No King in Israel (13)

How would you feel if you had just seen God and escaped alive?

The modern believer has difficulty putting himself in the sandals of an oppressed Israelite whose family worshiped Baal, and whose only impressions of the God of Israel came from oral history: of his nation’s deliverance from Egyptian slavery, its sojourn in the wilderness and its miraculous conquest of Canaan. Gideon had stories of wonderful deeds recounted by the elders of his people. Meanwhile, Christians thousands of years later are habituated to platform messages in which the word “Abba” is alleged to give us license to crawl into Daddy’s lap for a good cuddle.

Ugh. It’s a frivolous and childish view of God, and it’s not the least bit like what Gideon experienced when the angel of the Lord appeared to him.

Too Hot to Handle: The Unfair Advantage of a Loving Family

In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.

Yes, Leftism is just plain goofy.

Philosophers Adam Swift and Harry Brighouse are deeply concerned about the nuclear family.

What happens, worries Swift, when loving your child makes for an uneven playing field for those without equally devoted parents?

The difference between the solution you or I might propose and the one the political Left proposes is that Adam and Harry would prefer to bring us all down to the lowest common denominator rather than aspire to anything inherently more desirable.

Tolerance and Relativism

“What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.”

So wrote Sir Francis Bacon, the father of the scientific method. The man was not just a scientist, but a devout Christian as well. For him, the two were of a piece — truth in scientific inquiry was a road to knowledge of the Creator. So he wrote as much theology as science, and he stands as but one evidence of the long interaction between Christianity and scientific advancement.

In his 1601 essay “Of Truth”, he pointed out the embarrassing relativism of Pilate’s attitude. Pontius Pilate was standing next to the very One who could tell him definitively any truth he wished to know. He could have asked how planetary motion worked. He could have asked about the origins of life. He could have asked the meaning of our existence. And obviously, he could have asked what God required of him personally. He could have had forgiveness. He could have had salvation. He could have had life. And yet he walked away. And so he is remembered as one of history’s great fools.

He Said She Said, Then They All Said (2)

A post from August 2023 generated a record number of responses, many of them intense. I thought it was time to share the entire comment string, which would otherwise go largely unnoticed by our readers, since many were written long after the post’s original publication date. This is the second of two posts.

Many of the commenters are writing in a second language, so some comments are more comprehensible than others. I have cleared up a few typographic errors and inconsistencies in the interest of clarity, which I trust their authors will forgive.

He Said She Said, Then They All Said (1)

Back in August of 2023, in the context of a study on the doctrine of sinless perfectionism, I wrote a post about the Brunstad Christian Church (BCC), a century-old Norwegian denomination that has grown to over 200 churches in 54 countries, with perhaps 1,700 members in North America. The gist of what I had to say was that finding the truth online is a tremendously difficult task these days. Certainly, opinions vary wildly about the BCC and its leadership. I opted to reserve judgment.

The post is called “He Said She Said”, and the response to it has been unusual, intense and exceedingly polarized. If anything, the reaction proves my point: it’s awfully hard to find the truth online these days.

Anonymous Asks (359)

“How can I stop being nervous about praying publicly?”

I have been praying in church meetings going on fifty years now, and I cannot remember a single time I ever stood up to try to express the corporate desires, praise or worship of the people of God when I was not at least just a little bit nervous.

That’s probably discouraging. Sorry.

A Day’s Journey into the Wilderness

“But [Elijah] went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die.”

Elijah was done. Many of us have had “mountaintop” spiritual experiences that bit the dust only days later. Elijah’s was unusual in that it was literal. The mount was Carmel, and the glorious moment he experienced atop it was the complete and utter vindication of Israel’s God and his solitary public voice (Elijah) before the entire nation, abruptly followed by the summary execution of 450 false prophets claiming to speak for YHWH’s rival.

It was a good day. A really good day. Everything Elijah asked God did, and he did it in spades.

No King in Israel (12)

Last week, we looked at the historical circumstances in which God called Gideon to serve as his judge and deliverer of Israel. The Holy Spirit has given us ten verses of explanation to set up the situation, and I felt I would be unwise to ignore them.

This week, we look at Gideon’s call to service. Othniel judged because the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. Ehud judged because the Lord “raised him up” and Shamgar did his bit with the ox goad for reasons the writer of Judges does not disclose. Deborah judged because she was in touch with heaven and there was nobody else willing to do the job. The people came to her for guidance.

Too Hot to Handle: A Dinner with Zacchaeus

In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.

Last week in this space we were discussing a recent report sponsored by Wycliffe College’s Institute of Evangelism entitled Finding Faith in Canada Today, which surveyed Canadian Christians to find out how they got saved. One of the more significant takeaways from the report was the conclusion that, statistically speaking, the vast majority of new converts do not come to the Lord at evangelical rallies, traditional outreach programs, through websites or online church. A full 40% of new believers came to Christ because of the testimony of Christian friends, far more than any other reason given for converting. The report concluded that friendship is the single most effective environment for evangelism.

Tom: How about that? So tell me, IC, why don’t Christians make more unbelieving friends?

Seeking In or Sneaking In?

“Everybody’s looking for something …”

So sang Annie Lennox of The Eurythmics.

And she’s right: everybody’s looking — for something.

Back in the ’80s, there was a huge push in evangelical churches to become what they called “seeker sensitive”. Essentially, it meant building churches that were larger and accommodated more people — less like liturgical spaces, and more like shopping malls or movie theatres. Soft seats, big screens, stages, lights and sound systems … slicker programs, incorporating drama, visual displays and various other marketing tools, a more polished and professional administrative staff, special programs for counseling, grief care, visitation … and more elaborate programs for children and youth, too.

Bearing Up

“Suffering produces endurance.”

The doctor’s diagnosis was wrong, and the steroids he prescribed have puffed your face up like a chipmunk for two weeks and accomplished nothing. The car had to go to the mechanic again, and you’re pretty sure it’s for the same thing you just got “fixed” three months ago. You spent more time stuck on the highway in heavy traffic today listening to the clatter from your wheel well than you spent on the job.

You are somewhat less than amused.

A Sure Faith

A man who claimed to be a witness on behalf of Jehovah disturbed my brother this morning in the middle of coffee and cheese. He didn’t disturb me. I kept right on eating and drinking and conversing with my son and an old friend gathered around the dining room table. My brother definitely got the worst of the deal in that he had to get up and answer the doorbell, but it didn’t take him long to send the would-be witness on his way.

Why? Because he already has something far better than anything this fellow was offering, and he knows it with certainty.

Anonymous Asks (358)

“Why is King Ahab so prominent in the Bible?”

Before we ask why Ahab figures so significantly in the annals of the kings of Israel, we had best determine exactly how prominent he really is.

With all or parts of eight chapters of Kings and Chronicles devoted to his reign, to my surprise (and perhaps yours) Ahab finishes a solid fifth among the kings of Israel and Judah in historical content, behind David (63), Saul (25), Solomon (19) and Hezekiah (11). No other king even comes close. Even Hezekiah only squeaks in ahead of him because the story of Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem is told thrice, in Kings, Chronicles and Isaiah.

The Witness of the Spirit

When certain Christians speak of the Spirit’s witness (usually citing Romans 8), this sort of understanding of the expression is fairly common:

“God’s primary method of leading us in matters the Bible does not specifically address (such as which job to take or which person to marry), is the inner witness, which is a knowing communicated by the Holy Spirit to our spirit. It is not a voice, but an inner knowing.”

I am left with the obvious question: how is an “inner knowing” any more reliable or less subjective than hearing voices in my head? Is this really what the New Testament writers mean by the Spirit “witnessing”?