“beauty is an objective reality, grounded in the nature and work of God Himself…. Even those who reject the idea of universal truths and are cynical about our ability to truly know anything cannot help but wrestle with the pull of beauty.” - Breakpoint

“With so many issues to consider, with so many of them being new, and with so much at stake, parents would benefit from some guidance. And it has come in The Holy Sexuality Project, a new video curriculum by Christopher Yuan.” - Challies

“Over 80% of churchgoers predict a promising future for their churches. Is this figure what you would expect? Until I saw the research, I would not have guessed optimism was so high among churchgoers.” - Sam Rainer

“The Supreme Court ruled Friday that an evangelical Christian web designer cannot be compelled to create a wedding website for a gay couple.” - National Review

“The ruling will force colleges to reimagine long-standing hallmarks of the admissions process and likely jeopardize the representation of Black and Latino students on campuses nationwide” - Axios

Related:

“I say Temple was ‘historic’ because its founding went back to 1892 and it was led for several years by a well-known but notorious pastor, J. Frank Norris… ‘The combined membership of the two churches was roughly 25,000’” - Ken Brown

“So what are we to do if we are to live informed lives without allowing ourselves to be drawn into foolish controversies in which we have no responsibility from God to involve ourselves?” - Nick Batzig

“The court ruled in favor of Gerald Groff, an evangelical Christian postal worker, who refused to work on Sundays for religious reasons and said the U.S. Postal Service should accommodate his religious belief.” - NPR

A look at themes related to the book: The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back? by Jim Davis and Michael Graham - C.Leaders

Jacob Elwart interviews Ben Edwards on the problem of evil. - DBTS Podcast

“In an episode of the “Ask Pastor John” podcast posted on Desiring God’s website on Monday, a listener sent a message asking about female leadership in a parachurch ministry.” - CPost

“Love isn’t unique to Christian communities, of course, but this verse suggests there should be something uniquely compelling about the kind of love Jesus’s disciples embody. Our friendship makes the reality of the gospel unignorable to the outside world.” - TGC

Dan Darling recently wrote a blog post on the topic of forgiveness. As usual with Darling, it’s thoughtful, clear, and helpful. I also agree with him. I want to expand a bit on why I believe he’s right, but first some background.

Some may not be aware that there is a debate on the nature of our obligation to forgive our fellow human beings who wrong us. The central question is this: Does Scripture require us to forgive only when a person is repentant, or can we/ought we to forgive, regardless of the attitude of the offender?

The repenters-only view

A key passage in the debate is Matthew 18, where we find two situations:

“Ligonier’s one-hundredth anniversary edition of [J. Gresham Machen’s] classic book, Christianity and Liberalism, shows a new generation that God’s message of salvation is timeless.” - Ligonier

“amidst the prevailing rhetoric about gun reform, is there a third conversation that should be taking place? One that seeks to find common ground and practical solutions?” - Relevant

“According to a 2021 survey by Common Sense Media, 42 percent of children in the United States own a smartphone by age 10, 71 percent by age 12, and 91 percent by age 14.” - TGC

“A recent addition to the literature by Gregg Davidson and Kenneth Turner proposes a middle way between proponents of young-earth creationism and old-earth approaches” - DBTS Blog

Read the series.

This last article in our series sketches the culminating principle for properly understanding the “church v. state” issue. It’s actually less a principle than an analogy with some implications.

Principle no. 5: “Church” is to “state” what “home” is to “work.”

It will help if you view church v. state as similar to home v. work. I’ll pretend you work in an office environment of some sort, but you can adapt the illustration however you wish. Think with me here …

“It’s important for us to understand what is demanded of us in forgiveness. Forgiveness is not the same thing as reconciliation, which requires two parties willing to come together.” - Dan Darling

“AI systems can do certain tasks that humans cannot, and they can do things at much greater speed and with fewer errors than humans can…. humans can do certain things that AI systems cannot, and we can do certain things much faster, more reliably, and with much less energy consumption” - Hugh Ross

“When I started in youth ministry six years ago, students were still asking about evolution, miracles, and the problem of evil….Those questions have ­… largely been displaced by questions about sexuality and gender.” - CToday

“Christopher Layne and Benjamin Schwarz… have now penned an article of extraordinary length questioning America’s role in the war….It is tremendous in length but that is about it.” - Persuasion

“The statement frames abortion as a personal choice in keeping with Catholic teaching regarding freedom of conscience and suggests restrictive abortion laws may violate the separation of church and state.” - RNS

“Times have certainly changed since the 70s when speculation was in vogue. Do you know how many pastors and preachers today refuse to open Revelation for sermons?” - Denison

“Publishing in the journal Tel Aviv, Na’aman has rekindled a theory that the original city of Jerusalem was located not on the southern hill—today called the City of David—but instead on the northern hill, the location of the Temple Mount” - Biblical Archaeology

“Proposal to secularize the civic calendar prompts controversy.” - CToday

“The board of governors agreed with Bettman’s viewpoint, marking a significant shift in NHL policy.” - CPost

Robert Vacendak rightly observes that “Catholics, Calvinists, and Arminians deny absolute assurance of salvation.”¹ Vacendak adds a vital hermeneutic observation that “Scholarly analyses of assurance often prioritize earlier studies, not Scripture.”² Vacendak’s poignant reminder is a call to action that we base our understanding on the Biblical text itself.

“KFF estimated that abortions performed in clinics in the U.S. fell from 82,450 in April 2022, two months before Dobbs, to 80,600 abortions in December 2022, six months after Dobbs.” - BPNews

“Redeeming Productivity is consistently Biblical. Reagan works hard to quote Scripture and draw on practical wisdom from the Bible.” - DBTS Blog