“I’ve written before about an experience I had while in seminary, when I doubted the Biggest Thing Ever—whether there’s a God, and whether any of this is true. Doubt is an important part of growing up.” - Olinger

“…recently I have been re-reading Lewis’s Mere Christianity with a class I am teaching, and I have been struck afresh by how, well, complementarian it is.” - CBMW

On Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017, I was getting ready for an elders’ meeting to be held that evening at Grace Bible Church in Portage, Wis., where I was serving as interim pastor.

During the afternoon, I received word that Maranatha had made the decision to terminate its football program.

Having heard the news, I did two things. First, I sat down and cried. Second, I called my mom.

“U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez of the Western District of Texas awarded the damages Monday (Feb. 7) to survivors and heirs of survivors of the Nov. 5, 2017, church shooting, months after determining that the U.S. government was 60 percent liable for the massacre.” - BPNews

“Christian nationalism was used to “bolster, justify and intensify the January 6 attack on the Capitol,” said Amanda Tyler, head of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, which sponsored the report along with the Freedom From Religion Foundation.” - RNS

“we found weak (mostly nonsignificant) evidence that capstone marriages are more stable than cornerstone marriages. In other words, waiting to marry was linked to slightly more marital stability. However, there is new research that complicates that story.” - C.Today

Students “were told by their teacher to go to an evangelical Christian revival assembly. When students arrived at the event in the school’s auditorium, they were instructed to close their eyes and raise their arms in prayer… were asked to give their lives over to Jesus to find purpose and salvation.” - NPR

“Terms of derision are often used to dismiss others or the beliefs they espouse. Their use is, at its root, intellectual laziness. Rather than building a reasoned case for disagreement (or seeking a clearer understanding of the opposing idea), an epithet is launched to ‘settle’ the disagreement.” - GARBC

Are there degrees of sin? The simple answer to that question is “yes.” Jesus himself acknowledged degrees of sin when He said to Pilate, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin” (John 19:11). In light of Christ’s words, we must acknowledge degrees of sin. However, we must also beware of drawing unbiblical conclusions from this truth.

“In its most recent update, the Sex Abuse Task Force reported that Guidepost Solutions has interviewed approximately 32 current and former SBC Executive Committee staff, 54 current or former EC trustees and abuse survivors “who have affirmatively reached out to the Guidepost investigative team.” - C.Index

“How urban apologetics contends against the distortions promoted by ‘Black Conscious’ movements.” - C.Today

“While denying accusations of sexual abuse coverup, Benedict XVI issued a ‘heartfelt request for forgiveness’ to victims.” - RNS

“We are not immune to the digital era. If we fight it, we will lose. At the same time, if we act like a leaf tossed into a stream and simply abandon biblical convictions, we will drift from our central purpose.” - Benjamin Windle

“in the immediate wake of Jan. 6, about half of U.S. adults (52%) said Donald Trump bore a lot of responsibility for the violence and destruction committed by some of his supporters that day. Today, 43% say this.” - Pew

8 Terrible Reasons to Leave a Church

“Calvin’s rationale for reading ‘profane authors’ was that the Holy Spirit also gifts unbelievers with skills in writing and truth-telling. ‘In despising the gifts,’ Calvin wrote, ‘we insult the Giver.’” - TGC

“Amazon’s seven-days-a-week schedule has already led to two lawsuits from drivers who were fired for not working on Sundays. Both claimed religious discrimination under Title VII” - C.Today

“people often confuse what the doctrine is with other associations that have little or nothing to do with the teaching. In short, folks confuse the essence with the accidents… . You may bite into an apple that happens to have a worm in it, but you would be painfully mistaken if you were to conclude that worms are part of the essence of an apple.” - CBMW

“…a long series of wars began between Catholics and Protestants. These became known as ‘wars of religion,’ and religion became a way of talking about differences between Christians. At the same time, Europeans were encountering other cultures…. Some of the traditions they encountered shared certain similarities to Christianity and were also deemed religions.” - The Conversation

“Colbert, who is a Roman Catholic, explained the connection between his faith and his comedy. Some, including theologian and author Timothy Keller, praised Colbert’s remarks as winsome, while others accused the clip of being devoid of the gospel.” - C.Leaders

Read the series.

Matthew 25

The Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25

The two parables that begin chapter 25 both have lead-ins which state, “The kingdom of heaven is like” (Matt. 25:1, 14). The second of these, the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14-30)¹, is about stewardship in honoring the King. Glasscock hits the nail on the head:

CRT has been all the rage. Christians have responded in various ways, and even state legislatures are getting involved. Some who have suggested police forces should be disbanded are moderating their views. How should we view this when it comes to church-related responses?

Poll Results

What is your view on the current/predicted status of Critical Race Theory and the church?

“At the same time that the evidence of far-left intolerance is overwhelming, a few of us have been on a very lonely corner of conservatism, jumping up and down and yelling about the new right, ‘Censorship is coming! Censorship is coming!’ And we were correct.” - David French

“Not only is religion growing overall, but Christian specifically is growing. With a 1.17 percent growth rate, almost 2.56 billion people will identify as a Christian by the middle of 2022. By 2050, that number will top 3.33 billion.” - C.Index

“When asked what factors schools should consider … most parents of K-12 students say a lot of consideration should be given to the possibility that students will fall behind academically (67%) or that their emotional well-being will be negatively impacted (61%) if they don’t attend school in person” - Pew

“After being sued for religious discrimination, the health care provider who rescinded her job offer agreed to provide back pay and damages.” - C.Today

“What’s more is that Jesus probably didn’t wear bright colors or a brilliantly white robe. Bright colors were expensive to make, and bleached white clothing was a mark of politicians. Common people usually wore earth tones, reflective of the natural color of the sheep’s wool used to create the garments.” - Kainos Project

In the 1833 New Hampshire Confession of Faith, in the article discussing “the true God,” the text says: “in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; equal in every divine perfection, and executing distinct and harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.”

I’ll focus on that last phrase in this article. How do you tell Father, Son, and Spirit from one another? There are two ways to answer this question. I’ll begin with the older, more established option and close with the second, which I believe is more helpful.

Hello everyone, Roddy Bullock here. I’m new to this forum, so forgive me if I’m not posting correctly.

My passion for the Gospel is channeled to the evolution/creation debate. I have studied and rejected evolution as an explanation for new life forms (including humans) and embrace the Genesis account of creation. Specifically, my study has shown that the material evidence on earth provides ample evidence with which to reject natural selection as explaining human beings and to reasonably believe human beings are created by God in His image. And, importantly, my position is that the truth of this topic is not an academic question; it goes to the heart of the Gospel.

“While online worship allows us to truly worship the living God, it ruptures our common sense [input from the five senses] in a way that doesn’t happen with in-person worship …. This is not to deny the real value of online worship… however, it does offer us a way to understand how it differs from in-person worship.” - TGC