Keeping the Faith in College
Now that it’s officially August, the “back to school” conversations have begun. For many parents, however, it is not back to school for their kids, but “away” to school. Some parents are sending kids to college—perhaps for the first time.
My family is in exactly that position. My second child, John, heads to college in just a few weeks. My oldest, Emma, already left three years ago. And I know what parents are feeling. They are wondering how their child will survive the intellectual and spiritual challenges of university life.
Indeed, I can still vividly remember my own college experience as a believer on campus. In the fall of 1989, … Continue reading...
Is It a Waste of Time for Seminary Students (and Pastors) to Learn the Biblical Languages?
It’s that time of year again.
On Monday, a wonderful new crop of seminary students here at RTS-Charlotte will begin the grueling month-long experience of Summer Greek. And, like all seminary students before them, they will begin to ask the question of why studying these ancient languages even matters. After all, a few years after graduation all will be forgotten. In the midst of a busy ministry life, who could possibly maintain proficiency in the languages?
As a result of these questions, some students decide (very early on) that the biblical languages are just something to be endured. They are like a hazing ritual at a college fraternity or sorority. … Continue reading...
How Did We Get Our Bible? My Interview on the NT Canon at the Ligonier Conference
This past March I spoke at the Ligonier National Conference. My plenary address was on “The Truth about Marriage” (you can watch here), and I also did an enjoyable sit-down interview on the subject of the origins of the New Testament canon. You can watch below!
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How to Prepare Your Student for College
Now that high school graduation season is coming to a close, I know that a lot of parents out there have one simple question on their mind: Have I done a good job preparing my child for college?
Every Christian parent wonders this. We pray that we’ve adequately prepared our high school graduate to enter into the fray of college life: intellectually, spiritually, and morally. Indeed, this is why I wrote my recent book, Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christian Student on Keeping the Faith in College.
If you are asking these same questions, I talked at length about these issues in a recent podcast with Reformed Youth … Continue reading...
Is the Concept of a “Self-Authenticating” Bible a Modern Invention?
How do we know which books are from God, and which are not? Certainly the apostolic origins of a book can help identify it as being from God (see post here). And, the church’s overall consensus on a book can be part of how we identity it as being from God (see post here).
But, Christian theologians—especially in the Reformed world—have long argued that there is a more foundational way we can know books are from God: the internal qualities of the books themselves.
In other words, they have argued that these books bear certain attributes (Latin indicia) that distinguished them as being from God. They argued … Continue reading...