…biblical Christianity without conservative idolatry…
For a few weeks now, I have been teaching in my church on the topic of belief and doubt, so I have been on a personal journey to understand the mind of the atheist so I can better understand the mind of the serious person who cannot cross the line of faith and possibly understand the mind of the …
Continue Reading about Thoughts on Evolution, Creation, and Adam and Eve
Okay, it's finally time for me to begin tackling this question. The problem is that I don't really know the answers so this is going to be a general musing with some of my own hunches. Therefore, I'm really interested to know your opinions on it too. Perhaps together, we can figure some of this …
Continue Reading about Why do non-Christians go to church? (postponed)
This last Fall, we took a survey in our church asking people to rank our church from "ick" to "wow" on various categories. This is a non-scientific study, of course, but the vast majority of our church attendees gave our church a "wow" on our preaching and mid to high marks on everything else. Also, …
Yesterday, I started a series of posts on why people go to church. Studies show us that large portions of the population claim to have a strong relationship with Jesus yet studies also show that large portions of the population rarely or never go to church. Today, I continue that discussion. …
This morning, my wife heard on the Christian radio station that a recent study reports 67% of Americans claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus that affects their daily lives. However, just last weekend, I heard a statistic that currently 17% of Americans go to church. I think that means …
What's the issue? The question of Biblical "inerrancy" has been raised a number of times particularly in the past 50 years or so. Before answering this question, I think it's important to simply highlight what the real issue is. …
Continue Reading about 3. Where do you stand on the inerrancy of Scripture and why?
This post is part of a series on explaining the whole bible. Exile The kingdom of Judah ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of the brightest young people to Babylon. However, Jeremiah had predicted that the exile would last only 70 years, and Isaiah even predicted a king …
James 1:2-3 gives the standard Christian answer to this question: Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance... Of course, knowing the Sunday school answer and being okay with it are two …
UPDATE: This film has been posted to YouTube if you want to watch it. link Tonight, our life group skipped our normal routine to watch a documentary purportedly on the relationship between homosexuality and religion called For the Bible Tells Me So However, the documentary was actually on the …
Continue Reading about “for the Bible tells me so” — documentary on homosexuality
This week, CNN posted an article describing a recent report that attempts to help homosexuals "recover" do more harm than good. Since I wrote an article on this very topic (see Is There Recovery for the Homosexual?.), I thought it would be good to have a link to this new article here and to add a …
This week at my Life Group, we looked at the clearest teaching in the Bible regarding the rapture, and I've become even more convicted about one particular position. This post is intended to guide you through the same study we considered this week and to give an inside track on what I'm currently …
If you are a Calvinist: you believe that God has "elected" or "chosen" those who would be saved from before the foundation of the world. you believe that those whom God has chosen have been predestined to respond to the gospel when God woos them. you believe that salvation comes entirely without …
Continue Reading about You Can’t be Both Pre-Trib and Calvinist
Apparently, with the legal pressure provided by pro-homosexual lobbies, there is a threat that churches will be liable to lawsuits for anti-homosexual practices unless our position on the issue is clearly stated in religious terms. The recommendation is that we amend our statement of faith to …
What's wrong with premarital sex? One of the questions I get a lot is the question about sexual morality as it relates to the Bible, and it's one I have thought a lot about as well considering that I do quite a bit of marital counseling and also considering that I'm a guy and I think about these …
On that day tell your son, "I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt." --- Exodus 13:8 "My kids are too busy!" Our world is putting increasingly large burdens on our children. Whatever happened to the days when children would come home from school at 2 or 3 in the …
Recently, I got this question from a member of our church and thought my response might help others too. Here's the question: Jeff- I received an email from a Ukrainian student that was my roommate. She was on the border of accepting Christ but she recently wrote me about how she saw …
