Tim Keller recently recorded a short clip on “How to raise your kids in Christian identity.” Take a listen to it here:
Millennials Like Traditional Religion
In 2005, Christian Smith published his work Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. He interviewed teenagers across the USA to get a sense of their religious life. He found that very few teenagers are seekers or are spiritual and not religious. In fact, the opposite tends to be true. Teenagers are part of traditional religious communities.
Smith explains:
Very, very few American adolescents appear to be caught up in the much discussed phenomenon of “spiritual seeking” by “spiritual but not religious” seekers on a quest for higher meaning. Neither Joy nor Kristen, nor most teens we interviewed, had even heard of the expression “spiritual but not religious,” much less knew what it meant. Contrary to popular perceptions, the vast majority of American adolescents are not spiritual seekers or questers of the type often described by journalists and some scholars, but are instead mostly orientated toward and engaged in conventional religious traditions and communities. (27).
The situation in 2017 may be different than when Smith wrote in 2005. But experience tells me that it is not. Of course, everyone knows a spiritual-but-religious person. But the majority of people that I know of are not spiritual seekers. They are either traditional religious adherents or those who are not very religious—however they define that. [Read more…] about Millennials Like Traditional Religion
How Twitter Rescued a Westboro Baptist Church Member
Westboro Baptist Church member, Megan Phelps-Roper, explains how engaging others in Twitter changed her whole life. Through her online interactions, she came to realize the error of her ways. She learned that her cult’s teaching contradicted the Bible’s teaching.
The point of her talk, it seems, is that we must engage in civil dialogue with others in compassionate ways. Her story shows that the way we engage with people over the internet is important. Our rudeness online is the same as being rude in person. We must be compassionate and kind in whatever context that we find ourselves in. Listen to this fascinating talk below:
Review: The Benedict Option by Rob Dreher
Dreher, Rob. The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation. New York: Sentinel, 2017. Pp. x + 262. ISBN 9780735213296. $29.98 CAN [Hardcover]. Source for Book Cover.
The image of the church as an Ark floating atop tempestuous waters of destruction is one of great antiquity in the history of the Christian faith. This iconic concept of the church’s self-understanding must be recovered with vigor. (238)
The church is an ark that withstands the waves of a collapsing culture. Is is also a wellspring of life (238). The church must withstand the pressures of culture and also thrive on living waters. [Read more…] about Review: The Benedict Option by Rob Dreher
How Old Is the World?
In the mid to late twentieth century, Christians sought to establish the young earth creationist (YEC) view against what they perceived as an unbiblical intrusion of modern science. Evangelical Christians galvanized many around YEC, but in recent times YEC’s influence has begun to wane: “For some time now,” Tim Challies wrote, “the weight of conviction within the Evangelical world has swung toward views that demand an old earth.”
The Age of the Earth in Academics
The doctrine of YEC has today become a third-tier doctrine while 50 years it might been a second or maybe even a first-tier doctrine for certain groups. Evidence of this is the recent debate at Trinity International University. The title of the event was Genesis and the Age of the Earth and Drs. Albert Mohler (YEC) and John Collins (Old Age Creationist / OEC) discussed the issue.
Mohler opened his talk by clarifying how the age of the earth is not a central issue to the faith (watch the talk here). He objected to the term “debate” in that setting because he felt the issue did not merit winning an argument at all costs. Mohler was simply discussing an important issue among friends. There seems to be widespread agreement that the age of the earth is tertiary or non-central point of doctrine among Christians. The impulse to press the doctrine of YEC in the 1950s-1980s has become gentle hum, with Answers in Genesis being an exception to the rule.
Review: Paul and Gender by Cynthia Westfall
Westfall, Cynthia. Paul and Gender: Reclaiming the Apostle’s Vision for Men and Women in Christ. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2016. Pp. xix +347. ISBN 9780801097942. $32.99 USD [Softcover]. Source for Book Cover.
Cynthia Westfall’s work Paul and Gender will likely become the standard evangelical work on Paul’s understanding of gender in the Bible. Westfall thoroughly exegetes the key biblical texts and avoids writing a book merely on women’s issues or on controversial biblical passages on women in the church.
Pastors and biblical students should read Paul and Gender to understand the contemporary discussion on the topic. Complementarian readers should especially invest time in reading Westfall because she presents a well-argued and biblical rationale for an egalitarian reading of Paul. Westfall’s monograph is not without its negatives, and Westfall’s arguments for an egalitarian Paul run into numerous problems. [Read more…] about Review: Paul and Gender by Cynthia Westfall