“The study, a joint project of Harvard and Baylor universities, Gallup and the Center for Open Science, aims to uncover what influences ‘human flourishing,’ which is defined by measures of happiness, character and virtue and social relationships, among other values.” - The Baptist Paper

“Stop trying to find the mushy middle. If you want to see people looking for it, you do not have to attend a feminist conference these days. You just have to attend ETS. But there is, in the final analysis, no mushy middle.” - CBMW

“We tend to think of spiritual warfare as something extraordinary to the Christian life, but it is part and parcel of living under the lordship of Jesus…. We daily contend with a spiritual foe who appeals to our wayward desires through the philosophy and values of this fallen world in which we labor (James 1:14).” - Ligonier

Viewer question: “a question that I continue to have even after completely leaving the KJV Only movement…. I have heard KJVO proponents argue that translators must intentionally reword portions of their translations to make them original and therefore able to be copyrighted.” - Mark Ward

(Transcript available at the bottom of the introductory info.)

“Though Dawkins has spoken of his “cultural Christianity” before, this feels like another staging-post on a journey towards the good Professor finally admitting that the New Atheism, of which he was such a shining light, was wrong in crucial respects.” - The Telegraph

Related:

“Conventional wisdom suggests expressing anger can help us quell it, like releasing steam from a pressure cooker. But this common metaphor is misleading, according to a new meta-analytic review.” - Science Alert

Daniel Hummel has written a book that has got a attention recently. The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle over the End Times Shaped a Nation has made a splash because it is an irenic study of the movement. Hummel has written an essay at the Gospel Coalition called “4 Snapshots of Dispensationalism Today.” He makes four points in his essay:

“These changes are consistent with… overall favorable ratings. Biden’s most recent favorable rating, 41%, is down eight points from the end of the 2020 campaign, while Trump’s 42% is statistically similar to the 45% 2020 reading.” - Gallup

“According to Lifeway Research’s analysis of the 2022 Annual Church Profile of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1,253 congregations that were part of the Convention in 2021 were no longer connected in 2022.” - Lifeway

“The 2024 ACCC Spring Rally and Executive Committee Meeting will be April 8-9 at Hope Evangelical Methodist Church (131 Church Street, Latrobe, PA), Pastor Bill Lueke.” - ACCC

“While most people recognize the damage caused by shouting matches and harsh words, fewer may realize the equally destructive effects of the ‘silent treatment.’” - TGC

“It is said that an argument is what convinces reasonable men and a proof is what it takes to convince even an unreasonable man. With the proof now in place, cosmologists can no longer hide behind the possibility of a past-eternal universe…. There is no escape, they have to face the problem of a cosmic beginning” - Imaginative Conservative

“He was often wrong but with earnestness, not malevolence. He tirelessly worked to make the world better… His policies as president are mostly not models of sound statecraft. But how he lived as man across a century is a model for all.” - Providence

Read the series.

When the true church, the spiritual body of Christ, finally experiences “the marriage supper of the Lamb” just before His second coming to the earth, she will be a spectacular bride, clothed “in fine linen, clean and white” (Rev. 19:8, KJV). Part of that bride was the church at Corinth, beset with carnality and various heresies. Paul wrote to them: “I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ ” (2 Cor. 11:2).

“Bahnsen argues that we’re not overworked—we’re underworked. We don’t need more advice on achieving work-life balance; we need to push for hard work and standards of excellence.” - Acton

“A group of Calvin alumni have reportedly asked the board of trustees for a third-party investigation into the board’s handling of the allegations against Boer.” - RNS

“While most evangelicals, 63 percent, described themselves as politically conservative in the study… 24 percent described themselves as ‘in the middle’ or moderate, while 12 percent said they are liberal.” - Baptist Press

“Qualified as a misdemeanor since 1907, the law was designed to discourage individuals from cheating on their spouse as a means to secure a divorce. At the time, infidelity was the only way to legally split.” - Daily Citizen

“First, let me remind readers that there is no way that the Apostle Paul (who wrote these words) is accidently contradicting himself. If Paul is anything as an author, he is intentional. So if this isn’t a contradiction, what’s going on?” - Kenneth Berding

There’s been a lot of talk lately about persecution of Christians in America. I suppose it’s true that there’s more than there used to be—there’s been some name-calling and a lawsuit about wedding cakes, though the defendant won that one.

“and many church members work more diligently at inviting others during this season than any other. What we usually don’t do, though, is strategize to follow up practically and personally after Easter services.” - Chuck Lawless

“Classical liberals have assumed that the natural family and the values surrounding it would prevail ‘in a condition of liberty.’ Yet the radical changes in marriage and the family ‘have all been done in the name of liberty.’ Social conservatism however ‘requires language that goes well beyond that of individual liberty.’” - Juicy Ecumenism

Special restrictions added to National Guard Easter egg decorating contest: Religious-themed designs banned from White House Easter egg art contest (msn.com)

March 31st (Easter Sunday 2024) proclaimed Transgender Day of Visibility in official White House release: A Proclamation on Transgender Day of Visibility, 2024 | The White House

“Even as dispensationalism has undoubtedly declined in recent decades, Hummel rightly demonstrates how the system provided ‘at least four generations of white conservative Protestants… with a theological framework to read the Bible and understand the world’ ” - London Lyceum

“According to an average of all 2023 Gallup polling, about three in four Americans said they identify with a specific religious faith…. 68%, identify with a Christian religion, including 33% who are Protestant….Twenty-two percent of Americans said they have no religious preference” - Gallup

“We’ve come a long way since Mark Noll lamented the scandal of the evangelical mind in 1994. Or have we? Perhaps we have to go back to the 19th century before we can make progress in the 21st.” - Acton

The battle cry of the Protestant Reformation is often summarized in five sola statements: sola Scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus, and soli Deo gloria.¹ Although you often can find these five sola statements written in a different order, the order is significant, and the first and last are always given pride of place. This is not by accident. Sola Scriptura, Scripture alone, was the basis of all the other doctrines that follow. Soli Deo gloria (glory to God alone) is the result of all that precedes.

Ye humble souls, that seek the Lord,
Chase all your fears away;
And bow with rapture down to see
The place where Jesus lay.

Thus low the Lord of life was brought;
Such wonders love can do:
Thus cold in death that bosom lay,
Which throbbed and bled for you.

“Anyone can claim anything, especially in the invisible and subjective and unverifiable spiritual realm….The Bible repeatedly anchors its credibility in verifiable historical events–purposeful references to specific places, people, reigns, and incidents still verifiable by historical records even outside the Bible.” - BJU Seminary Blog

“… this suffering was ultimately overshadowed by His joy in our salvation: ‘For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame’ (Hebrews 12:2).” - Randy Alcorn