Thoughts on ethics, society, politics, religion, philosophy, theology, and everything in between
Apocalyptic Genre Two books of the Bible are of the literary genre known as apocalyptic literature. In the Old Testament, there is the book of Daniel. In the New Testament, there is the book of Revelation. Of the various literary genres found in Scripture, apocalyptic is one of the least well understood and most frequently … Read more
The Psalms occupy a unique place in the canon of Scripture. Most of the writings that make up the Scriptures consist of God’s prophetic words to us, or narratives about God’s dealings with human beings in salvation history. The book of Psalms, on the other hand, is a collection of human prayers addressed to God. … Read more
Theonomy or Dismissal? What does the Old Testament Law have to tell Christians about how they should live today? Christians have given a wide variety of answers to this question. On one end of the spectrum there are theonomists, who believe that the Old Testament Law should be the model for the laws of civil … Read more
One of the most commonly used buzzwords in our society today is the term “diversity.” Almost everyone seems to agree that diversity, whether gender, racial, religious, or otherwise, is a good and important thing. Efforts to promote and celebrate diversity have become widespread throughout our culture. Governments, businesses, and other organizations have created diversity task … Read more
According to the modernist view of truth, there is a set of indubitable truths universally accessible by the reason of any human being which can provide the foundation for certain knowledge. Upon this foundation, we can then build our other beliefs, secure in the knowledge that our beliefs are certain and reasonable. In this way, … Read more
Many people consider faith and reason to be opposites. Reason is an objective tool that allows us to arrive at the truth with certainty, while faith is something irrational and arbitrary. Any belief based on faith, then, should be dismissed, and only beliefs based on pure reason should be taken seriously. This understanding of the … Read more
The Gospel and Nonviolence “When people with power see things happen of which they disapprove, they drop bombs and send in tanks. When people without power see things of which they disapprove, they smash store windows, blow themselves up in crowded places, and fly planes into buildings. The fact that both methods have proved remarkably … Read more
The past 2,000 years of Church history have been a long and winding road. The early Church tried to do its best to live out the radically countercultural reality of Jesus’s Kingdom in the midst of a hostile culture. But beginning in the fourth century, there was a dramatic transition to Christendom, in which Christianity … Read more
The End of Christendom For many centuries, from the late Roman Empire, through the Middle Ages, and into the Modern period, the political, social, and ecclesial status quo in Western civilization was that of Christendom. All of society was (supposedly) Christian. “Christian” governments used coercion and violence to force everyone to be part of the … Read more
A Great Apostasy? There is a popular belief among many Christians that in the early fourth century, with the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity, the church suddenly committed a “Great Apostasy” by turning away from the Way of Jesus, making a grab for worldly political power, and embracing “Constantinianism.” Usually this is … Read more