It is becoming common to hear preachers “finding Jesus” in every text of Scripture. Many name recognized Bible Scholars and popular writers advocate a Christological hermeneutic that forces Christ onto every text. Albert Mohler in He Is Not Silent: Preaching in a Postmodern World wrote:
Every single text of Scripture points to Christ. He is the Lord of all, and therefore He is the Lord of the Scriptures too. From Moses to the prophets, He is the focus of every single word of the Bible. Every verse of Scripture finds its fulfillment in Him, and every story in the Bible ends with Him.[1]
Read moreBart Ehrman, one of the most influential atheists/agnostics today admitted: The problem of suffering became for me the problem of faith. After many years of grappling with the problem, trying to explain it, thinking through the explanations that others have offered—some of them pat answers charming for their simplicity, others highly sophisticated and nuanced reflections of serious philosophers and theologians—after thinking about the alleged answers and continuing to wrestle with the problem, about nine or ten years ago I finally admitted defeat, came to realize that I could no longer believe in the God of my tradition, and acknowledged that I was an agnostic: I don’t “know” if there is a God; but I think that if there is one, he certainly isn’t the one proclaimed by the Judeo-Christian tradition, the one who is actively and powerfully involved in this world. And so I stopped going to church (Ehrman, Bart D., God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer, HarperCollins. Kindle Edition, 2009, 3-4).
Read moreWhen Job proves Satan wrong, Satan is no longer mentioned in the book of Job. In chapters 1 and 2, Satan is persistent in attacking Job's faith. But when Job's Christian critics take over in the next section, they do such a good job of verbally pounding on Job, perhaps Satan felt he could leave Job in the hands of his ash heap critics and go destroy some other believer's faith
Read moreJoel Osteen famously said in a tweet, "It’s God’s will for you to live in prosperity instead of poverty.” God’s Word, however, teaches that it is not always God’s will for His people to experience prosperity. Jesus was born poor and he died poor (click to open). Surely, the servant is not greater than his master. God’s Word also teaches that sometimes poverty is God’s will for His people. The apostle Paul died in abject poverty in the cold and damp Mamertine Prison in Rome. He had to request Timothy to bring him warm clothing for the coming winter. The Prosperity Gospel teaches the opposite.
Read moreIn early 2019, the state of New York passed a new abortion bill that effectively legalized abortion right up until the moment of live birth. The new “Reproductive Health Act” even removed abortion altogether from the state’s criminal law, meaning that the murder of a pregnant woman and her unborn child is now, in New York, only a single homicide—the murder of the unborn child is not considered murder at all.1. The Scriptures addresses this legislation in New York.
Read moreI was actually asked this question by a pastoral search committee once. The question was “How would I respond to the church if it was reported by the news media that life had been discovered on Mars?” Recently this issue was brought up by National Geographic Magazine on September 14th. The article title was “Possible sign of life on Venus stirs up heated debate” by Nadia Drake. She wrote: "Something deadly might be wafting through the clouds shrouding Venus: a smelly, flammable gas called phosphine that annihilates life-forms reliant on oxygen for survival. Ironically though, the scientists who today announced of this noxious gas in the Venusian atmosphere say it could be tantalizing, if controversial, evidence of life on the planet next door."
Read moreAlbert Mohler in his book, He is Not Silent has Chapter 3 “Preaching is Expository: A Theology of Exposition."In this chapter, Mohler contends that our view of God's revelation in His Word will be reflected in our preaching. If we possess a low view of revelation then our preaching will not have much or any theology in it. If we have a low view of the doctrine of revelation, then in our preaching we will preach “pop psychology and culture, or we will tell compelling stories." We preach the theology of a passage because it is God's authoritative Word that is life changing.
In this step, we insert the theology of the text.
Read moreToday when you discuss worship you have to address “Worship Warfare.” Albert Mohler does in He is not Silent: “The subject of worship is now one of the most controversial issues in the local congregation” (page 23). The only part of his statement that I disagree with is the one word “now.” Worship warfare has been raging for centuries. It took Benjamin Keath (1640-1704), one of the early English hymn writers. In 1668, he became pastor of the Particular Baptist Church in Southwark. It took Keath twenty years to persuade his Baptist congregation to sing hymns and not just Psalms. Even after twenty years, some of his members left and started another church so they could sing just Psalms.
Read moreCan Evangelism and Politics Mix?
Put bluntly, America is becoming more secular. Albert Mohler identifies the problem: “Recent studies have indicated that the single greatest predictor of voting patterns is the frequency of church attendance. Far fewer Americans now attend church, and a recent study indicated that fully 20% of all Americans identify with no religious preference at all. The secularizing of the electorate will have monumental consequences.”
Read moreBefore we seek to correct the justification of the murder of abortion doctors like George Tiller by referencing Deitrick Bonhoeffer's plot to murder Adolf Hilter, we must remember our responsibilities to God ordained human government.
Read moreWe support the three moral and political issues The Manhattan Declaration defends. We support the sanctity of life which the culture of death threatens in the form of abortion, ethnic cleansing, and euthanasia. We also support the integrity of marriage and the defense of religious liberty.
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