“Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
One of the questions that has haunted humans since sin entered into the world is why bad things happen. How do we reconcile the presence of evil in the world with our innate sense that the world was designed to be good? For those who have heard the Christian claims of a God who is perfectly loving and all-powerful at one and the same time this challenge becomes even more acute. Read the rest…
In this past Sunday’s installment of A Word on Reality, we paused with John to be reminded once again how we can know what’s true and what’s not. In a world that is awash in different voices claiming to have the corner of the truth market, how do we figure out which voices are worth heeding and which are to be tossed out with the garbage? Keep reading to find out…
Test Every Spirit
If I were to ask you what the fastest growing religious affiliation in this country is according to recent survey data, what would you guess it to be? Let’s take a look at the broad categories starting with the group “religious, Christian.” From 1990-2008 the number of adults identifying themselves as part of a mainline Christian denomination (most Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopals, Lutherans, and the like) in the U.S. shrank by about 10%, or a total loss of 3.5 million members. The number of Baptists grew by about 6% or a little over two million people. Folks identifying themselves as either Pentecostals or simply nondenominational of some sort grew by 40% and 25%, respectively. And, just to round things out, the number of Catholics grew about 25%, although most of that was from immigration, not conversion. Read the rest…
The Nexus 