The arrival of thousands of Central American youth immigrants at the U.S. border has created an unprecedented immigration crisis. As Republicans and Democrats are capitalizing on the event to lambaste the other side’s immigration policies, other Americans have traveled to the border to hurl angry protest at the youth. Do we turn them away? Do we bring them in? No solution seems to promise an ideal outcome. In order to steward our rights of citizenship well, Christians should take their political stance on issues like immigration seriously. But my intention for this article is not to convince you of my position on immigration. Rather, I want to transcend discussions on policy and think through the theme of immigration with theological categories. When Christians rely on Fox News or the BBC ...

Summer is here and I hope you are planning on taking a vacation. I have read several reports that claim Americans work more hours, take fewer vacations, and retire later, than those in any other industrialized country. And anecdotally I can see what the men and women in our church are doing. We are always working, and seldom resting. As a pastor I encourage the church to take vacation seriously, not because it is directly commanded in Scripture, but because it is a means by which we are prepared to do what God calls us to. To get the most out of your vacation three things must be known and embraced. Our Work is Good Contrary to how many of us feel, work is a gift and not a curse. Whether laying carpet, plowing a field, crunching numbers in a cubicle, making the sale, or building a house, w...

It is going to take time—decades at least—before we are able to accurately tally the cost of our cultural addiction to pornography. But as Christians we know what it means to tamper with God’s clear and unambiguous design for sexuality: The cost will be high. It must be high. We all know the cost will be high in fractured families and heartbroken parents, husbands and wives. Already we are seeing far too many of these and each one is its own tragedy. We know the cost will be high in the countless thousands of women who are used and abused in front of cameras so they can be violated for other people’s pleasure. That is a sickening tragedy as well. But an overlooked cost, and one that will only become clear in time, is that porn is stealing the best years from a million young Christian ...

[Editor’s Note: adapted from How God Became Jesus: The Real Origins of Belief if Jesus’ Divine Natures–A Response to Bart Ehrman, Zondervan, 2014) I think it is necessary to explode a popular caricature where Jesus cruises around Galilee announcing, “Hi, I’m God. I’m going to die on the cross for your sins soon. But first of all I’m going to teach you how to be a good Christian and how to get to heaven. And after that I thought it would be fitting if you all worshiped me as the second member of the Trinity.” This might seem a rather silly way to understand Jesus’ identity, but it is a sketch of Jesus that many Bible-believing Christians have. When I contend that Jesus understood himself to be divine, this is definitely not what I am talking about. When I say that Jesus knew him...

In his new book “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus,” author Nabeel Qureshi tell his own powerful story of the clash between Islam and Christianity. Learn how Qureshi’s faith in Allah was dramatically conquered by the truth of Christ’s resurrection and deity. (More at NabeelQureshi.com.) Originally published January 06, 2015.

As many young Americans celebrated on the 4th of July, probably the last thing on their mind was the craft giant, Hobby Lobby. After all, what does a chain of craft stores have to do with hot dogs, fireworks, and American Independence? A lot more than you would think. On Monday (June 30, 2014), the Supreme Court of the United States ruled, in a narrow, 5-4 decision, that Hobby Lobby could not be forced by the federal government to pay for certain types of abortion-inducing contraceptives as part of its health-care coverage. Hobby Lobby already covers most common contraceptives, but there are four that its evangelical owners objected to based on their deeply held beliefs. The court ruled that a privately held corporation, with religious owners, cannot have its religious freedom violated lik...

Dr. Karl Giberson is not happy that so many Christians believe what the Bible says about creation, human origins, and the fall. In an article posted in The Daily Beast, Dr. Giberson laments the fact that the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) has not reached a consensus fully embracing the theory of evolution by natural selection. He seems scandalized that there are those within the CRC who still hold to the truthfulness of the biblical narrative. In one quite revealing passage Giberson acknowledges that faculty at Calvin College (a CRC institution) are required to sign a confession of faith which includes an affirmation of the biblical creation narrative specifying the special creation of man and an historic fall. Apparently, however, it is naïve and retrograde to expect science faculty at C...

We chat with Drew Dyck about his new book “Yawning at Tigers” which asks us to abandon our tame view of God and encounter the true God of Scripture. A boring, sanitized Christianity can never satisfy our deep hunger for transcendence. We must seek to know God as He is—mysterious and powerful, yet accessible, loving, and present. Originally published July 02, 2014.

Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Foursquare, Flickr, LinkedIn, Reddit, Tumblr, Imgur, or whatever comes next—social media have changed our relationships in significant ways. With the touch of a button on a small device I carry in my pocket, I can instantly discover what’s happening with friends on the other side of the world. Drawing from personal experience, pastoral conversations, and recent sociological studies, I’m willing to wager that social media’s impact on our relationships has been equally wonderful and detrimental, introducing lots of new opportunities and lots of unforeseen challenges for Christians who use them. The Good Keeping in touch has never been easier thanks to the instant, far-reaching, and widespread power of the internet. Social media outlets af...

This is as close as a Southern Baptist gets to dancing in the streets for joy. The Supreme Court just handed down the Hobby Lobby case, and ruled that the government cannot force closely-held corporations to violate their religious beliefs in the purchasing of abortion-causing drugs. The ruling isn’t just a win for evangelicals, like the Southern Baptist Greens. It’s a win for everyone. Here’s why. A government that can pave over the consciences of the Greens can steamroll over any dissent anywhere. Whether you agree or disagree with us about abortion, every American should want to see a government that is not powerful enough to set itself up as a god over the conscience. As Christians, we believe in obeying the law and honoring our government authorities (Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Pet 2:13-17). But ...

I’ll never forget the first time I stepped into the magnificent Tenth Presbyterian Church as a new intern. Hanging all around the top balcony of the worship room were flags from so many different nations in the world. As I stood there witnessing what was part of the preamble to an incredible mission conference, one of the pastors on staff asked me a question that I had never been asked before: “What do you think,” he said, “about having an American flag behind the pulpit in the church building?” Being caught off guard, I quickly responded, “I haven’t ever thought about it. Why?” What he said next continues to have an impact on my thinking today. “We have so many people from so many different nations of the world living here in Philadelphia that I would hate to give the sense that if you ar...

In 2009, Time magazine named “the new Calvinism” as one of the 10 ideas currently changing the world. The burgeoning movement brought several streams of conservative evangelicals together, ranging from Baptists to Presbyterians to Reformed Charismatics, best represented through organizations and conferences like Together for the Gospel and The Gospel Coalition. But in recent months an intramural debate within the movement made headlines when author, pastor, (and grandson of Billy Graham) Tullian Tchividjian, was asked to leave The Gospel Coalition. The issues surrounding this rather public “break up” are complex, but at least part of the brouhaha concerns differing perspectives on sanctification. Some have accused Tchividjian of antinomianism[1] and denying the “third use of the law”[2] (c...