Rearranging the Deck Chairs: Negotiating or Managing the Demise of Evangelicalism
“Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” which describes futile activity in the face of impending catastrophe, first appeared in print in 1969 in Time Magazine and with reference to reforms in Roman Catholicism. Its origination is appropriate for the parallel with the present sinking of evangelicalism. An equivalent metaphor might be a spy keeping […]
All That Is Written: God’s Transference of Leadership to Joshua and What That Leadership Was
After Moses died and God transferred leadership of His people to Joshua, He commanded Him (Joshua 1:7-9): 7 Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that […]
The Trip to Europe Continued (Twentieth Post In Total)
One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen Fifteen Sixteen Seventeen Eighteen Nineteen On June 14, 2018, my wife, two youngest daughters, and I rose in our eighth floor apartment in Rome on Via Gallia about a twenty minutes walk south of the Colosseum. We stayed at this place […]
Bart D. Ehrman’s Did Jesus Exist? Useful Quotes for Christians, part 3 of 4
This post is the third in a series of useful quotations for Christians from Dr. Bart Ehrman’s Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2012). If you interact with skeptics who deny that Jesus Christ existed, or who believe in mythicism (the idea that Christ is copied from […]
Christianity Is Based On Science and History
Everything about the Bible is scientific and historical. What I grew up very often hearing is that the Bible is not a book about science, but where it speaks it is scientific. That little homily stuck with me, but it undercuts the truth about the nature of the Bible and Christianity. There is a lot […]
Understanding 1 John and Also Its Misuse, Misinterpretation, and Perversion
The first book of the Bible that I ever studied on my own in depth in an exegetical manner was John’s first epistle, 1 John. I was a senior in high school, seventeen and then eighteen years of age. I had also translated all of 1 John in the Greek in my second year Greek […]
Kent Brandenburg and Frank Turk Debate on the Preservation of Scripture — Part One
by Kent Brandenburg On day one God spoke and there was light. When God spoke, whatever He said would come to pass. After creating Adam, God made a covenant with him (Gen. 2:16-17): Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou […]
Kent Brandenburg and Frank Turk Debate on the Preservation of Scripture
In April of 2008, I wrote this: I thought you might want to know about the debate occurring at the debate blog of one of the Pyromaniacs, Frank Turk. He challenged me to a debate on the issue of the preservation of God’s Word. I’m arguing for the perfect preservation of the NT in the […]
Preparation for the Lord’s Supper, part 1 of 6, from Wilhelmus a Brakel’s The Christian’s Reasonable Service
Wilhelmus a Brakel was a Dutch 2nd Reformation preacher–that is, essentially, a Dutch Puritan. He wrote a great 4 volume systematic theology called The Christian’s Reasonable Service, which has been made available in an indexed form online. Unlike the large majority of systematic theologies, The Christian’s Reasonable Service makes extensive application of Biblical doctrines, instead […]
God and Boxes: Does God Still Speak Audibly to Men?
On January 2, 2019, the Gospel Coalition posted a video of J. D. Greear, the present president of the Southern Baptist Convention, on which he answers the question, whether God still speaks audibly to men. It is a good, basic question a pastor or any other Christian needs to and should be able to answer. […]