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Woe the Implacable Heart

One of the transforming insights I’ve gained over the last few years regards the blindness, deafness, insensibility of the human heart. I sit stupefied at the depth of human evil in many who are so untouched by divine light as to perpetrate and defend the vilest acts against...
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Weirdo Fixations and the Heart of True Religion

During my recent convalescence after surgery I received a disturbing letter from an earnest young man who was understandably distraught over his shunning from a congregation for whom he felt deep familial attachments. I know I joke around a lot, but I intend no jest here. His church...
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The Obliterating Folly of Single Text Christians

There’s been a lot of chatter on social media of late about torture. Now, torture is a powerful weasel word… i.e. a term that comes pre-loaded with good or bad sentiment meant to manipulate the outcome of an exchange without having to resort to actual discussion, facts, or...
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Confessions of a Middle Aged Professor, Part 2

In my last post, I took an honest look at my early years as a biblical studies professor. I considered a handful of things I could have done better as I was developing as a biblical theologian and scholar and attempting to minister in a highly cultured context...
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Some Lessons Can Only Be Learned IN the Fiery Furnace

In a recent set of posts on Hebrews 11:3, I was pretty brutal on Word Faith teachers… what some call Hyper-faith teachers, or the Name-it-Claim-it bunch. They teach that God HAS promised you a rose garden, and, if you aren’t living in it, that’s your fault; if you...
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Should Christians Celebrate Christmas?

I received an email this week from one of my students in India. She wanted to know if I could give her a biblical defense for celebrating Christmas. I said that I could and couldn’t. On the one hand, “Christmas” was not a known part of some church...
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