Articles
The Shocking Splendor of Sonship: Part 2
Today’s guest post is by Josh Maurer, pastoral resident at College Church in Wheaton and adjunct professor at Wheaton College, where he is also completing a PhD in New Testament. You can read Part 1 here. “The entire Christian life has to be understood in terms of it [adoption]” – J. I. Packer In Part…
Read MoreThe Shocking Splendor of Sonship, Part 1
Today’s guest post is by Josh Maurer, pastoral resident at College Church in Wheaton and adjunct professor at Wheaton College, where he is also completing a PhD in New Testament. Part 2 will follow on May 29, 2021. “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Gal 3:26, ESV). Christian, when…
Read MoreThe King Is Coming
On Palm Sunday, we think of the crowd waving palm branches as Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey as described in the Gospel accounts. Why the palm branches? In many ways it goes right back to the beginning of the story of the Bible. In Genesis, in paradise, it is thought there were many beautiful trees, among them palm branches. Later in the biblical story,…
Read MoreReturn to God
In the present circumstances with which the whole globe wrestles, Christian leaders have utterly failed to issue the clarion call that the world (and the church) needs to hear. We have pointed to the mystery of suffering, and the practicality of caring for those who are suffering. Some have bemoaned political drift to the right, others political…
Read MoreEncouragement 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 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.…
Read MoreOn Giving Thanks in Covid
Each year, Americans (and Canadians, but that happens at a different time of the year) gather for “Thanksgiving.” And, of course, the point of such a gathering is to remind each other to give thanks. This year, I suspect, such a reminder will feel particularly poignant. Are we really meant to give thanks during Covid? I, like…
Read More