Think You Know the Christmas Story? Here are Five Common Misconceptions
Bah, humbug.
That’s probably one of the most well-known lines in literary (and now, cinematic) history. Everybody immediately recognizes the curmudgeonly voice of Ebeneezer Scrooge as he pours cold water all over our Christmas spirit.
And his point is still made today by some, albeit in different words. It’s that the Christmas story just isn’t true. It’s rubbish. It’s made up. It’s all in our heads.
While now is not the time for a full-scale defense of the historicity of the Christmas story, Scrooge’s skepticism does prompt us to wonder whether we’ve gotten the story right. Are we telling the story that really was, or are we just telling the … Continue reading...
Surviving Doubt: Six Videos Providing Answers to Difficult Questions about the Christian Faith
Ever had a moment in your life where you doubted what you believe? I mean, really doubted?
I can still remember when that happened in my life. It was my freshman year at UNC-Chapel Hill as I was sitting in a religion class on the New Testament. The professor was bright, funny, and persuasive. And he was arguing that the New Testament was chocked full of mistakes and contradictions.
As I sat there, I had no answers. I began to wonder whether Christianity was just something people made up.
By God’s grace, I persevered through those doubts and now have the privilege to be a professor who argues that the … Continue reading...
What are the Differences Between Covenantal and Dispensational Theologies?
To this day, I can still remember watching those “rapture” movies in my middle school youth group. In particular, I remember A Thief in the Night (1972), which scared the pants off of me. It was a bit of a mix between a horror movie and cheesy spy thriller. For the next week I had trouble sleeping, worried that I would wake up and find myself left behind.
As a result, I grew up assuming that the dispensational framework was the only proper way to read the Bible. But when I got to college, some upperclassmen introduced me to Reformed Theology and a covenantal framework for reading Scripture. It was … Continue reading...
Want to Understand How Suffering Fits with the Sovereignty of God? Here’s a Great Place to Start
One of the perennial questions for all theologians (and all human beings) is “Why do we suffer?” And, “If God is good and sovereign, why does he allow suffering?”
While most of us have these questions, we don’t really have to deal with them until we experience suffering ourselves. This is when we discover whether we really have a “theology of suffering” that can deal with the hard parts of life.
And that’s the thing about the coronavirus. It forces all of us to answer the tough questions about suffering. We can no longer duck the issue.
To be clear, I am not talking about answers to the intellectual questions … Continue reading...
So, What Did Jesus Think about the Old Testament?
The Old Testament has run into some hard times as of late. It’s seen by many as a curmudgeonly, legalistic, violent, confusing, and, maybe most of all, boring sort of book. As the atheist Richard Dawkins famously opined, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction.”
On top of these sorts of complaints are questions about the historical veracity of the Old Testament. Are we really supposed to believe in a literal Adam and Eve? A global flood? Sodom and Gomorrah? People struggle to believe these sorts of things really happened.
Sadly, however, the critiques don’t come from just non-Christians. Even believers, … Continue reading...