Friday January 13, 2006 Politics: Just days after California Lutheran High School expelled two girls for inappropriate conduct related to homosexual behavior, a Christian school outside of Atlanta is in a similar situation. RightFaith reports on a pending lawsuit. Film: Reformation21 pointed the way to an article by Josh Day declaring the superiority of Narnia’s…
On Tuesday we began a short series on assurance of salvation, a series that was rudely interrupted by my site crashing. I sought to show that, in many ways, contemporary evangelicalism can create an atmosphere in which many who consider themselves may have false assurance of their salvation. A decision-based system of conversion and regeneration…
Thursday January 12, 2006 Theology: Phil Johnson is growing impatient with people demanding immediate exegesis. “But the principle of sola Scriptura has never meant that all theological arguments are invalid unless they can be substantiated with some proof-text. “ Blogspotting: Jollyblogger agrees with me (and hence with Dave Swavely) about the impropriety of judging another…
After posting a hopeful note earlier in which I hoped (against hope, really) that everything on the site had been worked out, I ran into more trouble. I’ve now blown an entire day on this problem and have had little choice but to revert to the older Movabletype-based commenting system. You know, the same one…
My friend Randy Brandt, who blogs at Contend 4 The Faith, has written a short article speculating on whether or not the producers of the upcoming film The End of the Spear have committed financial suicide with their casting. Let me fill you on the controversy. But first, here is a brief synopsis of The…
I woke up this morning to find my site replaced by a little message saying “Your account has been suspended. We have sent you an email explaining why. This email should also contain information on how you can unsuspend your account.” That was quite a rude awakening and managed to throw my entire day into…
Wednesday January 11, 2006 Reformed: Reformed church leaders are calling for a new era of partnership with the Vatican. Who are these leaders and why have I never heard of them? Du Jour: Paul’s old friend Martin writes his church to discuss life after Christmas. People: Sam Waldron, author of To Be Continued and The…
King for a Week is an honor I bestow on blogs that I feel are making a valuable contribution to my faith and the faith of other believers. Every week I select a blog, link to it from my site, and add that site’s most recent headlines to the left sidebar of my site. While…
If I were to ask you, “How do you know that you are a Christian?” how would you respond? Where do you look for your assurance of salvation? Do you look inside yourself? Do you look to the past – perhaps to an act or decision you made? Or do you look outside of yourself?…
Tuesday January 10, 2005 Quote: “‘Muslim fundamentalism, Christian fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism, secular fundamentalism – they’re all motivated by fear. Fear of each other.’” (Rick Warren) And what is a fundamentalist? “Now the word “fundamentalist” actually comes from a document in the 1920s called the Five Fundamentals of the Faith. And it is a very legalistic,…
For all the discussion created by and about the Emerging Church there has been precious little formal debate about the important issues at stake. I know of pastors or theologians who have attempted to debate the issues only to have their requests refused. Finally, though, we are about to see a significant debate. On January…
It was just about a year ago that I was invited to submit an article for publication in a small periodical that reaches a couple of Reformed denominations. The editor told me that they were planning an issue dealing with “-isms” and I decided to write about “ageism,” something I feel is becoming an increasing…
Monday January 9, 2006 Humor: Only in a far too politically correct world would this story be anything but funny. “Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is shutting down the system that creates movie recommendations on its shopping Web site after it linked a “Planet of the Apes” DVD to films about famous black Americans.” Du Jour: Carolyn…
I don’t have a whole lot to say about the film Brokeback Mountain beyond what I wrote last week in the article Rape of the Marlboro Man. The media, on the other hand, just can’t get enough. It has apparently been worthy of national media attention that one theatre in Salt Lake City, Utah, has…
The degree to which God controls the world is a topic that has received much debate in Christian circles through the past two or three decades. Where Christians once uniformly affirmed God’s absolute sovereignty over this world, today this is an area of great dispute. The aftermath of recent natural disasters has shown that there…
Sometimes my sense of duty seems to come into conflict with my instincts. This almost inevitably leads to duty laying a playground beating on instincts and stealing his lunch money. You see, I attempt to respond to every email that I receive, but every now and then I receive one that just seems like bad…
Friday January 6, 2006 Blogging: Calvinist Gadfly gracefully bows out of the blogosphere. “My passion for the Biblical languages is calling me to give myself over to them in a more dedicated and intense manner.” Animals: Tim Irvin has bought himself some chickens. He says that “you can buy a pair for less than the…
John Piper has just announced to the members of Bethlehem Baptist Church that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Please pray for him, that God would see fit to heal him and extend his ministry to his family, his local church and to all of us who have so benefitted from his teaching. Here…
In his basement Rob Bell has a Velvet Elvis. A genuine, bought-by-the-side-of-the-road Velvet Elvis. Bell uses this image of a work of art stashed in the basement behind suitcases and boxes as a metaphor for churches that are out of date. For thousands of years followers of Jesus, like artists, have understood that we have…
Thursday January 5, 2005 News: MLive.com has the inspiring story of the Stowe Family, a Christian family who has adopted many children with disabilities. Strange: Justin Taylor tells us that Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando will be having Tony Campolo deliver the Kistemaker Academic Lecture Series in March. Music: Pete Townshend warns iPod users to…