Reformation21

One of Billy Graham’s early crises of faith was over whether he could totally trust the Bible. After much struggle he prayed to God, “I’m going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts, and I will believe this to be Your inspired Word.” [1] Graham’s conclusion sets a good...

In our last post, we saw why songs for congregational singing need to have biblical content , as well as music suitable for active participation. We have also seen how worship should be conducted for the glory of God and the building up the Christian community. With all of this in view, we can now...

Apologetics is often associated with the so-called proofs of God’s existence: ontological, cosmological, teleological—and already my head is spinning. But the quest to prove God has several problems. First, it ignores that all people already know God. Even animals can tell us that God created the...

One thinks of the oddest things while driving to church. One recent Sunday on my morning drive to services I had an unusually strange thought. The saints in heaven worship God and pray to God. [1] If they pray, would they perhaps pray using the Lord’s Prayer, which our Savior taught to us while on...

As we saw previously, meetings for worship should be conducted for the glory of God, and for the purpose of building up the people, the Christian community. Everything in worship should be oriented to these goals. Building on the principles set out in Part I, we now concentrate on congregational...

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” —variously attributed to Mark Twain, Will Rodgers, etc. Much ink has been spilt — or, perhaps, many keys have been struck — over the recent release of emails from the National Partnership...

Author's Note (11/15): Due to many helpful, cordial, and somewhat painful conversations over the course of the day, I have become less convinced that those who shared the email link over social media sinned — though I still do not believe theirs was the most prudent course of action. I do not take...

All Christians are apologists. All of us must be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks us for a reason for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). But God not only demands that we defend the faith, he also defines how we must defend it. By demanding confidence, love, and holiness (1 Peter 3:...

“Honor your father and mother...that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” If we were to put together ten rules for constructing a moral society, it is doubtful that many would emphasize parental respect. Why then does God bother...

If you have studied history or, more specifically, Western philosophy, you are most likely familiar with Plato, Socrates, or Aristotle, the greatest of ancient Greek philosophers. While the ideas of these men continue to be taught in colleges and universities today, several thinkers developed...