In this issue of Modern Reformation we turn to missions and evangelism. Let us never falter in recalling how important it is both to get the gospel right and to get the gospel out. Jesus himself indicated that the Word would go forth immediately upon arrival of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. He commissioned the […]
Some of us remember the Tears for Fears song, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." Yet the mantra today is more about changing the world than ruling it. Lots of younger Christians are tired of spiritual consumerism and evangelism pitches about inviting Jesus into your heart so you can go to heaven when you die. […]
When confronting the Great Commission, the most vital question is the “what.” What is the message that needs to be proclaimed to all nations? What do disciples look like? And what is the point? (1) This article, however, is not going to address those questions. This article concerns itself instead with the “how” of the […]
This year marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible, otherwise known as the "Authorized Version." Whether it was truly "authorized" or not, there is little doubt about its impact upon the English language, literature, and theology. Recently published books such as Begat: The King James Bible and the English Language […]
Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who […]
When it comes to sharing your faith, where do you start? Some people suggest beginning with the “how-to” of one-on-one evangelism and finding a basic model to follow in any situation. As it’s reported that public speaking anxiety ranks high in North America and can be a barrier to personal evangelism, others say you first […]
David Platt's book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream has taken the American evangelical scene by storm. According to Mission Frontiers, 370,000 copies have sold since May 2010, and it is in its eighteenth printing. His aim is to call the church back from its idolatrous pursuit of the "American dream" and […]
Christopher J. H. Wright (Ph.D., Cambridge University) was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He taught Old Testament at Union Biblical Seminary in India and later served as principal of All Nations Christian College, a missionary training school in England. He is now the international director of the Langham Partnership International, known in the United States […]
One of history's most famous missionary kids, writer Pearl Buck, journeyed from China's remotest provinces to literary fame in New York, and then to an extraordinary home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. There she adopted several mixed-race children and championed the needs of the underclass around the world. The blond-haired child (called the "blue-eyed demon" by […]
The past decade has seen exponential interest in the interconnection of ecclesiology and missiology, especially with the increase of church planting in the Western hemisphere where Christianity has otherwise seen its influence wane. Standing as the adjectival nom du jour to describe this phenomenon is the word "missional." Articles, books, and conferences abound in an […]
Louis Markos's Apologetics for the 21st Century might more aptly be entitled The Answer to Almost Every Modern Objection to Christianity Ever Asked, as Given by Almost Every Modern Apologist Who Ever Lived. The book attempts to cover all major modern apologists and just about all ancient and modern arguments marshaled on behalf of the […]
The years between the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Chalcedon (451) were an incredibly fertile time for the development of doctrinal thinking relative to both the Trinity and the incarnation. While it would obviously be wrong to say that such reflection either began or ended at the two poles of this time period, the primary […]
"Freedom" is a word that gets bandied about a lot, mostly by politicians and ideologues. They shroud it in historical nostalgia and glittering, indeterminate progressive garb, tapping into the subjective warmth and tempered patriotism it elicits in their hearers. What exactly we need to be freed from and what we'll do with that freedom once […]
A version of this article appeared in the March 2011 edition of The Lutheran Witness. “Where [Moses] gives the commandments, we are not to follow him except so far as he agrees with the natural law.”~ Martin Luther (AE 35:173) Martin Luther’s penchant for provocative exclamations is well known. It may nevertheless seem especially shocking […]
The Great Commission recorded in Matthew 28 and in Luke’s accounts of Jesus’ post-resurrection teaching in his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles foretells the global expansion of the reign of God under the scepter of the exalted Messiah. In Matthew’s narrative Jesus declares, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given […]
