“The human need for forgiveness appears to be indelible. It won’t go away by denouncing it or trying to deconstruct it. The need I’m referring to is both a profound need to grant forgiveness and to receive forgiveness. On New Year’s Eve in 1843, in a Lutheran parish in Möttlingen, Germany, a young man came to the door of the …
“The cultural apologist does not stop with understanding, however. As we shall see, the cultural apologist works to awaken those within culture to their deep-seated longings for goodness, truth, and beauty. Part of that process involves engaging with and working within the culture-shaping institutions—the university, the arts, business, and government—to help others see the reasonableness and desirability of Christianity. Worldview …
“Sometimes the charge is made that with such a high view of Scripture, evangelicals fall into bibliolatry, the worship of the Bible. Naturally, evangelicals tend to be quick to deny this, but there can actually be something to it … That is, we can commit the sin of the Pharisees, diligently studying the Scriptures because we think that in them …
“The reality of friendship with Jesus, though, depends on a serious reckoning with the reality of Jesus. Most of us, Christians included, have grown accustomed to conducting a relationship with the idea of Jesus. But Jesus is a real person. The fact that we cannot see him does not negate this fact. The fact that we cannot see him doesn’t …
“The Law of God set forth in Scripture is a transcript of Gods own moral nature. It is the Law that was fully imprinted on Adam’s heart as part of his being created in God’s image. It is the same Law that the apostle Paul said is still written on peoples hearts regardless of how obscured it may now be …
“This physical resurrection is the proof of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, proof that the work is really done, that nothing need be added to His glorious substitutionary work for our justification. But even this does not exhaust the matter. We are told in the Word of God, by the Apostle Paul, that in Christ’s resurrection …
“It is possible to coddle some secret sin, some pet indulgence kept hidden away in our back pocket for the occasional spree. We may think that, when we get tired of it or when it becomes a little too much for us, we can easily drop it and come back to God, no problem. Oh really? How do we know …
“The church today has a heart condition. She has not taken care of herself. As a result, she is sick. Modern religious doctors have written prescriptions to treat her lethargy, joylessness, fruitlessness, and weakening faith. But they are addressing only the symptoms, never getting to the root problem. The heart problem plaguing the modern church cannot be healed with new …
“Jesus knew how sin collapses religion into a hollow, outward show that fails to deal with the deep issues of the human heart. Thus, to be evangelical is to be highly wary of this pharisaical hypocrisy in which our lips may be orthodox, but our hearts are not. Evangelicals can never be about propositions alone: we want the theological truths …
Bombarded with poll results about declining levels of church attendance and belief in God, we assume that more and more people are abandoning faith and making their own meaning. But what these polls actually tell us is more straightforward. They tell us that confidence in the religious narratives we’ve inherited has collapsed. What they fail to report is that, marketplace …
