Read the series.

We visited Eisenach and the Wartburg Castle on the Sunday of our 500th anniversary Reformation trip.

The day was gloriously dark and dreary. Fortunately, we felt only a few raindrops. But it was an absolutely perfect day for a ride through the Thuringian Forest.

“…the high court vacated a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that denied South Bay United Pentecostal Church injunctive relief from the pandemic restrictions on in-person worship instituted by Gov. Gavin Newsom, which have since been rescinded.” - C.Post

“New findings from the American Worldview Inventory 2021 show that nearly four out of 10 adults (38%) are more likely to embrace elements of MTD than other popular worldviews, including Biblical Theism (or a biblical worldview), Secular Humanism, Postmodernism, Nihilism, Marxism (along with its offshoot, Critical Theory) and Eastern Mysticism (also known as ‘New Age’).” - CRC

“Is responsibility for sin individual or is it corporate? It’s both, argues pastor and author Timothy Keller in his article, ‘Justice in the Bible.’ This means, therefore, that we must address racism as an individual and a systemic problem.” - C.Leaders

“While it can’t always be done, I believe you can win over the vast majority of them. If you lack the support of key influencers, here are a few items to consider.” - Sam Rainer

“The Reformers said that the doctrine of justification–that is, how sinners are put right with God through the work of Christ–is ‘the article upon which the church stands or falls.’ Today in many of America’s churches, this teaching can scarcely be heard.” - Veith

Read Part 1.

Reading several articles by the activist group of pastors, I find the re-interpretation of Romans 13 best articulated in a series of posts by Tim Stephens, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Calgary.⁷ He begins by proclaiming the lordship of Christ over the church (all Bible-believing Christians agree with this). He describes the Scriptural pattern for church life as set down by the Lord Jesus Christ:

In Judges 11-12, we find the narrative about Jephthah.

When we think of him, we almost immediately think of his foolish vow and the consequences of it to his daughter.

Judges 11:30-31 in the ESV reads:

30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”

We know the sad story, how his daughter met him with joy, and the joy turned to gloom.

“Among 13- to 17-year-old teenagers, 45 percent believe many religions may be true, far outpacing the 31 percent who believe only one religion is true, Pew said. A much smaller portion, 15 percent, believe there is little to no truth in any religion, and 8 percent believe no religion is true.” - BPNews

“When Reese typed the sermon title into Google, a link to her pastor’s latest sermon series popped up. But so did a three-year-old series from a church in Kentucky. The Kentucky sermon was almost identical to the sermon her pastor had preached.” - RNS

“It’s using one standard for LeBron and another for Trump. It’s accusing the one and excusing the other. It’s saying, ‘Someone with as much influence as LeBron needs to be more responsible,’ while at the same time claiming, ‘Yes, Trump was the most powerful man on the planet, but he was just venting.’” - Michael Brown

“The Mennonite Church, U.S.A. appears now to be in a similar situation to what the mainline denominations once were in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Namely, continuing to maintain a traditional sexual standard of opposite sex monogamy as the only venue for sexual intercourse, while much dissent from this traditional morality exists, especially among clergy.” - IRD

“If Stott’s primary objective had been his ecclesial career in the Church of England, he might well have sought unity that avoided such questions as the verbal inspiration of Scripture or the objective nature of the atonement, or the necessary historicity of the virgin birth and the bodily resurrection, much less the biblical teachings on such culturally contested questions as marriage and sexuality.” - Russell Moore

“The prayer of His people is one of the means He uses to bring things to pass in this world. So if you ask me whether prayer changes things, I answer with an unhesitating ‘Yes!’” - Ligonier

In which we seek to understand why James Coates took his stand against the Alberta government

Startling events in Canada brought the long dormant question of the relationship of church and state to the forefront of Christian minds. On Feb 16, 2021, in Edmonton, Alberta, pastor James Coates turned himself in to the police because of repeated violations of orders from the Public Health Officer of the province. Pastor Coates refused comply with an undertaking to obey a court order until his trial date, so he remained in custody for 35 days. Three weeks after his release from custody, on April 7, the police fenced his church property and posted security guards so no one could access the building.

