7
Jul
2021
What Are the Limits to Governmental Authority over the Church?
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As Christians in North America continue to transition from governments that were largely favorable or neutral to Christianity to governments that demonstrate an increasing animosity toward traditional Christianity, believers and churches will be forced to wrestle more and more with the relationship between church and state (and family and state). When churches faced public opposition... Read More
29
Jun
2021
Government Regulations and the Gathering of the Church
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With Tim Stephens’s[1] recent arrest in Calgary, Alberta under the charge that his holding church worship gatherings outdoors was a violation of current health regulations, many have been arguing rather vociferously that Tim and other pastors in Alberta (like James Coates) are in clear violation of Scripture and, thus, deserve their current situation. The most... Read More
11
Jun
2021
On Originalist Hermeneutics
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A few years back I made a proposal that we replace the label “literal translation” with a better one—originalism—a term that has been robustly defined away from competing hermeneutical ideas in the secular/legal sphere. For decades the dispensationalist has dealt with snickering ridicule from naysayers who believe that being a “literalist” means disavowing all linguistic... Read More
28
May
2021
Learning from History: Orwell’s (Prophetic) Proposed Preface to Animal Farm and Freedom in Society
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*This article was originally posted in 2015. Its relevance has not lessened. Animal Farm, George Orwell’s satirical story criticizing Stalin and the Soviet Union, was first published in 1945. What may be surprising to some is the difficulty Orwell had in getting the book published. At the time, many in Britain were enamored with Stalin... Read More
7
May
2021
Legitimate Care and Concern vs. Anxiety and Worry
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Dr. Doran recently preached a series of sermons addressing a significant problem in our day: anxiety. This was a timely series and the sermons are filled with biblical and practical guidance for fighting against the sin of worry. You can listen to the sermons here: The Roots of Anxiety from Matthew 6:24–34 The Right Response... Read More
29
Mar
2021
The Wisdom Pyramid: A Review
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Brett McCracken has written a helpful, short book on managing our information-overload world. He rightly notes that though we live in a world of exponentially increasing knowledge, such knowledge has not done much to make us wise. The book breaks into two unequal parts. They are unequal both in terms of length as well as... Read More
24
Mar
2021
When Your Authority Becomes Your Enemy
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Post-Christian society is full of deniers—Christians unwilling to cede the loss of Christian influence and often unaware that this loss has irreparably occurred in American culture. These deniers are still agitating to restore Christian privilege: getting the Bible and prayer back into public schools, getting the Ten Commandments back into courthouses, getting a real Christian... Read More
19
Mar
2021
Wisdom from Spurgeon: On Re-qualification for Ministry
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This semester Dr. John Aloisi and I are co-teaching a class called “Great Books.” We are working our way through various books that have had a significant impact for one reason or another. Recently we read a healthy portion of Spurgeon’s Lectures to My Students. If you have not read these lectures, you are doing... Read More
15
Mar
2021
Does It Matter If Government Restrictions on Churches Are Reasonable and Temporary?
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Over the past year, Christian leaders have been forced to think through the nature of governmental authority as it relates to the church. One consistent refrain has been that churches must comply with much if not all of the current government restrictions, because these restrictions are reasonable and temporary. But does it matter if restrictions... Read More
8
Mar
2021
Yet Another Question of Discernment: Binary Assessments
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As a professor and occasional interim pastor, I routinely hear a question (or something like it): “Is __________ (fill in the blank with any popular author, radio/TV preacher, apologist, musician) a good guy or a bad guy?” Often the question is asked in passing with the assumption that I can flash a simple thumbs up/thumbs... Read More