I began to respond to a comment my cousin Jeremy made in response to my recent blog “The Surprising Reason I’m Not Celebrating Homosexual Marriage“. He says: Doug, I really like your approach, but it’s hard to draw a line between what the Bible teaches, and what we think it teaches (i.e. our interpretation). You
Tag: the gospel
A Christian Nation
Christians’ beliefs understandably inform their views on politics. We passionately believe that if everyone were to be more Christ-like, our country would be a better place. We long for people to be treated equally, compassionately, and healed from their ailments. We long for peace, security, and freedom. We long for the end of injustice and
The Gospel Reinvisioned
What if I told you there is a place where every wrong will eventually be made right, where every hurt is healed? A place where everything broken will be fixed, and where every one is freed from themselves so they can be whom they are supposed to be. Would you be interested? There is a
Questions: God’s Love?
Dale Fincher recently shared a short video in which a pair of prominent theologians speak. He used this as a launching point for discussing God’s love. This video sparked a number of questions in my mind. Watch the video and consider the following: What do you think? Is it dangerous to share God’s love? Does
The Gospel is Jesus
The Gospel is a topic I’ve addressed on a couple of occasions. But it is important enough to revisit. I have some new insights since I last wrote about it. Many of us are aware that “gospel” means good news. This is true, but there is more to it that just this. One specific and
Offensiveness of the Gospel
At times I’ll hear someone talk about how the gospel is offensive. In virtually every case, what the person has in mind is something along the lines of “non-Christians don’t like the ‘gospel’ because it confronts them with their sin.” Yet I want to suggest that this doesn’t match with what we find in the
Book Review: The Explicit Gospel, Part 2
Part 1 The eighth chapter (“Consummation”) contains one of the only new and insightful pieces of information I found in the book. The chapter basically takes a quick look at eschatology (the end of the world). Chandler shares that when the bible speaks of “a new heaven and new earth”, the word for new used
Book Review: The Explicit Gospel, Part 1
I’ve had a challenging time deciding what I think of Matt Chandler’s book, “The Explicit Gospel”. To be honest, I agreed with most of what he said, yet much of the book sat uneasily with me. I’m going to explore the reasons I believe this is the case. Basically, “The Explicit Gospel” is a summary
5. What is the Gospel (Good News)?
5. What is the Gospel (good news)? If asked, most Christians would probably recite something along the lines of, “Jesus died for your sins so that you can have a relationship with God and so that you can go to heaven instead of hell when you die.” This is true, but it’s only part of
What is the Core of Christianity? What is the “Good News”?
Talking to a friend the other night, it occurred to me that there are basically two big questions that I’ve wrestled with for years in regards to Christianity. One is, “What is the core of Christianity?” or “What are the essential elements without which you don’t have Christianity?” The second question is, “What is the