:34, “I do not receive testimony from man.” John 5:41, “I do not receive glory from men.” [Hear the rest of the message at the Spotify or Apple links below.]
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Republicans Win by a Landfill… (reflections on the election)
Well, it’s official. The pollsters were wrong for a third election cycle in a row. They all massively failed to predict Trump’s support across the country. They predicted a close race that would basically be a toss-up. They couldn’t have been more wrong. As I write this, the Associated Press and other news outlets have declared Donald Trump President-Elect. Trump not only won the electoral college decisively but is also winning the popular vote. Republicans haven’t won a majority of the popular vote in 36 years and haven’t won the popular vote in 20 years. The New York Times estimates that after the dust settles, Trump will have won 312…