Dear Mr. President, I saw your remarks about heaven on Fox & Friends from Tuesday morning, and I can’t tell you how happy I am to have heard them. It is a rare thing for a world leader to reflect so openly about his own mortality and about what waits on the other side. Even in polite conversation, most people don’t want to “go there,” much less in front of millions of viewers. But you did go there, and there are millions of us who are grateful that you did. Sadly, the human condition is such that people are often reluctant to think about what you brought up on Tuesday morning. Aren’t there happier…
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Should Women Serve as “Shepherds”? – CBMW Podcast
As I mentioned earlier this week, some churches are appointing female “shepherds” in an effort to get around the biblical prohibition on female “pastors.” On this episode of The CBMW Podcast, we discuss what the Bible says about gender, the office of pastor, and why it matters. [Watch below on YouTube, or listen below on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.]
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Is a Female “Shepherd” Different from a Female “Pastor”?
I have a read a couple reports over the last week or so about a Southern Baptist Church in Texas that has seven female pastors (Fielder Church in Arlington). According to one report, each of these female pastors is listed on the church’s website as a “shepherd.” Indeed, now all the church’s pastors are listed as shepherds, including the senior pastor. These reports have raised eyebrows across the convention because the Baptist Faith & Message says that pastors must be men as qualified by Scripture. According to one report, Fielder Church was referred to the credentials committee of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC), and the committee decided not…
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Why I Do Not Favor the Moniker “Biblical Patriarchy”
Complementarian doctrine doesn’t require adherents to adopt a certain label for their view. It’s far more important for people to accept and affirm the Bible’s teaching on manhood and womanhood than for them to embrace any specific moniker for it. Having said that, there is great value in being precise and clear when thinking about and communicating Christian doctrine. For that reason, I still prefer and recommend the use of the term “complementarianism” to label our position over “biblical patriarchy.” I have made a positive case for “complementarianism” elsewhere. In this essay, I want to respond to some of the critiques in Doug Ponder’s thoughtful essay weighing the relative merits…
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The Innermost Meaning of the Cross is Penal Substitution
“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him… 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…
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The Light of the World — John 8:12-30
John 8:12, “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” This is the second of seven of Jesus’ famous “I am” sayings. The first one was in chapter 6, where he says, “I am the bread of life.” And now he’s revealing himself as the “light of the world”—meaning, he’s the light that illuminates the world. Light shines. It illuminates. It reveals. It helps you to see things that you otherwise would be unable to see. When Jesus says that he is the light, he is the great revealer of…
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Save the Baby, Save the World, and Save Your Soul
I don’t go to the movies much anymore, and neither does anyone really. If video killed the radio star, then streaming killed the big screen. It takes a lot to get anyone interested in actually going to a theater to see a movie these days, but people will still go to the spectacle of the summer blockbuster. As we approached the summer, there were three spectacles that I wanted to see—Mission Impossible, Superman, and Fantastic Four. As I said in my previous reviews, I was disappointed with the first two movies. Mission Impossible was an implausible matriarchal farce, and Superman was vacuous and silly. So perhaps my expectations were a little low before I…
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How Should Preachers Deal with the Story of the Woman Caught in the Act of Adultery?
I have been preaching through the Gospel of John at my church, and on Sunday I reached John 7:53-8:11–the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery. Without question, this is one of the most beloved passages in all of Scripture, but it is also one of the most poorly attested in the Greek New Testament. No version of the story appears in any copy of John’s Gospel until the 5th century–about 400 years after the Gospel was written. Also the language and style of the Greek stands apart from the rest of the Gospel. Linguistically, it’s like a whole different world than the rest of John’s account.…
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What You Get When Superman’s Dad is Larry-the-Cable-Guy
I finally saw James Gunn’s Superman over the weekend. If you are looking for a light popcorn movie, then you’re gonna like this one. If you’re looking for a film that is not only entertaining but also stays faithful to the best parts of the Superman myth, this one is probably going to disappoint. What does this film have going for it? If you like over-the-top, immersive CGI, this is your movie. It was a really good cartoon—along the lines of the second Dr. Strange movie. I personally appreciated the throwback to the old Super Friends Hall of Justice. I didn’t see that coming, but there it was in all…
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No, Southern Baptists Have Not “Officially Rejected” the Nicene Creed
From time to time, people move from one Christian tradition to another. This is not a new thing, although sometimes it can be painful and unpleasant as one pulls up anchor, says goodbye to friends and loved ones, and heads for another shore. These things happen. And the best that we can do after all the conversations are done and attempts to persuade are over is wish each other well with as much grace as possible. That is why it is usually not necessary to comment publicly on such departures. But Southern Baptists have just witnessed a departure that unfortunately may require some comment. Dr. Matthew Barrett, well-known SBC seminary…
