Are you ready for a quiz? Grab pencil and pad and write down the names of the two most important Christian Holidays. It should only take you a few seconds. No consulting your calendar allowed; …
On Death and Resurrection #2
Many pastors and preachers see nothing wrong with the fact that today’s church doesn’t believe exactly the same thing as the primitive Christian church believed and taught. They place no small amount of weight upon …
About Heaven
What did the first Christians believe about heaven? When they spoke of heaven, when they thought of it, what did they visualize? Was their concept of heaven the same as our own? I don’t think …
Christian Origins #40 - Corinthians
The Apostle Paul was steamed. He may have been a minister—gentle and kind—but don’t kid yourself, Paul got steamed. You can only take so much nitpicking, so much scratching around in your past, so much …
Christian Origins #33 - Corinthians
Okay, so you already believe in the resurrection. You believe that man will be raised from the dead. That raises the most interesting question of all: What for? When man has finished out his miserable …
Who Killed Christ?
When the Pope viewed Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of Jesus Christ, he is said to have remarked, It is as it was. The Vatican later tried to spin that remark to bring it back …
Beauty and the Power to Love
Sometimes important ideas can come from unexpected places. I came across an article in the journal, First Things, by an architect who had been provoked by a piece on church architecture by another architect. I …
A Doctrine of Grace
View PostHere I Am, Lord
View PostAbout the Old Testament
What did the first Christians believe about the Old Testament? I might as well have asked what they believed about the Bible because, as the faith developed, the Old Testament was all the written word …
How to Read the Bible
I forget where I first saw the book title, How to Read the Bible, but I recall a certain, what shall we say, amusement. I thought, Find a comfortable chair, open the book and read. …
Christian Origins #1 - Acts
How many hundreds of millions of Christians are there in the world by now? What is your guess? Well, I looked it up. Christianity of all stripes is the largest religion in the world and …
Whatever Happened to the Bible?
When I was a lot younger, I was associated with a church that was, hands down, the most Bible-reading group of people I have ever known. With all of the faults of that generation and …
About the Bible
What did the first Christians believe about the Bible? It is an interesting question for several reasons, not least because the Bible, as we know it, had yet to exist. The components of what we …
About Christmas
What did the first Christians believe and practice about Christmas? I know in a way that is a loaded question, because the word Christmas is found nowhere in the New Testament, nor is any noticeable …
Too Late for Christmas
If you’re planning on celebrating the birth of Christ in the near future…well, I hate to be the one to tell you this but you’re about three months late. Yeah, really. What’s funny about it …
Disappearing Dreams
What do you do when you wake up some morning and realize that you have run way too far down the wrong road? Life isn’t working. You feel absolutely lost. I used to hear Billy …
Why Not Christmas?
View PostAn Honest Answer
I had a call recently from a lady who was very complimentary of one of my programs. It seemed what she appreciated most was my honesty with the scriptures. Now, I was flattered by that, …
The Anger of God
Does God get angry? We know he does—everyone has heard about the wrath of God—but, you know, I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people don’t see what God has to be …