Coming from a blog like First Things, it could be: Legal recognition of marriage would become a purely civil matter. A couple who wanted to marry would have to get a license and go to a civil magistrate. If they then wanted their union sacramentalized, they would go to the Church. If the Church refused …
Driving the Church Underground in the U.S.: The Decline in Personal Evangelism
It's taking place amongst American teenagers, even Evangelical ones, according to a recent Barna survey: The most striking change was the fact that teenagers today seem much less inclined to have spiritual conversations about their faith in Christ with non-believers. The survey question specifically asked if the survey respondent had “explained your religious beliefs to someone …
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My Thoughts on the 2010 Church of God General Assembly Agenda
Now that I've published this, it's time to move on and consider what's in front of our church at its 2010 General Assembly in Orlando next month. The agenda is online and can be found here. This review is not intended to be comprehensive. It is informed by more than a quarter of a century …
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An Aggie Explains John 10:11-16
Where we read the following: I am the Good Shepherd; and I know my sheep, and my sheep know me-- Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father--and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep besides, which do not belong to this fold; I must lead them …
Crossing the Rainbow Bridge: A Pentecostal Saga
Back when I was growing up, we'd descend from Palm Beach and venture to the Florida Keys for vacation, navigating waters such as shown at the right. One of the more memorable side trips we took was a visit to a museum where artefacts from sunken Spanish galleons were on display. The Spanish were most …
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Ted Haggard Gets Back in the Saddle
Pastoring, that is, his new church in Colorado Springs: Christianity is all about second acts, and disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard is the latest conservative Christian to exploit that role to the hilt. Haggard announced Wednesday that he is starting a new church in the same town -- Colorado Springs -- that he left in …
Book Review: The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, Vol. 2: The Patristic Age
I've always been a strong advocate of patristic studies. That's not an easy advocacy in Evangelical Christianity, but it's one that needs to be made. It's not always easy in Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy either, because the Fathers of the Church--or more precisely those who wrote and, as we learn here, preached, during the Roman …
Month of Sundays: Devotions for Men, and an Announcement
From time to time I'll promote a book of mine. For many of you, some of these books are, as my Russian math professor used to say, "just too much." But this one is on the light side: A Month of Sundays. A 31-day devotional book for men, it seeks to break out of the …
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Trustworthy People Are Scarce: A Christian View
Helen Fealy at the Shiny Sheet observes the following: Who knew I had so much in common with the iconic Dr. Freud, the Father of Mental Heath and the pioneer of sexuality and gender behaviors. I share his opinion on humankind and ethics. To prove his point, we have Tiger Woods, John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, …
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Augustine on the Temptations of Jesus and the Three Major Lusts
Linking the three temptations of Jesus in the wilderness with the three major lusts outlined in 1 John 2 has a long history in Christian preaching. Here is an example from Augustine's second homily on 1 John, with some bullet points for clarity: These three (temptations) there are, and you can find nothing whereby human …
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Positive Infinity 