The civil government appears to be impelled by something like infatuation, and is introducing, or giving countenance to, measures that are darkly ominous to both civil and religious liberty, as if hastening onward to a crisis which all may shudder to contemplate.
Louis Berkhof on the origin of religion
Particular attention was devoted during the last fifty years to the problem of the origin of religion. Repeated attempts were made to give a natural explanation of it, but without success. Some spoke of it as an invention of cunning and deceptive priests, who regarded it as an easy source of revenue; but this explanation […]
A response to Hungry Atheist
On July 9 of this year, I wrote a post entitled, A follow-up to some comments. One of the comments I received on that post was from someone calling himself (or herself) Hungry Atheist. I thought that I would selectively quote the comment and provide response to the points that were raised in that comment.
Homeland Security for the Church – The Need to Defend the Faith
The culture surrounding the church is no longer supportive of her mission. As a result, we need to train members to defend their faith. We especially need to equip the youth in the church to understand what they believe and why they should believe it. We, as the church, have the truth of Jesus Christ. If it is the truth, it will be able to stand up in the marketplace of ideas.
Jesus does not agree with this church marquee . . .
A picture of a church marquee stimulated thoughts on the exclusive claims of Jesus.
I don’t have the chutzpah to pick up the first stone
I have heard it said that chutzpah is illustrated by the man who kills his mother and father and then pleads to the judge to let him off because he is an orphan. In other words, chutzpa is that behavior that knows no self limitation. This evening a friend sent me a link to a […]
Fighting The Wrong Enemy
I read this morning in Mark 9:40, that whoever is not against us is for us. These are the very words of Jesus Christ but often forgotten by those that bear his name. We expend energy in fighting other believers and ignoring the real enemy. Too often doctrinal litmus tests are developed to see who […]
An Unholy Alliance: Pharisees and Herodians
An Unholy Alliance We are moving toward a presidential election year in the United States. As a result, the political pundits are ramping up their efforts to develop a market for their predictions. With this backdrop, when I read Mark this morning, Mark 3:6 grabbed my attention. In this verse there is a simple statement […]
They’re still clueless
It turns out that those popular kids in High School really were as clueless as me; they were just better at hiding it. Now the popular kids are elected officials and still clueless. I came upon this thought as I wondered why the decisions made by our government representatives seem to be getting less rational. […]
Nativity Battle
It is the middle of December and the time for email notifications lamenting that a community or business does not allow the display of the Nativity scene or other religious symbols. In the past, I thought that my lack of concern about this was an indication of lack of spiritual fervor. Yet, in spite of […]