The Church Should Go to Hell
Why has the church today gone on the defensive behind the walls of its fortresses protecting its complacent members?
What “weapons” can the church use in its assault on the very gates of hell? Continue reading
Tag Archives: evil
An Unfortunate False Assumption
A photographer for a national magazine was assigned to take photos of an immense forest fire in the United States. Smoke at the scene hampered him, so he asked his home office to hire a plane. Arrangements were made, and he was told to go at once to a nearby… Continue reading
The Sunday Comics
When I was a child, I always looked forward to the Sunday paper. The paper for that day of the week was several times bigger than the newspaper we received the other six days. My interest was solely in the comic section which contained about five times the amount of… Continue reading
A Chilling Thought
On Saturday morning, July10, 2021, Susan and I attended a meeting of the Eastside Creation Care Network. ECCN is composed of members from various congregations on the eastside of Indianapolis. These wonderful followers of Jesus are committed to creation care and addressing the grave climate crisis threatening our world. During… Continue reading
Love and Justice
After four years of a national nightmare, at noon on January 20, 2021, most of the United States (as well as most of the world) can breathe a collective sigh of relief. We can look forward to our eyes, ears, hearts, and very souls no longer being assaulted on a daily, if not hourly basis, by a constant barrage of lies. Continue reading
Mighty Mouse Theology
(Based in part on Rob Bell’s Nooma DVD Series) Rob Bell begins an insightful analysis of God recounting a conversation he heard some years ago. Someone was telling about a dramatic moment in his life and summarized the event by saying with excitement and joy in his voice, “and then… Continue reading
Mark 8: 13-34 “Let’s Go to the Movies: ‘The Mission'”
(This sermon was preached in 1998 in the Wabash Christian Church (DoC). Unfortunately, the message in the sermon is still relevant today as the persecution, displacement, and slaughter of native peoples in Latin America continue in 2020.) The Mission is one of my favorite movies. This film is powerful and… Continue reading
A Privation of Good
Careless seems the great Avenger; history’s pages but recordOne death-grapple in the darkness ‘twixt old systems and the Word;Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,—Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own. (James Russell Lowell)… Continue reading
Genesis 6:1-4 — The First Things (What in the World Are These Verses Doing in the Bible?) Part 13
We come to one of the strangest passages in the entire Bible. Every commentator has struggled with what this passage meant for Israel and, even more so, for our day. Genesis 6:1-4 has no connection with any of the preceding stories or materials. If we take this story as a… Continue reading
The “Not Yet” of Panentheism
The word “pantheism” is comprised of two Greek words: pan (which means all or everything) and theism (which means belief in God). Pantheism asserts that God is everything and everything is God. God does not exist apart from the universe. In other words, God and the universe are identical. In… Continue reading