“Ultimately, Carney concludes, our society does not have enough children because it does not believe that having children is good—because, in turn, it does not believe that people are good. We have lost our connection with the fundamental principle that life, and thus the creation of more life, is of positive moral and emotional value.” - Current

“However bracing or even harsh pieces like Ashenden’s can be, they tell the truth: visible unity is, if anything, even further away than when the various dialogues among and between various Christian communities began officially a century ago.” - Word by Word

Read Part 1.

Even God’s greatest servants may suffer extreme discouragement, as we are learning from a brief survey of the experience of the prophet Elijah. One of my seminary professors invented a name for his response to the threats he faced following his glorious victory on Mount Carmel—the Elijah Syndrome.*

I define the Elijah Syndrome as a combination of physical and spiritual fatigue, resulting in despair.

“80 percent of unchurched adults would strongly prefer ‘calm’ church experiences over ‘exhilarating.’ Likewise, 69 percent of unchurched adults prefer a ‘reflective’ experience over ‘energetic.’” - Barna Research

“our talking heads have managed to take the exact same puerile statements about The Man and turn them into serious commentary by substituting ‘capitalism’ for The Man.” - American Purpose

“Jesus Christ’s resurrection is at the very heart of historic Christianity. It is both a central doctrine and the central supporting evidence for the truth of the faith.” - Reasons

“Garrick… filed a lawsuit claiming sex discrimination and other Title VII civil rights violations. She accused the Christian school of mistreating her on the basis of gender, alleging personal harassment and opposition over her egalitarian views on gender that women can be pastors.” - CPost

“Get comfortable with uncertainty. The future likely involves ambiguity and change across the social, technological, and economic landscapes. We’re already experiencing changes faster than at any time in history” - Phil Cooke

A review of Benjamin P. Laird & Miguel G. Echevarria, 40 Questions About the Apostle Paul,* Grand Rapids, Kregel, 2023, 319 pages, paperback.

“Russell and Jay discussed several of the faith and work concepts found in Russell’s book, Immanuel Labor: God’s Presence In Our Profession. Below is a partial transcript” - IFWE

“It may be that a given action—a particular search and destroy mission—is low on the necessity spectrum. On such occasions, if other values—such as force protection or noncombatant immunity, are sufficiently at risk then prudence might dictate standing down.” - Providence

“these frank acknowledgements from evolutionary scientists are encouraging signs and serve to confirm what ID theorists have long argued: the need for a fundamentally new way of looking at the natural world.” - Discovery Institute

“You don’t have to go to seminary to be a theologian. You have to hear the Word of God and respond to it with faith. If we’re going to love God, worship God and obey God, we need to know who He is, who we are in relation to God and how that relationship works.” - The Baptist Paper

“Distinct yet inseparable explains who God is and how God works in his world. It explains what he has created us to be and how he has called us to live within the church.” - Challies

Read the series.

We have presented two reasons Israel’s national conversion to Messiah cannot occur at His Second Coming in glory. First, people are converted by hearing and believing His Word, not by seeing Him physically, even in His glorified state. Second, Israel must have experienced her spiritual transformation three-and-a-half years before Christ’s return in order to take His Gospel message to all the Gentile nations of the earth (Matt. 24:14).

“ABS’s new CEO Jennifer Holloran, arriving last month to an organization with a variety of financial and missional troubles, said in an email to staff on Wednesday that … ‘now is the time to proceed with this difficult but necessary action.’” - Current

“12% of evangelical Protestants identify as liberal politically, while another 24% say they are right in the middle…. a clear majority of politically liberal evangelicals consider abortion (62%), sex before marriage (70%), homosexual activity or sex (70%), and pornography (80%) to be sin.” - Grey Matter

“as Russia has launched and continues to wage a bloody war against Ukraine, we, the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists, reach out to our brothers and sisters in the United States with a plea for support and prayer” - The Baptist Paper

“In Touch Ministries, which Stanley founded in the 1970s, announced that it will be launching the Charles Stanley Institute on April 18.” - CPost

Read the series.

Number 7: Fellowship. You need those people who disagree with you.

Believe it or not, one year I played football. American football. I was an offensive lineman.

Pop Warner League. Seventh grade. Weight limit was 110 pounds at the top, 75 at the bottom. I was 2 pounds too light, but they let me play anyway.

We called ourselves the Patriots. (We were in a Boston suburb.) We lost every game but one.

That experience didn’t jump-start my career, but it did teach me a lot of things. Most important, it forever changed my thinking about diversity.

What is your opinion about Israel’s response to Hamas and the Palestinians among whom Hamas is entwined? Tough issue. Your comments and perspectives welcome.

“For all I might achieve, heal, and strengthen, perfection, full integration, and wholeness will always be unattainable. The world tells me otherwise — every day, in fact. But if I don’t accept this truth, I will spend a lifetime shoving reality aside.” - Common Good

“These theories were formally codified in the work of Frenchman Renaud Camus, first in his 2010 book L’Abécédaire de l’in-nocence and elaborated in his 2011 book Le Grand Remplacement.” - The Conversation

“March 15, 44 BC…Roman senators assassinated Julius Caesar. Nearly 77 years later… Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. We can have justified belief in both events by following four practices historians use to discover the truth about the past.” - TGC

‘Be Careful’ With Worship Music From Bethel, Hillsong and Elevation, Says Ministry Leader Allen Parr - C.Leaders

“Overall, 49% of U.S. adults say both that religion is losing influence and that this is a bad thing. An additional 8% of U.S. adults think religion’s influence is growing and that this is a good thing.” - Pew

An article at Proclaim & Defend last week raised the question “Do We Still Believe in Backsliding?” For me, the answer is, “Yes, but not in the way you mean.”

In general, we should describe the Christian life using biblical language in a biblical way. When we do that, we avoid a lot of misunderstanding or misemphasis. So, considering the topic of backsliding, we should start with three questions:

“Griffith expanded on his Short Treatise in 1749 in what is perhaps the most definitive and influential statement on the authority of Baptist associations ever written: an essay for the Philadelphia Baptist Association entitled, ‘The Power and Duty of an Association.’” - COA

“our hearts overflow with thanks that we who deserve nothing but judgment, death, and Hell are given deliverance, grace, and eternal life. Day after day, God favors us not only with leniency but also with beauties, delights, and privileges we have no right to expect.” - Randy Alcorn