• Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    An atheist who can’t help believing in God

    Atheist Elizabeth King says that she can’t “shake” her sense that there really may be a god. If you ask her whether God exists, she will answer with a definitive “no.” She has made a decisive break from the evangelical faith of her youth. But still, she occasionally prays and offers up other expressions that reveal that she’s hardwired for faith. You should read the whole essay in The Washington Post, but here’s her conclusion: I’m not sure what to do about God. If I could figure out a way to banish this figure from my psyche, I would. But psychology is not on my side. Having been conditioned to…

  • Boyce,  Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    “Gay Christian” explains why she now accepts same-sex marriage

    I just read another public account of someone who is walking away from what the Bible teaches about marriage. Former Wheaton employee and self-identified “gay Christian” Julie Rodgers explains why she has embraced gay marriage. She has written about this previously, and I have responded previously. Nevertheless, this latest account is also worth some reflection. She writes: Your beliefs don’t shift in an instant. We research and agonize, bouncing between hope and despair, until one day we hear ourselves say something a former version of ourselves never would have said. That’s how I came to support same-sex marriage in the church. When I came out as a teenager in Baptist circles…

  • Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    Hold Them Back

    Today is the 43rd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s infamous Roe v. Wade decision–a decision that has presided over the legal killing of over 57 million human beings since 1973. Abortion-on-demand is without question the greatest human rights crisis of our time. Proverbs 24:10-12 tells us that we cannot be indifferent to this horror. It calls us not to turn away but to “hold them back.” Below is a message I delivered at my church on this text. My hope and prayer is that the Lord would use it to awaken consciences. Download here or listen below. The message has three verses and three points: Protecting Life Requires Resolve (24:10). Protecting…

  • Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    How confessional rigor promotes academic freedom

    Wheaton faculty member Timothy Larsen weighs-in on the controversy swirling around his campus. In the midst of it, he makes an observation about academic freedom that might be counter-intuitive to some readers but that demonstrates the deep need for Christian institutions of higher learning. Larsen is spot-on when he writes: Indeed, for some of our most thoroughgoing critics it means that we are not at all like the University of Illinois. A statement of faith, they assert, prohibits academic freedom and thus disqualifies us from being a genuine institution of higher education. It feels differently from the inside. The vast majority of the professors Wheaton hires come either straight from…

  • Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    Seven reasons why you shouldn’t read 1 Timothy 6:1-2 as an endorsement of slavery

    Have you ever faced a skeptic—maybe a family member or a friend at work—who threw slavery at you as evidence that the Bible can’t be trusted? They argue that if you are using the Bible as your authority on what is right and wrong, then you are basing your deeply held beliefs on a morally deficient revelation. If the Bible is wrong about something as elementary as slavery, how can it be trusted in its central claims about Jesus? And so the issue of slavery often comes up when people wish to discredit the Bible—to show that it is not worth your admiration and trust. Sometimes these criticisms really sting.…

  • Theology/Bible

    Another chance to catch a glimpse of what is coming true

    As we begin 2016, it is good to think about what has been and what is to come. There were many people who started 2015 not knowing that it would be their last. I’ve known them. And so have you. We are not so different from them, are we? When I look in the rearview mirror, I see the years gathering up behind me, and I can hardly believe how quickly they’ve piled up. As life rattles forward, it seems the earth makes its annual journey a little quicker than the year before. Where have the years gone?

  • Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    A Plan To Read the Greek New Testament in a Year

    Several years ago, I created a plan to read through the Greek New Testament in a year. For the most part, it tracks pretty closely with Lee Irons’ excellent schedule for reading the Greek New Testament in a year. My plan, however, varies a little bit. Because John’s writing is simpler Greek, my schedule goes through John’s Gospel at a faster pace than Irons’. As a result, there are no readings scheduled at the end of the year from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Eve. These open dates at the end can be used as catch-up days. The schedule is given in two formats below. DOC – Read the Greek…

  • Christianity,  Theology/Bible

    A Plan To Read through the Bible in 2016

    In years past, my customary mode for reading the Bible through 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.