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Eric has written 252 articles so far, you can find them below.
(This is Part Two of a series.) In his new book, A New Kind of Christianity, author Brian McLaren seeks to address “ten questions that are transforming the [Christian] faith.” As promised in the introductory article, we will be taking our own look at McLaren’s ten questions and his responses to them. Although I am going to [...]
Full Story » It is something of a surprise to me just how many Christians are unfamiliar with Brian McLaren. Although by no means a household name, Brian McLaren is probably one of the top five most influential writers/thinkers within (and to some degree outside of) evangelicalism. While you or your family may not be reading his books or his website, I can almost guarantee that one or more of the leaders at your church are. Initially, McLaren was nearly synonymous with the "emerging" church movement, but lately he has become more independent of this association; not because he has made a deliberate break with them, but mainly because he has outgrown them. And even though he is saying many of the same things as the emerging church, McLaren has a much bigger platform from which to say it.
Full Story » One of the more interesting phenomena to arise in televised sports is the fact that many people tune in to the Super Bowl not so much to watch the game, but to watch the ads. The commercials that air during the game – many for the very first time – generate almost as much hype and interest as the action on the field. This year’s game, Super Bowl XLIV, was the most watched program in television history, besting the 27-year old record held by the final episode of M*A*S*H. This is a remarkable accomplishment, especially considering that viewers in 2010 have many more programming options available to them than did viewers in 1983. The Super Bowl is much more than a championship football game, it has become a cultural event. Because of this, Super Bowl ads are often very good indicators of where American culture is as a whole.
Full Story » How many times have you heard that the Ten Commandments are no longer necessary today? Or that since Christ said that He came to "fulfill the law" (Matthew 5:17), Christians are not obligated to them any longer. Or that the Ten Commandments were given to Israel, not modern America. The list could go on. Many Christians, unaware as they are of the Old Testament, make all sorts of bizarre remarks to avoid facing up to the fact of God’s law. The pertinent question has been phrased many different ways, but essentially it is this: "If not God’s law, which law? And if not God’s law, why not?" In other words, if God’s law has been set aside, which one do we put in its place? And, if we claim that God’s law is no longer binding on individuals, where do we get our biblical justification for claiming this? The answers have been many and varied, but they have seldom been convincing.
Full Story » "The Early Church and the End of the World" by Gary DeMar and Francis Gumerlock asks this fundamental question: "What did the earliest of the early Christian writers actually believe about prophetic events?" We can only answer this question by studying what they wrote. Unfortunately, we do not have a complete record of the period. Many of their surviving works are only fragments of larger works no longer available to us. To make an historical investigation even more difficult, there are translation issues. Many of the works of those who wrote just before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and beyond have not been translated into English.
Full Story » Unlike every other college and university in America, Penn State University has had only one head football coach during my entire lifetime of 38 years. As a matter of fact, you have to go back six years before I was born to reach the point when Paterno became the head coach at Penn State. And for 16 years before that, Joe was an assistant coach, which puts his entire tenure at the school right at 60 years. That’s longer than most marriages. Actually, it’s longer than Joe’s own marriage. Joe and Sue Pohland were married in 1962 – twelve years after Joe was hired as an assistant coach. And, if you think about it, a marriage is how most pre-Baby Boomer Americans regarded their careers. A marriage of business rather than love of course, but a marriage nonetheless; one where dedication, commitment, and trust was required – on both sides.
Full Story » The Bible is a book of contrasts. It is filled with stories about man’s stubborn propensity to settle for the good over the best, to take the easy road rather than the difficult, to walk in darkness instead of in the light. Even though we read time and time again in the Scriptures that God demands perfection, righteousness, and holiness of those who call Him "Lord," we seem to have convinced ourselves that being just a little bit better than everyone else is close enough. We readily admit that we will never reach the goal in this life, so we slow down, becoming lackadaisical and comfortable with our imperfection, taking comfort in the fact that "Jesus is our perfection."
Full Story » Depending on whom you ask, December 25 has a whole host of nefarious pagan characters laying claim to it. Mithra, Isis, Osiris, and Saturnalia are just a few of the names that get linked with this date. The general argument, illustrated by Ferrell’s quotation above, is that because December 25 is associated with so many pagan (or even worse, Roman Catholic) traditions and "deities," "real" Christians should not celebrate the day, or attribute any more significance to it than any other day of the year.
Full Story » As December 25 draws near, you will no doubt hear from some of your more "pious" and "holier-than-you" friends about the pagan traditions and customs that are bound up in our modern celebration of the birth of Christ. You may even be accused of worshiping the sun, rather than the Son. Perhaps you’ve already been informed that your Christmas tree is a pagan practice, condemned in the book of Jeremiah (10:1-5).
Full Story » It could be argued that how you view George Washington is a very good indicator of how you view America as a whole. Washington, like Jefferson and Franklin, is a towering figure (literally in Washington’s case, he was well over six feet tall) of American history, and his very likeness is as symbolic for America as the flag. It seems that every group wants to claim Washington as one of their own – whether they are on the left, the right or somewhere in between. The real question is: which Washington is the real Washington?
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