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Since the end of the nineteenth century in American churches, the pendulum has swung back and forth between saving souls (View A) and transforming culture (View B). As different as these approaches appear to be, both succumb to precisely the same error: the confusion of law and gospel. View A is worried about confusing evangelism […]
One of the hallmarks of a good storyteller is character development. While one-dimensional, predictable characters can derail a good plot, even a simple story can come alive if inhabited with characters written with depth and complexity. Many of us have forgotten that one of the best ways to approach the Bible is as a story […]
In his book on director Martin Scorsese, the late film critic Roger Ebert described the ominous context in which he previewed The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). Prior to its release, he was invited to a private screening and watched the film alone. "This was not a perk," he writes. "It was a security measure." […]
So, this is death. My son’s body, yesterday strong and lively, is lying listless and cold in a pool of blood. I have seen animals dying, even back in the Garden, when the Lord replaced our inadequate leaf coverings with animal skins, sacrificing an animal for our protection. But this is different. Death has come […]
My feet rarely stand idle when God is around. He's always telling me to go. It's been that way from the beginning, when he spoke to me in Ur: "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you." I remember hearing those first words as […]
I awoke to the sound of screaming. I sat up with a jerk, my throat knotted as the piercing cry filled the tent again. "A snake!" It was my wife, Adah. Grabbing my spear, I sat up. "Where is it?" "I don't know. Close!" I heard a rasping sound. My wife jumped, yelling and shaking […]
You have asked me to share my wisdom with you; you have come here to sit at my table in the hope that you will be enlightened. So I will share what I know. I have thought for a long time about all that our God has made’all of us wonderful creatures he has wrought, […]
I, King Ahaz, admit it. It didn’t turn out as I expected. But realistically, what alternative did I have? My administration and my nation were under military assault from all sides, and I needed to forge an alliance with a rising power, one with expansionistic aspirations and that would welcome a pretext for invading my […]
"Welcome to Babylon, Daniel," said Ashpenaz, bow?ng low before us. I stared numbly at Nebuchadnezzar's chief eunuch. So much had just happened to me and my friends. When Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, and I were little more than boys, we had looked on in horror as the king's army destroyed Jerusalem. The city was sacked and […]
Promises are powerful. God made a promise, a worldwide, game-changing promise, and every story in the Bible finds its way back to this promise of hope. Yet, when we consider the Old Testament, it can be confusing to dip into one part of it, especially without knowing much about the other parts. The thread that […]
No amount of freedom is worth the compromise of biblical teachings” (52). This maxim can serve as a reminder of Christian priorities at a time when religious freedom remains under threat throughout the world. In Marie Durand, Simonetta Carr reflects on persecuted Protestants in eighteenth-century France. After the revocation of the right to peaceful worship, […]
Bonhoeffer's Seminary Vision arises out of the author's theological reflection over nearly two decades of seminary involvement in both teaching and administration. Paul House writes concerned for the shift in seminary education from face-to-face teaching in a community context to online distance learning. He is convinced that "a biblical theology of pastoral formation makes face-to-face […]
