The Left is colonizing the calendar. The most recent evidence of this is President Biden declaring tomorrow, Easter Sunday, to be “Transgender Visibility Day.” For Biden, I suspect this is a political calculation—a sop to the Left and indifferent contempt for faithful Christians everywhere. I have seen little evidence that his Catholic faith is anything more than a meaningless tradition. He publicly dishonors his church’s teaching about abortion, homosexuality, and marriage. And now he defiles the holiest day on the Christian calendar with transgender abomination. But Biden aside, we would all do well to recognize the larger conflict within which “Transgender Visibility Day” is simply a single skirmish. For the…
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The Ground of All Human Assurance before God
Source: This is an excerpt from Don Carson’s message at the Bethlehem 2016 Conference for Pastors and Church Leaders in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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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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Responding to Opposition to the Law Amendment
Pastor Steven Bezner has published an article arguing “Against the Law Amendment” in which he urges messengers to to vote against the measure at the upcoming SBC meeting in Indianapolis. Interestingly, Bezner doesn’t really argue against what the amendment actually says but against what he perceives as ulterior motives on the part of those who support the amendment. He writes: The Law Amendment seeks to clarify the extent of complementarian commitments within the SBC, answering this question: can a church remain in good standing with the Southern Baptist Convention if they have women staff members holding the title of pastor? If the question stopped there, the conversation around the Law…
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Moral seriousness and the post-Christian right
Two sad things happened over the holidays that ought to arrest the attention of Christian conservatives everywhere. The first is the revelation of a calendar featuring scantily clad “conservative” women and being marketed to “conservative” dads. The second is a social media posting from former President Donald Trump calling for his political enemies to “rot in hell.” [Read the rest at WORLD Opinions]
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A Plan to Read through the Bible in 2024
In years past, my customary mode for reading through the Bible every year involved starting in Genesis and reading right through to Revelation. I estimated that about four chapters per day would get me through in under a year’s time. The method worked reasonably well, but it wasn’t without its problems. Sometimes I would miss a day (or days) and get behind, and I had no way to keep up with my progress. I needed a schedule so that I could keep myself accountable for finishing in a year. In 2009, therefore, I did something I had never done before. I followed a Bible reading plan. I adopted Robert Murray…
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Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room!
How could there possibly be anything more mysterious and wonderful than the incarnation of Jesus Christ? God became a man. God took on mortal human flesh. Even though he himself was unfallen, he subjected himself to the brokenness of this fallen world. He sneezed. He coughed. He got headaches and an upset stomach. Every morning he got up, shook the dust out of His hair, and put his hand to the plow in his Father’s field. The incarnate Son of God was obedient even to the point of death. And three days later, what was mortal became swallowed up by immortality in the resurrection. Even now, the resurrected Christ sits…
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Fading Glory and Permanent Things
I just finished watching a documentary about a band that was popular when I was a kid. If I told you who the group was, you would recognize them immediately. But I suppose naming them is pointless. It’s the same story after all. A love for music, a quest for fame and glory, hedonistic indulgence along the way, unhappiness and depression in spite of fame and fortune. The lead singer has been dead for several years now. As the film finished, this is the word that stirred in my heart: “All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field The grass withers, the flower…
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Can’t we all just get along in the SBC?
I just read a helpful thread by Bart Barber, the President of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), about cooperation and non-connectionalism in Southern Baptist life. Among other things, he writes: This local-church non-connectionalism simply says that two churches can do something together without taking on any responsibility before God for the other church… This idea is woven into Article XIV (“Cooperation”) and Article XV (“The Christian and the Social Order”) of The Baptist Faith & Message. Those articles remind churches that it does not compromise a church’s faith to cooperate with other churches who differ theologically. Quoting from the Baptist Faith & Message, he elaborates: “Christian unity in the New…
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What Happened at ETS 2023?
Another annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) is now in the books. We met last week in San Antonio, and I heard a lot of talk about the basement of the Alamo. I was so busy with meetings, however, that I never made it over. Seriously though, for those of you unfamiliar with ETS, it is a society of theologians and biblical scholars who are dedicated to biblical inerrancy and a belief in the Trinity. At the annual meeting, members come together to present academic papers, meet with publishers, and catch up with old friends. Keep in mind that I only experienced a narrow slice of things, but…
