There are different ways to distinguish a church from a cult. Churches hold to a broad consensus of orthodox beliefs while cults invariably elevate a small number of uniquely unorthodox beliefs. Churches tend to foster a context in which leaders are accountable to their congregations while cults tend to foster a context in which leaders…
It is God’s desire that there be unity between his people, and for that reason Christian unity is a prominent theme in the New Testament. Jesus prays for it in his High Priestly prayer, Luke describes it in his history of the early church, Paul demands it of the congregations he writes to, Peter appeals…
This is the time of year when I receive a lot of questions about Lent. Is it sinful to observe Lent? Is it sinful not to? Is there spiritual benefit in observing it? Or could there even be an element of spiritual danger? I am going to offer a few comments of my own, then…
I sorted through hundreds of Kindle deals dealing with healing crystals, ouija boards, and seances (Amazon lumps together everything “spiritual”) to find just a few that actually have some value. Westminster Books has some discipleship resources on sale, including one for dads and their children. 12 Principles on How to Disagree with Other Christians It…
Comments on Homemaking In the Light of Eternity Tim: I understand that when I write about stay-at-home moms I am not speaking from direct experience. But that does not at all invalidate my ability to have an opinion and, even better, to attempt to bring biblical wisdom to bear. If we can only speak to…
One matter of continual concern to me is interpersonal conflict within the church. It’s not the existence or even the quantity of conflict, but the inability or unwillingness to deal with it when it arises, and this despite the Bible’s clear teaching that Christians are to resolve conflict and how Christians are to resolve conflict.…
I received quite a lot of interesting letters to the editor this week and their topics ranged from Arminianism to ebooks and just about everywhere in between. I have captured a few of the most noteworthy and hope you enjoy reading them. Comments on Why I Am Not Arminian First off, I love this series…
There were not a lot of letters to the editor this week which probably indicates that I stuck mostly to non-controversial topics, or that I stuck to full-out boring topics! That said, I did receive some interesting ones; this is a selection. Comments on The Spiritual Disease Ravaging Our World Thanks for the good article…
A few weeks ago I set out on a new series of articles through which I intend to scan the history of the church—from its earliest days all the way to the present time—to examine some of Christianity’s most notorious false teachers. Along the way we will visit such figures as Arius, Pelagius, Fosdick, and…
Last week I compared The Passion of the Christ to the forthcoming Son of God, a film set to release later this week. I meant to point out that we can’t expect a movie to do what God promises only the Word will do. I also wanted to suggest similarities between the two movies and…
I have written often on the subject of knowing and doing the will of God. Sometimes, though, particular situations arise in which we need very specific applications of those general principles. A reader of this site recently asked me about how to think about how many children to have. Here is what he wrote: The…
I’ve been at this blogging thing for quite a long time now—it’s coming up on ten years. I’ve been at the daily blogging thing for almost as long. This means that I’ve got an extensive backlist of articles from years gone by. I thought it might be fun to pull out some of the articles…
The relationship of Christians and alcohol is one of those perennial issues. It has often been the source of heated disagreement and even separation. It is a particularly important topic in the United States, but, since much of the rest of the world is culturally downstream from the U.S., it effects every Christian to some…
This is now the third article in this series on homeschooling and public schooling. In the first article I offered a small glimpse at the changing Christian landscape when it comes to education and then placed education in the category of secondary doctrines or disputable matters. This brought us to Romans 14 where Paul writes…
House of Shelves – This is my kind of house. “Floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall shelving defines a compact, 557-square-foot home in Osaka prefecture, Japan, designed by Japanese Architect Kazuya Morita. Designed for a young historian with an extensive book collection in Islamic history, Morita designed the house with interlocking laminated pine boards that slot together to form…
Yesterday I began a short series on homeschooling, public schooling, and the ways in which we educate our children. I provided a small glimpse at the changing Christian landscape when it comes to education and then placed education in the category of secondary doctrines or disputable matters. Today’s article will be a little bit longer,…
Yesterday my wife, who was feeling lousy, had me take my daughter, who was feeling lousier, to the doctor. The doctor asked me things like, “Is she allergic to any medications?” To which I answered, “Um…I dunno.” “Has she had a sore throat?” “Um…I dunno. I’m only here because Aileen’s sick.” “Didn’t an antibiotic we…
Recently a reader of this wrote me to ask if I had ever written anything dealing with believers and the final judgment. I quickly realized that I had not and thought that today would be a good opportunity to remedy that. So here is a brief look at what believers can expect in the final…
Last week I offered the first of a series of wallpapers to coincide with the Scripture Memorization effort some of us are enjoying. This week we are moving to a new passage of Scripture and hence I wanted to offer you a wallpaper to go along with it. Our new passage is going to be…
I will probably regret writing this article. It is an article about homeschooling and is posted in a place where thousands of people are going to read it and have the ability to comment on it. You do the math! But I feel compelled to post on a subject that I feel is of great…