I found this article via WorldNetDaily: Pope is warned of a green Antichrist. According to Cardinal Biffi, who gave the Lenten message this year, the antichrist could be “a pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist”. OK, I resemble that remark. Of course, I’m not nearly important enough to be the actual antichrist. Probably I could just encourage…
Via Pandagon I found this story, also reported here. These are serious accusations, and more and more people are coming forward. Such a story should emphasize several things to those of us who are in ministry, including how transparent our ministry practices should be. Teach and behave in such a way that an accusation such…
I have mentioned before that I’ve been writing some of the devotionals for my wife’s devotional list, and yesterday I wrote one that relates closely to some things I’ve written here about tolerance for diversity and yet having identity and anchor points. It’s titled Extend Ropes, Strengthen Stakes. For those who may be interested, Jody’s…
Ben Witherington alerted me to Plantinga’s review of Dawkins’ book The God Delusion on Christianity Today. Now I must be frank (well, no, I don’t have to, but I will!) and say that I find philosophers provide the most annoying of reading. They seem to me to be the world’s best rationalizers, providing excellent reasons…
A documentary to be shown on the Discovery Channel purports to have discovered the tomb and the ossuary of Jesus (CNN story here). I’m amazed that something like this would be called a “documentary” since there is next to no possibility of sufficient evidence for such a claim. The sad thing is that archeological claims,…
Marcus Borg has announced his retirement. After completing his current class at Oregon State University, where he has been the Hundere Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture, he will retire, and may even slow down a bit! He does have a few books in the works and other outlines in mind, according to this story…
Finally, after many delays, every one of them my fault, my new edition of this book has gone to the printer. Titled uncreatively Identifying Your Gifts and Service: Small Group Edition, it fills a need, expressed by a number of people who have taken my class series of the same name, for an edition of…
The other day I wrote a note about Christians feeling persecuted in the United States and how I felt that devalued the term “persecution.” This morning I got an alert from Christian Today (I subscribe to the Christianity Today Connection e-mail), which gave the story of a persecuted girl in Pakistan and led, inevitably to…
That would be a weird thing for a Bible teacher, such as myself, to say. And indeed, I didn’t say it. Dennis Stout did, over a Christianity Today/Christian Bible Studies.com. There’s some good advice in this article, so I wanted to commend it to my readers.
I am continually annoyed when Christians claim to be persecuted in this country. I know that we are, from time to time, inconvenienced and troubled, but it seems to me that calling ourselves persecuted simply devalues the term. I’ve lived where persecution was a reality, as in fleeing ahead of someone intent on killing you…