Archive for December 2020
Encouragement for Pastors
Today’s article is a guest post from Dr. Ray Van Neste, Dean and Professor of Biblical Studies, School of Theology and Missions at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. Pastors, I know the last several months have been challenging. As I heard someone recently say, “If this ain’t difficult times, they’ll do until difficult times come!”[1] Some of you…
Read MoreDecember 26-31, 2020
In keeping with the Bible reading plan we are using, the last days of each month are designated as “free days.” December 26-31 then are intended to allow you to catch up on reading you may have missed or to study passages more in depth that intrigued you during the first 25 days of the month.…
Read MoreAn Experimental Approach to Religious Proof
In this article I will introduce a new proof for the existence of God. The problem of proving the existence of God goes back to biblical times. In the Old Testament, we are told in Psalm 14 that the fool says in his heart there is no God. And in the New Testament, we are told in Romans…
Read MoreCommunism, Communalism, Community, and Christianity
If you were to ask me which part of fairly recent human history does the present most resemble, I would say 1930s. Which is a scary thought. The 1930s saw the increasing undermining of the credibility of international institutions, the rise of the radical left and the radical right—and as we all know, that eventually bled over into…
Read MoreBiblical Complementarianism versus Feminism and Patriarchalism
When I was pastoring a church next to Yale University, we adopted a firm complementarian policy. For those of you who are not aware of the general climate of elite universities, let me just say that a complementarian view of men and women is not exactly normative in that culture. In fact, it would be…
Read MoreWhat Will the Church Be Facing After Covid?
With such a question, I am reminded of Yogi Berra’s remark: “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Nonetheless, with an eye to the past—and what we can learn from it—there are some things that I think we can say with confidence. First of all, it’s important to underline that nothing will change. People will still be people.…
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