Feb 8, 2020 | Culture
I rarely get political here because my passion is to defend the veracity of the Christian faith, as I have to my children all their lives, and to rest of my brothers and sisters in Christ. But I feel I must in this case get political because I’m weary of left-wing, progressive, liberal (whatever) Christians thinking they stand in some politically transcendent place where they can condemn their conservative brethren for their moral profligacy of supporting President Trump. I was driven to write by a recent piece at Christianity Today by Scott McKnight, although I’ve encountered many such screeds directed at people like me, and the rest of Evangelical Trump supporters. (more…)
Feb 7, 2020 | Apologetics
In my previous post I argued that the transformed life of converted sinners is a profound defense of the truth of the Christian faith. We can’t see God, like the wind, but the evidence of his reality, like the wind, can be seen in the effects of his Spirit in the lives of his people. I mentioned that Romans 12 gives us an explanation as to how this works itself out in practice, and will explain that here. Paul spent 11 chapters giving us a detailed explanation about the meaning of redemptive history, then transitions with a declaration of the mind-blowing (in modern parlance) nature of it all (11:33-36). Then he transitions to how we are to live in light of it all:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
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Feb 1, 2020 | Apologetics
I was praying recently, and said something to God like, it’s difficult to believe what we can’t see, but . . . . I can’t help but believe it! And for many of the reasons I argue here. Then something different came to mind, an apologetic I don’t believe I have ever appealed to: changed lives. Evangelical Christians, a description I embrace for myself, are familiar with Christians using their testimony as a means of sharing the reality of their faith with others. I’ve always shied away from this as an apologetic, as a defense for the truth of Christianity, because it seems subjective, and I want to root that defense in the objective, in things that are real and substantive, like evidence, Scripture, history, archaeology, logic, philosophy, etc. What came to my mind is a saying of Jesus from John 3, and I realized just how powerful is the evidence God has given us for his existence and spiritual reality in the lives of his people:
7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
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Jan 29, 2020 | Truth
The news that the basketball great Kobe Bryant, his 13 year-old daughter, and seven others died Sunday in a helicopter crash is a shocking reminder of what should not be shocking: Momento Mori, Latin for, “remember that you must die.” I wrote of this just last week about the death in 1956 of a young missionary, Jim Elliot, and four companions who died trying to bring the gospel to Indians in the jungles of Ecuador. One of the things I appreciate about death, even as I hate and despise it, is that it relativizes all human achievement. What does all human striving and achievement mean if in the end we are just worm food? If that is all we are, if there is no life after death, it means absolutely nothing. A mist we are, and poof! We’re gone, forever. (more…)
Jan 26, 2020 | Culture
You already know I only have one daughter, but she’s still my favorite! She’s a champion for classical education, and a lower school academic dean at a charter classical school. She wrote an e-mail to parents recently, and I thought is was an excellent introduction to a mode of education that I pray becomes ever more widespread in America. I believe America as founded might just depend on it. If you are not familiar with classical education, and it’s value to educating children, please read on: (more…)
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