Rainbows signify something more than a post-Flood peace offering. There is more to a rainbow than meets the eye. In one sense, I mean that literally: The human eye cannot see the colors at either end of the spectrum, despite the pictures you see in children’s Bibles. But in another sense, I mean it symbolically. …
If God wants us to believe in him, why doesn’t he come out of hiding? When I read that songwriter Michael Gungor told his wife, Lisa, “I don’t believe in God anymore,” I experienced a familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was the same one I’d had a couple of years before …
Why a Christian response to global warming is about more than rising temperatures. Last week, the world’s leading climate scientists released a sobering report, which claimed that there are only a dozen years to keep the Earth’s climate from increasing by 1.5 degrees Celsius. If the planet fails to do so, the United Nations Intergovernmental …
A brief response to Robert Foster on my book, ‘Irresistible.’ I want to thank Robert Foster for reading and engaging with my latest book, Irresistible. To begin, I’d like to clarify a few points. First, I’d like to put to rest any fears that my truncated quotation of 2 Timothy 3:16 in the book was …
An open letter to congregants. Dear churchgoer, You may not know it, but this is a significant month for your pastor. October is Pastor Appreciation Month, bringing with it a complex mix of conflicting thoughts and emotions for most pastors. A few weeks ago, I spoke with a pastor friend about his recent day off. …
Ahead of the midterms, the Billy Graham Center Institute examined the most infamous statistic about faith and the 2016 election. Over the past two years, few statistics have sparked as much debate both inside and outside evangelicalism as the fact that 81 percent of white evangelical voters picked Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Depending …
Answer these questions to find out. A 2014 survey conducted by LifeWay Research for Ligonier Ministries reveals that many American evangelicals hold views condemned as heretical by some of the most important councils of the early church. Nearly a quarter of participants believe false teachings about Jesus, and more than half about the Holy Spirit. …
Other than God and people, they’re the most mentioned living thing in the Bible. I’ve always loved trees. I love their look, their shade, the sound of wind in their leaves, and the taste of every fruit they produce. As a grade-schooler, I first planted trees with my father and grandfather. I’ve been planting them …
Why Andy Stanley’s “unhitching” robs Christianity of power. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus finishes a long series of parables by asking his disciples, “Have you understood all this?” They reply, “Yes.” Then Jesus closes his teaching, saying, “Therefore, every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is …
What space exploration tells us about human curiosity, from Eden to Mars. Blue is the color of Mars at sunset. From the surface, the cold, dim light of the setting sun comes in from the horizon as it competes with the ever-present dust, thick in the air. The plains of graveled hematite that were once …