Imagine that you were called to minister to Nazi war criminals. That’s exactly what happened to Henry Gerecke, a Lutheran minister enlisted (at the age of fifty!) as an Army chaplain during World War II. At the war’s end, when other soldiers were coming home, Gerecke was called to the most difficult ministry assignment imaginable: to serve as chaplain to…
In his The Doctrine of the Word of God, John Frame presents what he calls a “thought experiment.” “Imagine God speaking to you right now, as realistically as you can imagine, perhaps standing at the foot of your bed at night. He speaks to you like your best friend, your parents, or your spouse. In the Bible, God often spoke…
In his Exegetical Fallacies, D. A. Carson presents the parable of Ernest Christian. Ernest, who represents the typical new seminary student, experiences the unpleasant phenomena of “distanciation.” Distanciation refers to the act of distancing oneself from a matter for the purpose of looking at it more objectively. For many students this is a new–and disturbing–way to approach the Bible. Carson…
“On March 9, 1974, Japanese Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda walked out of the jungle of on a remote island in the Philippines, finally convinced that World War II was over–29 years after it had ended. Trained as an intelligence officer in guerrilla warfare, he was told to survive at all cost. No matter what happened, his superiors would come for him….
For a generation, C. S. Lewis’ Miracles: A Preliminary Study was, at a popular level, the best book on the subject of miracles. Last fall Eric Metaxas published Miracles: What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life. His work probably will be the new standard. Here’s just a brief excerpt: “What if we could accept…
In a recent edition of First Things, J. Budziszewski argues that a sea change is about to happen in western culture. The first time the Gospel arrived the in the west, pagans were converted to Christ. Now, as the culture is dominated by a neo-paganism, Budziszewski believes a re-evangelization is about to take place. However, as the title of the…
For about a month we have been looking at the answers given by evangelicals to two questions: 1) did animal death exist before the fall of Adam and Eve?, and 2) what was the impact of Adam’s fall on the rest of Creation? We have summarized the answers provided by young-earth creationists (YEC), by old-earth creationists (OEC), and a hybrid…
Thomas Nagel is one of the premier philosophers living today. This is one reason why his recent criticisms of Darwinism have caused such a stir. In his latest book, Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly Wrong, Nagel argues that materialism is incapable of explaining the phenomena of human consciousness. One thing that makes…
When thinking about the mystery of God–whether contemplating His nature, His character, or the facets of His will–one quickly finds himself muttering Rumsfeldian quotes. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, talking about military intelligence, (in) famously observed, “As we know, there are known knowns; there are things that we know that we know. We also know there are known unknowns;…
“Our culture simply doesn’t know what to think about death,” begins an engaging read by Rob Moll entitled The Art of Dying: Living Fully Into the Life to Come (IVP Books, 2010). If you think me morbid for my interest in this subject, then this book was written precisely with you in mind! The title caught my attention, but even…