"If a child feels privileged to go, understands what is being done, and knows how to behave. . .he or she will be hooked on high culture [corporate worship] for life.” --Miss Manners

By five months old, infants already make the distinction between things that are acted upon and those things that do the acting, that is, intentional agents (like people). And preschoolers' default assumption is that these agents are super-knowing, are super-perceiving, and are not going to die. If a child is exposed to the idea of a god that is immortal, super-knowing, super-perceiving, the child doesn't have to do a lot of work to learn that idea; it fits the child's intuitions.

When the liberal arts are separated from the Creator of the universe and from a higher, overarching purpose, save for common grace, man corrupts the truth and follows after evil. Such secular teaching cultivates in students a fragmented, disconnected perspective of the world that encourages each individual to import and apply his or her own meaning to life. Gene... Continue Reading

“I’ve just come out of a pulpit-selection process in which I have been quizzed and questioned by people who knew what their church believed and were anxious to know whether I measured up to their doctrinal position. They pulled no punches as they probed my answers, listened to my sermons, and read my responses to make sure there was a unity in the truth." -- L. Goligher

The portion where Dr. Butterfield is the most critical (and appropriately so) is where she helps us see where our spiritual formation is too often superficial and how the church frequently allows us to frolic in our biblical immaturity.

But, we need to learn how to engage in politics and talk about politics in ways that encourage people and don’t turn them off. So, where better to practice these skills and to learn how to talk well about politics than within our churches, within our small groups, so that when we interact with our... Continue Reading

Plantinga defends two claims throughout his book. One is that there is “a superficial conflict but deep concord between theistic religion and science;” the other is that there is “a superficial concord and deep conflict between naturalism and science.” The bulk of the book is devoted to the first claim. Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam... Continue Reading

It also presents the empirical evidence for thinking carefully and soberly about embracing contraception. In this day and age, such a suggestion will seem ridiculous to Christians and non-Christians alike, but the data is undeniable. If we want to think seriously and Christianly about sex, then we need to think seriously about contraception.   When... Continue Reading

The big change, then, that started happening in the 1960s and then increasingly by the 1980s, was twofold. First, Roe v Wade got everybody interested (or more interested) in politics. But the second, even more important, change was that the dominant Protestant group was no longer the Methodists. It was now Southern Baptist

Word, Sacraments and Prayer will change the world, one soul at a time. And these saved souls will have a leavening influence in every sphere of their lives, as God blesses. And then, when all is said and done, and our Lord returns in glory, we shall see that which was built upon Christ alone and His Gospel, and that which burns up to no reward.