“This is not to say that truth is relative or that reason doesn’t work or that persuasion isn’t possible. It’s just that, in the real world, believing and not believing are complicated.” - Veith

“Since deaths only increased by 6.4 percent (1,522 total) the net loss primarily appears to be rooted in individual departures from the denomination and a significant reduction in new baptisms.” - IRD

“…when she was 16, said Cargle, ‘I got comfortable with myself, Catholicism and spirituality. … I was no longer afraid to touch a tarot deck.’ Cargle, who now identifies as spiritual but not religious, sees tarot as a tool.” - RNS

“Alabama is also among the states presently considering banning the experimental medicalized gender-transitioning of minors, such as prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and performing cosmetic gender surgeries.” - C.Post

“A Christian family who reportedly integrated into an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem is being outed for conducting missionary work in Israel and thereby breaking the country’s anti-proselytizing law.” - C.Leaders

“When Jesus said in Matthew 4:19, ‘I will make you fishers of men,’ do you picture an individual sitting on the edge of a pier with a rod and reel? Or do you imagine a group of fishermen leaning over the side of a boat, each one holding their part of a large net? More importantly, which kind of fishing came to the disciples’ minds?” - 9 Marks

I spend at least 40 hours a week working for a non-profit devoted to improving policing—mostly in the U.S. I’m also a former pastor of 13 years and a seminary graduate. That mix shapes how I look at the recently re-ignited controversies surrounding U.S. policing and leads me to four observations.

1. We obviously can’t do without police.

The Christian worldview recognizes some realities of human nature and society.

“…our civic life has become consumed by soundbites and Twitter feeds. Even those outlets that are supposed to be providing substance do not. Despite appearances, Fox News and MSNBC have much in common.” - TGC

“In the last post we looked at some of the biblical warnings about anger. This time I’ll note that sometimes, according to the same Scripture, anger is justified.” - Olinger

“Being the only staff focuses conflict on just the pastor. Bivocational pastors have to deal with time and conflict management in ways that large church pastors often do not. Holding two or even three jobs has its own challenges.” - BPNews

“Armenian evangelicals praise first US president to formally use word to describe 1915 massacre by Ottoman Turks.” - C.Today

Related at RNS: “The Armenian genocide is a Jewish issue. More than you think.”

“The first thing to do is: Turn to the Scriptures. Yes, turn to John Owen (never a bad idea!), or to some other counselor dead or alive. But remember that we have not been left only to good human resources in this area. We need to be taught from ‘the mouth of God’ so that the principles we are learning to apply carry with them both the authority of God and the promise of God to make them work.” - Ligonier

“The Biden administration proposes a global minimum tax on corporations to end the ‘global race to the bottom.’ Leaving aside the wisdom of letting France tax U.S.-based corporations, this phrase recalls one of the regnant canards of our time: Capitalism inevitably lowers living standards and grinds people down into poverty.” - Acton

Periodically, throughout the years, I’ve re-visited the “when can Christians legitimately divorce” issue. First time was before seminary, when someone asked me if she had biblical grounds to leave a spouse who beat her. Second time was at seminary, where I was taught the “only for adultery and desertion” approach. Third, fourth and fifth times have been over the past decade-ish, since I’ve been a pastor.

Well, I come before you to declare I’ve figured everything out …

Just kidding.

I believe that wrong views about God as the Creator of all things, the image of God in man, and “common grace” plague multitudes of believers today. We will never have the unity among God’s people that He wants us to have until these false views are rejected.

These wrongs views are one of the leading reasons that “the worship wars” have not been resolved among God’s people. These wrongs views are especially prevalent concerning what instrumental music God will accept for use in worship.