Myth: Christians Must Submit

Myth: Christians Must Submit

In America, we are not under Nazi, English, Roman, or Communist oppression. While no civil official is (yet) demanding that ministers obtain a license to preach the gospel, restrictions are being placed on what ministers and Christians in general can say on moral issues derived from the Bible. Either God or man is ultimately sovereign. When these sovereignties clash and conflict, the Christian, fi [...]

What’s Missing from Today’s Courtrooms?

What’s Missing from Today’s Courtrooms?

Amber Guyger was convicted of murder after shooting Botham Jean, an unarmed black man. Guyger thought she was in her own apartment when she returned home, and that Botham Jean had broken into her apartment. She was sentenced to ten years in prison instead of the maximum 28. The brother of the murder victim embraced her and told her that he had forgiven her. In their brief encounter, he presented t [...]

The Old is Revealed in the New

The Old is Revealed in the New

There are obviously differences between the Old and New Testaments. Augustine said that the New is in the Old concealed, and the Old is in the New revealed. Changes do indeed come through the course of redemptive history, so that there certainly are exceptions to the general continuity that characterizes the relation between Old and New Covenants. God has the right to make alterations for the New [...]

The Magic of "Choice" in Abortion

The Magic of "Choice" in Abortion

When the decayed torso of Laci Peterson washed up on shore, her unborn baby did as well. Here lies a moral dilemma for even pro-abortionists to deal with. Laci was at least eight months pregnant. The baby was certainly viable. Immediately NOW (National Organization for Women) protested when a double murder charge was leveled against Scott Peterson, Laci’s husband. In NOW logic, it’s no [...]

Autonomous Man or Sovereign God?

Autonomous Man or Sovereign God?

Throughout the history of the Christian church, believers have asked what their attitude should be toward the commandments of God revealed in the Old Testament. A large variety of positions have been taken regarding God’s law—stretching all the way from saying that there have been no changes in how the law should be observed (so that, for instance, animal sacrifices would be continued) to saying t [...]

The Folly of Fighting Abortion with Saul’s Armor

The Folly of Fighting Abortion with Saul’s Armor

Roe v. Wade is before the Supreme Court again. Listening to some of the questions by the justices and the answers of the lawyers defending a Mississippi abortion law are telling. Justice Sonia Sotomayor—who has no children—clashed with Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart during oral arguments Wednesday over when a fetus can feel pain. The law kicks in when the pain kicks in? Dogs and cats [...]

Thanksgiving, Racism, Genocide, and Socialism

Thanksgiving, Racism, Genocide, and Socialism

The usual dissenters come out of the woodwork every October to disparage Columbus and November to attack Thanksgiving. Here’s one from last year: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is being called “a racist piece of trash” and a “white supremacist” after defending the legacy of the Mayflower Compact and criticizing an article in the New York Times that called the story of the Pilgrims a “myth” and re-examin [...]

The Local Mission Field for Every Church

The Local Mission Field for Every Church

Every Sunday, millions of people attend church services in this country. They usually hear a nice message about Jesus and what He did during his three-year earthly ministry. What is mostly missing is the “go and do likewise” application for each listener of these weekly sermons. What actual difference does what Jesus said and did make to 21st century Christians? A constant need is cris [...]

Would Jesus be Woke Today?

Would Jesus be Woke Today?

Matthew Dowd who was the chief strategist for the re-election campaign of former President George W. Bush who’s now running as a Democrat in the Texas lieutenant governor’s race implied in a tweet that conservatives and Republicans would criticize Jesus as being “woke” if He were alive today. Given the definition of being woke, Jesus would denounce it since it’s being used to promote racial [...]

Sez who?

Sez who?

In a paper titled “Unspeakable Ethics, Unnatural Law,” law professor Arthur Leff laments the impossibility of disconnecting law and religion. In his refreshingly honest assessment of the dilemma, he wrote: My plan for this Article, then, is as follows. I shall first try to prove to your satisfaction that there cannot be any normative system ultimately based on anything except human wil [...]

Abortion, Jewish Philosophy, and Bible Translations

Abortion, Jewish Philosophy, and Bible Translations

The claim that an English translation of the Bible was changed to accommodate the Christian Right to support its anti-abortion stance is biblically and historically bogus. I made note of these points in the previous article on this subject. But there is even more exegetical and historical evidence that the best translation of the text should read in English “so that her children come out” long bef [...]

On Becoming "Greatly Annoyed"

On Becoming "Greatly Annoyed"

As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command yo [...]

Cracks in Cancel Culture's Foundation

Cracks in Cancel Culture's Foundation

Pushback is beginning against the “cancel culture” and Southwest Airlines, Netflix, and the NFL are right in the middle of it. In the upside-down world of today’s politics and culture, there are celebrities and groups getting silenced and/or shouted down for “unapproved” facts and beliefs. These attempts to shut down freedom of speech are not going unnoticed. The Impo [...]

Comic Books and Sexual Identity

Comic Books and Sexual Identity

Secularists of all types, best exemplified by the new Marxists, entered “into every civil, cultural and political activity in every nation, patiently leavening them all as thoroughly as yeast leavens bread.”[1] To change the culture, Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) argued, “would require a ‘long march through the institutions’—the arts, cinema, theater, schools, colleges, seminaries, n [...]

The "Gospel" of Inactivity

The "Gospel" of Inactivity

Every area of life is affected by the Gospel. There is not one topic of discussion, or any activity, that is outside the realm of the Kingdom of God. The Gospel announces that King Jesus is victorious and is moving and growing His Kingdom throughout history. In Him, we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). A defeatist eschatology and a generally pessimistic worldview has created a weak an [...]

Preaching and Living the Whole Gospel

Preaching and Living the Whole Gospel

The Gospel is not just “getting people saved.” Salvation is the start of a lifetime-long journey of sanctification and growth. For too long, the Church has been abandoning its role as the “change agent” within culture and society. Cursing the darkness is much easier, because shining a light requires more effort and more time. But the fact that it’s difficult doesn&rsq [...]

Be Fruitful and Optimistic

Be Fruitful and Optimistic

Guest article by Mark Dewey The Lord has blessed my wife and me with the privilege and challenge of raising fourteen children. Our family has been afforded the opportunity to interact with men, women, and children from multiple states and other countries. When people first see “all those children,” they often ask if we are Amish, Mormon, or Roman Catholic. In one sense this is understandable; in a [...]

The Way We Should Go

The Way We Should Go

“A student is not above the teacher; but everyone, when he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). God’s plan for His people is growth. The entire experience of life is characterized (or should be) by continued maturity—from infancy to adulthood. Parents teach their children “the way they should go” (Proverbs 22:6), while also gaining a deeper u [...]

Will the Real Christopher Columbus Please Stand Up?

Will the Real Christopher Columbus Please Stand Up?

It’s October 12th, traditionally known as Columbus Day (celebrated on the second Monday in October) but now designated in some parts of the country as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Which “indigenous people” do these historical revisionists “have in mind? Is it the Kalinago people, who ate roasted human flesh, with a particular affinity for the remains of babies and fetuses? Is it the Aztecs, who killed [...]

An Important Church-State Battle in Seattle

An Important Church-State Battle in Seattle

We have all seen the horrible violence in Seattle since 2019. But now there’s a new battle, virtually under the radar. In 1932, the Union Gospel Mission began serving the poor and downtrodden in Seattle. But now this ministry which has been serving millions of meals through the years and providing many other services may have to shut its doors because of a decision by the Washington Supreme Court. [...]