One of the favorite Bible verses of many people is John 3:16, where it says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”Through the years I’ve had many friends and acquaintances who take this verse, and a few others like it, and propose a doctrine of salvation that says, “All you’ve got to do is believe.”  If you me...  Read More

I remember well our time in Petra back in 2018.  While visiting the library in Jordan, we were delighted that John and Eileen Richardson wanted to take this 2-day side trip.  It required us to get up before daylight, take a cab to the bus station, get in a crowded bus with a wide variety of people and ride over a very rough highway on the 6-hour journey to Wadi Musa, the town above the Petra compl...  Read More

I’m a child of the 60’s.  I don’t say that with pride.  Oh, there are good things about it, but many not so good things.  It was a rebellious time for teenagers and college-age kids.  Partly because of the Vietnam War that escalated during this decade.  But also because the “greatest generation” of our parents (the World War II crowd), after growing up with little and then sacrificing during the w...  Read More

You’ve been in such conversations. Talking to someone about an individual who has done questionable things, who has never followed through with expected actions for a Christian believer (repentance, baptism, church participation, Bible study, revised personal habits, etc.), and now they have died. Trying to make the best of a bad situation we say, “They didn’t live a very good life, but God knows ...  Read More

Maybe you’ve heard such a declaration. Maybe you’ve made such a declaration. You’ve had experiences that make you push back from “organized religion” or from the church, but you still want Jesus to be friendly to you. So, you make the statement: “I want a relationship with Jesus, but I’m not interested in the church.” For many, even if they haven’t formally made this statement, they live in a way ...  Read More

This is a complicated subject.  It takes some thought to wrap your head around it.  Worth the effort, I think, because I believe we often take a too casual approach that becomes unrealistic.  The simple question is asked: Is God in control?  Our quick response is almost always: Yes!  And I believe that response is true, in the big picture, but maybe not always true in the minute detail of our worl...  Read More

In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem entitled “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” he tells the story of a man on a ship that is driven south by a storm and eventually reaches the icy waters of the Antarctic.  An albatross appears and leads the ship out of the poor situation.  The albatross is fed and praised by the ship’s crew, but the mariner shoots the bird.  Eventually they get into mist and snow, t...  Read More

“Whole tracts of our religion are bare of spiritual passion, or spiritual depth.  Modern Christianity speaks the language of our humane civilization; it does not speak the language of Christ.  The age, and much of the church, believes in civilization and is interested in the Gospel, instead of believing in the Gospel and being interested in civilization” (P.T. Forsyth)Again, borrowing from Charles...  Read More

3rd in 4-part seriesPicture this.  Politicians who cry out against government spending, but who previously passed a statute allowing them to get a raise automatically.  A day after the raise takes place, they take a symbolic vote against the same thing.  They are then able to go to their constituents and tell them they voted against the raise they had already automatically received!  It happened i...  Read More

2nd in 4-part series“The supreme end (goal) of education is discernment in all things – the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and genuine to the bad and counterfeit” Samuel Johnson.In my previous article I asked, “Have the Dark Ages arrived?”  You can question whether what was called historically by this term was truly a “dark age” since ...  Read More

1st of a 4 part series…“Like men with sore eyes, they find the light painful, while the darkness, which permits them to see nothing, is restful and agreeable” Dio Chrysostom, lived 40-120A.D.The time between the fall of the western Roman Empire and the age called the Renaissance (approximately 500 to 1500AD) was known as the Dark Ages. Scholar Petrarch coined the term, and it has been used derisiv...  Read More

So, you’ve become a Christian.  What does that mean?  Does it just mean you believe something that you didn’t believe before, namely that Jesus is the promised Messiah, and you need to accept him as Savior? Is that all you need to do?  Is that all it means to be a Christian?  Well, certainly, such belief is part of the process.  But look at the word itself: Christian.  What does the word mean?  It...  Read More