What if you could survey the entire scope of Christian doctrine at once: a brief enough summary to show the whole thing at a glance, but with enough detail to see the various parts and how they relate to each other?
As a stand-alone experience, that wouldn't be especially valuable: it would be too much information, too fast, without enough emotional and experiential time f...
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Philippians is among the sweetest books of the New Testament. It is a short letter from Paul to a congregation that he obviously feels and expresses great affection toward. In 1898, JB Lightfoot, the Bishop of Durham, said that Philippians is “not only the noblest reflexion of St. Paul’s personal character and spiritual illumination, his large sympathies, his womanly tender...
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Featured Essay
There is a lot of material to cover in the doctrine of Scripture: everything from its deep background in God's will to redeem us and reveal himself, to the "business end" of the doctrine in providing a user's guide to the English Bible an ordinary believer holds in his or her hand. In between are topics like inspiration, canonization, inerrancy, and authority. How should all o...
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Today (March 6) is the birthday of A. T. Pierson (1837-1911), one of the most influential figures in the history of conservative Protestantism. An American evangelical, Pierson had an extensive teaching ministry throughout the English-speaking world; the most famous post he held was that he took over the pulpit of the Metropolitan Tabernacle as C.H. Spurgeon's health failed, a...
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It is bad enough if bad information costs you the value of your 401-K, but worse if it costs your soul. Being told you are wrong is important at any time, but hearing that you might be wrong about critical areas is vital.
Who wants to be wrong about the big questions of life?
No friend would see such a major mistake being made without expressing his opinion. This is espec...
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I'm not sure what came over John Wesley, but one day he got positively excited about the idea of showing the organic, systematic structure of Christian faith. This kind of passion for understanding structural relationships was not his normal way of working: he was a preacher and a world-changer, not a theological ponderer or chart-maker. But on at least one occasion, he took up...
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Featured Essay
The word “apology,” in theological circles, often means a defense of one’s faith. In more common parlance, the word “apology” means admitting a wrong and asking for forgiveness. I actually want to do the latter.
Earlier this week, I led a couple of class sessions on Paul’s epistle to the Romans. We mostly focused on chapters 9-11, as they are some of the tou...
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In an age when Hitler has become a punch-line, a youtube "downfall" meme, and the barometer of when an argument has reached its limits (reductio ad hitlerum), it's hard to feel the weight of the armed anti-semitism of the mid-20th century. After decades of classroom ethics dilemmas like "If lying is always wrong, would you tell the truth if Nazis asked you if you were hiding Je...
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The problem with American foreign policy is that it never considers that a particular religious belief might be true or that some beliefs might be false. We don’t argue with religious folk, we attempt to placate them. There is a weird American notion that people can be persuaded to abandon their religious point of view if we only send them enough CNN, MTV, and uplifting Obama...
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Here is a brief thought project prompted by several years of teaching the new members class at my home church (an Evangelical Free Church of America congregation that appeals to serious-minded conservatives). This is not the way I teach the subject in the class, but it is how I've been connecting some of the dots about membership recently.
What is church membership? Specific...
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It’s ironic that the words “evangelicalism” and “ecumenism” are seen as diametrically opposed, because Christians really need both. The former camp majors on truth, while the latter on unity. Why is this?
Evangelicals hold to the evangel, i.e. the Gospel, which is often interpreted as doctrine (though I would argue that those are slightly different despite there ...
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Featured Essay
Tim Morey’s Embodying our Faith: Becoming a Living, Sharing, Practicing Church (InterVarsity, 2009) is an enjoyable read. As a reworking of his Fuller Theological Seminary D.Min. thesis, Morey’s text is engaging, his writing style friendly and his content engaging. In seven chapters, Morey gives a well-reasoned defense for what he calls an “embodied apologetic,” that is...
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