One of the most persistent, nagging questions that dogs the Christian faith is called theodicy—the defense of God’s goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil. If God is good and all-powerful, how …
Jeremiah #14
I am sitting here reading a document that is 2,600 years old. It reads like the memoirs of man who had an ongoing dialogue with God. Chances are, you have a copy of this same …
Jeremiah #13
Sometimes I understand why people don’t like to read the Old Testament prophets. They have an internal image of God as a kind of Grandfather in the sky. It is very comforting to them. And …
A Christian Ideal
It is a small national conceit that Freedom is an American idea. Nor does Freedom owe its origins to the Greeks, either. Freedom is a singular Christian idea. I can say Christian because the roots …
Jeremiah #12
As I read through Jeremiah, I sometimes get the feeling that I’m reading his memoirs. Yes, there are things that he has said, speeches he has spoken. Yes, there are the things that God has …
Jeremiah #11
Would you like to be prophet? The prophets of old had to do some really strange things from time to time. It wasn’t enough for them to just speak the words, sometimes they had to …
Jeremiah #10
Can God feel disappointment? I know, many believe in the impassibility of God. They believe that God is, by definition of the word, impassable—incapable of suffering or of experiencing pain. You can read the prophets …
Jeremiah #9
Is it really possible for a man to know God? Can a man understand God, or is it just really too high for us? To be sure, there are things about God that are a …
Jeremiah #8
In the normal course of things, if a man falls down, he gets back up. If he runs down a wrong track, he will normally retrace his steps and try to find a better way. …
Jeremiah #7
I used to think that the What Would Jesus Do? movement was a good thing for young people. And it does have merit in helping kids stop and think about the moral issues they face …
Jeremiah #6
One thing to watch as we approach the end of history is the city of Jerusalem. Notice that I said the end of history, not the end of the world. When I was a kid …
Jeremiah #5
There is a very disturbing theme that runs through the Old Testament prophets. It speaks of a complete loss of leadership in a nation. I may groan a lot over the moral decay that afflicts …
Religious Exclusivism
One of the truly pivotal events of the New Testament church was a conference that took place some 18 years or so after the church began on the Day of Pentecost. It is often referred …
Jeremiah #4
If you will return, O Israel, says the Lord, return unto me: and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight, then shall you not be moved. Jeremiah 4:1 KJ2000 If God …
Jeremiah #3
There is an odd thing about the beginning of Jeremiah’s ministry. Not only was he very young (he describes himself as only a child) when he was called by God, but the King he served …
Jeremiah #2
In all the many years of human civilization, basic human nature hasn’t changed at all. Technology has changed the way we live, but the basics remain the same—and they are remarkably the same across all …
Jeremiah #1
If God were going to send us a prophet today, what sort of man would he be? Would he be, perhaps, a rough-hewn, mountain-man type like Elijah—dressed in leather and rising into town on a …
Endowed By Their Creator
I honestly don’t know what the founders of this nation believed about God. But I do have their words to go by. They signed their names—and pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor—to a document …
Is God Really There?
Is God really there? Or are we just an accident in the universe, a product of blind chance? Is there no design other than that which natural law provides? Stalactites and stalagmites grow in caves …
Disillusionment and Redemption
Many years ago, in the middle of a theological argument about what is required for the saving of a man’s soul, I formulated another of what I call Dart’s Laws. This one is, simply stated: …