A night club, a recording studio, an apartment complex, a tae-kwon-do facility. No, these are not answers to the questions from the winner’s circle of the $25,000 Pyramid gameshow. This is the reality for many church buildings in America. Places that once boasted the gathering of worshipers for Jesus Christ, are now lamented as monuments to “empires” of the past. Some were edifices built not for the King, but for a king! Buildings that were meant to be for worship, instruction, and edification of believers and a place where the next generation could grow and learn, are now fashionably re-purposed like an antique bathtub or wood from an old barn.

Dave Deets is VP of Ministries at Institute of Biblical Leadership. He holds a M.Min. degree from International Baptist College, M.A. from Maranatha Baptist Seminary, and a D.Min. from Northland International University. Dave has also published the book, Selecting Elders: A Biblical Guide to Choosing God’s Shepherds.

Reposted, with permission, from Voice magazine.

“Why does God restore Job? I won’t bury the answer: God is God and he does what he wants. He wants to restore Job. This is what the entire book drives at.” - TGC

“…schadenfreude is a sin of the spirit, and freudenfreude is a fruit of the Spirit. Schadenfreude is rooted in envy, one of the darkest of the seven deadly sins.” - James Emery White

“The lawsuit says Falwell was due $7.6M back in 2020 in his retirement account.” - WSET

“While I do not want to judge you or argue with you, would you consider reading the rest of this article? Would you look at the following seven considerations before you make the decision final?” - Thom Rainer

Christ or Chords? The Manipulated Emotionalism of Hillsong, Asbury, and Pentecostalized Evangelical Worship

In this article, Scott Aniol argues that many misuse music in worship:

Music has taken on an unbiblical role in contemporary evangelical worship today in which music is used to create what modern Christians assume to be “feelings of spirituality,” “the felt presence of God,” and “revival.”

“Sander van der Linden… spoke with Mind Matters editor Daisy Yuhas to discuss this work and his new book, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity” - Scientific American

“Even if this pseudo-scientific meme were true, it is rarely stated or received as a mere fact. Instead, it is used to imply things about human beings: that we are the sum of our DNA” - Breakpoint

“…the June 13-14 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant denomination, will be a landmark on this. The gathering will decide whether to expel any congregation with a women pastor, thus affirming the SBC Executive Committee’s February expulsion of five such congregations.” - Get Religion

“Once a Cessationist, Baptist preacher, Locke now fully embraces the gifts and move of the Holy Spirit.” - C.Post

“[Matthew] Arnold’s ghost haunts a recent three-way dialogue between well-known public intellectuals Douglas Murray, Tom Holland, and Steve Meyer, hosted by Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution.” - World

Read Part 1.

If we take a look at 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 we can try and track what the apostle is teaching:

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. (1 Thess. 4:13)

Paul’s concern is that the embattled believers at Thessalonica are not unaware of a certain doctrine concerning those saints who have passed since it will give them hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. (1 Thess. 4:14)

The book “is the product of LaPine’s Ph.D. research… at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, IL). His academic interests in theology, human emotion, the functions of the mind, and neuroscience were motivated by personal reasons and the desire to help those closest to him” - London Lyceum

“Without controls, people with premarital partners are 161% more likely to dissolve their marriages compared to people who tie the knot as virgins… After including the laundry list of covariates shown in the table, the odds of divorce remain 151% higher” - IFS

“The study concludes that ‘most in the general population, and Christians in particular, see doubt as a phase to move through, and arriving at certainty is the preferable end goal.’” - CPost

“According to Dyer’s survey, 45 percent of evangelicals use their phones to read Scripture ‘devotionally.’ That number drops to 22 percent when the activity is ‘long reading,’ 17.3 percent for ‘memorization,’ and only 6 percent for ‘study’ ” - TGC

“the Big Bang never tells us where it all comes from. If you want to know how the Universe was actually created, you need something else, something more.” - Big Think

Roughly 200 Christian leaders gathered at West Houston Bible Church on Monday through Wednesday of this week for the annual Chafer Theological Seminary Pastors’ Conference.

The theme this year was “Critical Issues for Understanding the Old Testament Text.” The keynote speakers were Dr. Randall Price (president, World of the Bible Ministries), Dr. Douglas Petrovich (professor, Brookes Bible College) and Henry Smith (Associates for Biblical Research).

“Faithful America, a nondenominational Christian advocacy group, recently launched two petitions in response to the actions of congresswomen Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene.” - C.Leaders

“Pre-judging like this causes a lot of damage in relationships, churches, and ministries. Instead of approaching disagreements as matters worthy of sincere effort to understand and apply the Scriptures, motives and actions are judged harshly.” - Dave Doran

“Jenna Ellis…has admitted in a Colorado disciplinary proceeding that she misrepresented evidence at least 10 times during Trump’s frantic bid to subvert his defeat.” - Politico

“At that time, between approximately 1930 and 1957, the terms ‘evangelical’ and ‘fundamentalist’ were virtually synonymous, descriptors of conservative Christians.” - Patheos

“In addition to paying legal fees, the New York State Office of Children and Family Services will also allow New Hope Family Services to continue its religiously-influenced policies.” - CPost

Read the series.

So one evidence that the Bible is an extraordinary book is its literary coherence absent a human editor. Back in Part 1 I said there were at least two verifiable evidences—what’s the second?

“this passage still universally applies in at least three ways: 1. Dress in culturally appropriate ways when the church gathers to worship…. 2. Recognize that God has designed men and women to relate to each other in different ways….3. Show that God’s design for husbands and wives is beautiful.” - Andy Naselli

“Forty years ago, President Ronald Reagan shocked many in the West by labeling the Soviet Union an ‘evil empire’ and the ‘focus of evil in the modern world.’” - Providence

“If ordinary humility challenges us to take a reasonable and balanced view of who or what we are, epistemic humility asks us to do the same with respect to what we know. This is important since no good comes from overstating the evidence.” - TGC

“As of March 17, 2021, the rules governing Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) law were loosened even further….one need not be terminally ill to request MAID.” - World

Related: The “Face of Assisted Death in Canada” - Breakpoint