The Wall
It is mildly amusing that a phrase so innocuous as ‘the wall’ should literally reverberate around the world, provoking reaction from every quarter. But don’t panic, it is not my intention to pass comment on the particular structure in the…
Tag Grace
Incomprehensible but Knowable: Human Knowing
The Bible teaches that God is incomprehensible. God is so far above us as the supreme being and only infinite being that we as finite creatures are never going to be able to know and understand all that there is…
Brilliana Harley – Wife, Mother, and Fighter
In March 1643, Lady Brilliana Harley received a formal demand to surrender her castle to the royalists. Her husband, Sir Robert Harley, was in London. He had been there since the start of the civil war, leaving her to…
Sarah Miller and Her Secret Turmoil
When Samuel Miller married Sarah Sergeant, he didn’t know the extent of her pain. Emotional anguish and religious skepticism were not a proper topic of discussion. At least, that’s what her mother had taught her. She had told her…
Five Minutes for the Imago Dei
I can be a sarcastic and (somewhat) quick-witted man at times. Unfortunately, that has been a dangerous combination, which has caused needless animosity between me and fellow Christians when in disagreement on political and theological issues. Thankfully, in recent months…
Commentary Connoisseur: The Welsh & English
I don’t know if I have an absolute favorite commentary on Romans…at least not yet. I remember when serving as a youth pastor I spent about two years working through the book of Romans with all the high school students…
Hell: How Long?
As I headed to the office to write this article, I tuned my radio to NPR, to one of my favorite programs: “1A, with Host Joshua Johnson.” He is an excellent conversational journalist who really knows how to get at…
The Art of Dying
In ages past, Christian leaders wrote treatises with titles like On Dying Well or The Art of Dying fairly often. Life was short and people died at home, surrounded by family, so everyone witnessed death. And since medicine had few…
A Helpful Distinction
I am currently preaching a sermon series on the Gospel of John. There are some passages in that Gospel that appear to betray the grace of the gospel by presenting a legalistic view of salvation. Since Scripture cannot contradict itself, we know…
Hell: They Have No Bowels
While rereading Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol I recently read something I had forgotten. When Jacob Marley appeared to Scrooge his body was transparent, so that Scrooge could see not only the front of his long deceased partner’s waistcoat but…