Fisher of Men

With the recent release of the film “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” in theaters, I’m reminded of a few years ago when I launched a new semester of my Doctrine of the Last Things class with the showing of a clip from the original film, Planet of the Apes. The clip my students watched was in the closing moments of the 1968 film, as Charlton Heston is fleeing a civilization in which gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutangs rule over non-verbal, animal-like human beings. Up to this point, Heston’s character assumes he’s on another planet, one that has evolved differently from life on earth. The final scene though tells the shocking truth. Heston sees the Statue of Liberty in ruins, up to her torso in mud and sand. It’s then that he realizes he hasn’t traveled through space, but...

All too often, the textbooks focus solely on the men of the Reformation—Luther, Calvin, Cranmer, and others—and fail to take notice of the faithful women who served among, beside, and with the Reformers. These women were dedicated to the gospel of Jesus Christ, some to the point of martyrdom. Many of these women were well-educated, especially by the standard of their time. They read theology books, especially the Bible, and anything they could get their hands on from the reformers. Their inner circles of friends were part of long and frequent Bible studies. Most were wives and mothers. Some were also authors, apologists, ex-nuns, and queens. All were faithful servants of Jesus.  GERMANY Katherine von Bora was a former nun who married Martin Luther. They were married for...

(Image: Cleveland, Ohio) Last week mega-star, LeBron James shocked the sports world by leaving the Miami Heat and returning home to the Cleveland Cavaliers. I was on vacation at the time, so my hotel TV was tuned in, for way too many hours, to Sportscenter. I was tracking this on Twitter and reading as many blogs as I could read without upsetting my non-sports-loving wife and my children. LeBron announced his decision in a heartfelt letter published by the venerable magazine, Sports Illustrated. He expressed his devotion to the northeast Ohio area, how leaving and going to Miami cemented his love for home. To the greater Cleveland area, LeBron’s return is more than a free-agent signing by a sports team, it’s an unexpected boost for a region who has not only seen many decades of sports disa...

I was thirty years old and less than two years into my second pastorate. The phone rang and I answered to learn that the father of someone in our church had died suddenly. Would I do the funeral? I had never met the deceased man and knew nothing about his spiritual condition. And this was my first funeral. I had no idea what to do. Thankfully, my own father (a veteran pastor of many years) was visiting us that weekend. I sought his advice, was able to give at least some comfort to the family, and got through the funeral. I’ve preached lots of funerals in the decade since. Sometimes of people I knew and loved. Often of people I’ve never met and were probably non-Christians. While I never exactly look forward to preaching a funeral, I’m no longer as intimidated by them (even the hard ones) a...

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.