It’s not that Jesus rose bodily from the grave. When I visit a church, I notice things. The number of blacks, Asians, and Latinos in relation to whites. Whether women are on the platform. How people are dressed. The quality of the cars in the parking lot. I notice whether the congregation is old or …
A Response to ‘Jesus Didn’t Eat a Seder Meal.’ Recently, Christianity Today published an article entitled, “Jesus Didn’t Eat a Seder Meal: Why Christians Shouldn’t Either” by rabbis Yehiel E. Poupko and David Sandmel. The article argues that Christians should refrain from participating in Christian Seders as a matter of historical and ecumenical respect. We …
As ‘The Case for Christ’ heads to the big screen, the journalist-turned-evangelist reflects on what’s changed—and what’s stayed the same—about defending the faith. Nearly two decades have passed since Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ first hit bookstore shelves. Written as a response to the former journalist’s conversion from atheism, Strobel’s investigation into the truth …
My earthly father wrecked my life. Now my Heavenly Father is rebuilding it. I grew up in a violent, fundamentalist, polygamist cult—a radical offshoot of the modern-day Mormon church. My father, Ervil LeBaron, was the man at the top. He demanded total allegiance. In the 1970s and ’80s, he commanded followers to carry out mob-style …
If you want to help people see Holy Week with fresh eyes, start by dropping these familiar fallacies. 1. Don't say Jesus died when he was 33 years old. The common assertion seems reasonable that if Jesus "began his ministry" when he "was about thirty years of age" (Luke 3:23) and engaged in a three-year …
In the new hit podcast from the producers of ‘Serial,’ the shattered Imago Dei takes center stage. My favorite professor likes to say that a biblical view of humanity “needs to start in Genesis 1, not Genesis 3.” In saying so, he’s arguing for a fuller picture of what Scripture tells us about ourselves—not only …
Why Christians shouldn’t either. Passover has a special allure for Christians. It is on the night of Passover, as all Israel is offering the pascal Lamb and eating matza (unleavened bread) and bitter herbs on the slopes of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem that Jesus of Nazareth meets with his 12 disciples for the Last …
The ‘thief‘ may not be who you think it is. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy,” Jesus says in John 10:10. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” A quick quiz: Who is the thief? When I ask my students this question, they almost …
Vancouver pastor: How the church can model civil discourse amid controversy. When Franklin Graham came to my hometown of Vancouver last month, it caused a great deal of controversy—and I found myself caught in the middle of it. I treasure and place great personal importance on my relationship with the extended Graham family. Leighton Ford, …
A Catholic perspective. I have long been sympathetic with Father Yves Congar’s famous remark that if figures on both sides of the Reformation divide had been a bit more open-minded and open-hearted, there might be a Lutheran order in the Catholic Church today, just as there are Dominicans, Franciscans, Benedictines, and, indeed, Augustinians, the religious …