Maslow, material needs, and the gospel

Body

“Apart from the value of Maslow’s particular understanding of human needs, and the various uses it has been put to in ministry as well as popular contexts, the challenge to rightly relate the temporal and the eternal, the material and the spiritual, is as old as the gospel itself…..the idea that there is some sense in which material needs must be met before spiritual needs can be properly addressed is, indeed, much older than Maslow.” -

Discussion

What's Behind the Social Justice Gospel-ers?

Body

“It’s a lesson that has been reinforced repeatedly by the cyclical rhythm of church history. … When one merges human amelioration of suffering and injustice with divine remediation of sin, inevitably the purpose and impact of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ takes a backseat.” - Pyro

Discussion

3 Bible Passages to Study with Unbelievers

By Jordan Standridge. Reposted from The Cripplegate.

As time passes, I become more and more convinced that faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God.

No amount of evidence can convince someone about the truth of the Gospel. It is the Word of God, itself, that has the power to save and transform souls.

Discussion

Why the God of the Qur’an Cannot Forgive Sins

Reposted permission, from The Cripple Gate.

Almost every system or religion proposes some sort of love. From systems in the east to the west, they feature some concept of love. Both the Qur’an and the Bible do so. They both teach that God is loving. But, what do they mean by love? And, what is it about the God of the Qur’an and the God of the Bible that renders them loving? Most assertions of love remain in realm of abstract or human-to-human benevolence. How can we tangibly measure love?

Discussion

From the Archives: Reasoning Outside the Box of Human Reason

Unless you reason outside the box of human reason, you can forget about understanding the Jesus of the Bible. Only those willing and able to break the constraints of common experience and human rationalism can hope to make any sense of Jesus’ life and ministry.

Discussion

Spiritual Zombies

Last year, another investigator and I headed down to Portland, Oregon, to interview a guy in an annuity fraud case. It was a pretty good case. The guy was an insurance agent. I had a man who’d come to the Office of the Insurance Commissioner claiming the agent had swindled his parents into buying an expensive indexed annuity and lied to them about why it was such an awesome product. The guy said this insurance agent had done this to his parents twice, in the space of two years.

Discussion