How to Struggle with Grief: A Conversation with David and Nancy Guthrie (@saysNancyGuth3)
Over the years, I have noticed that the Reformed folks have a robust doctrine of sin, but (in my opinion) a fairly thin doctrine of suffering. And this is true in the broader evangelical world as well.
We tend to think of sin as simply impacting behavior or ethical choices. And we sometimes forget that sin also impacts every aspect of creation. We live in a fallen, broken world. So, we should not be surprised when our lives are affected by that fallen, broken world.
As a result of this blind spot, most people simply don’t know how to suffer or grieve biblically. Even more, most people don’t know how … Continue reading...
Taking Back Christianese #5: “Just Ask Jesus into Your Heart”
Some of us grew up in churches where it seemed every Sunday included an atlar call. Congregants were invited to walk the aisle and to make a “decision” for Christ.
During these occasions, very specific language would be used to explain how a person becomes a Christian. “Just ask Jesus into your heart,” was the common refrain, usually followed by an appeal to Rev 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him.”
Thus, we come to the next installment in the “Taking Back Christianese” series. Our purpose here is to evaluate … Continue reading...
7 Tips on How to Survive Your Ordination Exam
Although seminary is a challenging experience in and of itself, something more formidable (at least in terms of stress) awaits most students. The dreaded ordination exam.
This is the time when a candidate stands up in front of the presbytery (perhaps with 50 -75 elders in attendance) and is publicly examined, probed, prodded, and picked at for several hours on a variety of topics ranging from church history to sacraments to eschatology to the famed Book of Church Order.
And from candidate’s perspective, it is easy to feel like you are looking into the eyes of a hungry cat. And you are the mouse.
So, needless to say, I have … Continue reading...
Why Should I Believe Christianity? One of the Best Books on Apologetics This Year
When we think about what might help the church engage with an ever-more-hostile world, the issue isn’t that we don’t have enough apologetic books (we have tons of them). The issue is that we don’t have the right kind of apologetic books.
There is a trend in apologetics today towards what I might call a “minimalistic” approach to defending the faith. Basically this is where someone tries to prove the least amount possible about Christianity in order to get the non-Christian to take one step in our direction. And this is typically done with an evidentialist methodology using the so-called consensus of modern scholars as the main authority.
There are … Continue reading...
This Book Really Needed to Be Written and Finally Someone Has Done It
Every once in a while a book comes along that meets such an important need that it makes you wonder, “Why hasn’t someone done this before?” Richard (Dick) Belcher, OT Professor and Academic Dean at RTS Charlotte, has written just such a book: Prophet, Priest and King: The Roles of Christ in the Bible and Our Roles Today (P&R, 2016).
Of course, in the Reformed world, the idea that the work of Christ can be divided into his three “offices” (prophet, priest, and king) has a long lineage. Although it appears in a number of places in the early fathers, the Reformers were the ones who expounded on … Continue reading...