Charleston and Our Culture of Violence

Once again we are reeling in the aftermath of another mass killing, this one clearly and explicitly racially motivated. As usual, we also have to listen to the same rhetoric from both sides of the gun issue, then watch while nothing gets done before the country gets distracted by the next big thing in the...

Who’s Really On Trial Before Pilate

The case of Jesus before Pontius Pilate wasn’t really an issue of whether or not Jesus claimed to be God. Pilate didn’t really care about that stuff. That was religious stuff, which was for the Jews to decide. All Pilate cared about was whether or not Jesus posed a threat to Rome. He was convinced Jesus...

Creation Care: A Biblical Mandate

At each stage of creation in Genesis 1, God likes what he has created. He declares that the world is good. When it’s all done, he declares that the creation is very good. And then something goes very wrong. First the humans decide that they don’t want to be what God created them to be—humans. They want to...

“Love Your Enemies”: Does God Do It?

A few years ago my parents became friends with a young man from their church who was studying to be a doctor in the Navy. He had finished medical school and was entering residency. He told them once that one of the things he did to prepare himself for residency was to intubate himself. I don’t know if it...

“You Won’t Die”: Was the Serpent Right?

In Genesis 3, the Man and the Woman eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, even though they had been warned that “in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Genesis 2:17). That’s a pretty specific warning. It specifies 1) what they are and aren’t supposed to do; 2) what will happen if they...

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