“Do You Know About This?”

christstjohncross.jpgA story about why I am spending my life to preach the Gospel and laboring to help others do the same.

One of the things I’m known for around our school is my insistence that the preachers who share the chapel pulpit with me preach the Gospel. If you’re an IM reader, you’ve probably read On Christless Preaching. That essay is very much who I am and what I’m all about.

To the extent that I judge other preachers, I want to know one thing: do they proclaim Christ and the Gospel? Or do they spend their time with little lessons, morality tales and the law? I am not interested in the culture war. I am not interested in young earth creationism. I don’t care about Biblical principles for raising perfect children. The Bible is about the one who came into the world for us and for our salvation. I want my preachers to present the Gospel. Consistently, Biblically and compellingly.Continue reading ““Do You Know About This?””

Evangelical Anxieties 4: Does God’s Judgment Make Christianity a Religion of Fear?

anx1.jpegEvangelical Anxieties is a series of posts on the growing phenomenon of fear as a major component of the faith of evangelical Christians.

It might seem that the subject of judgment is so similar to the subject of hell that a separate post would be inappropriate. In some ways, that would be true, but the general topic of God’s judgment extends in areas other than what will happen to us or others after death.

I am particularly interested in how evangelicals tend to see events in their lives and in history as expressions of God’s direct judgment. The belief that God is actively judging people through the events that happen in life is a significant source of fear for many Christians.Continue reading “Evangelical Anxieties 4: Does God’s Judgment Make Christianity a Religion of Fear?”

Evangelical Anxieties 3: Does Believing in Hell Make Christianity a Religion of Fear?

hellbw.jpgEvangelical Anxieties is a series of posts dealing with the issue of fear- as experience and motivation- in evangelicalism. See the category for these posts to read them all.

If there is a “fundamental” question to this series of posts, this is it. Does the doctrine of hell make Christianity a religion of fear?

If you believe in the evangelical doctrine of conscious, eternal torment as a just punishment from God for unrepentant sinners, then you are believing in a religion where fear is a rational element. Hell is a fearful doctrine. I would say that anyone who understands it and doesn’t feel some kind of fear is being inconsistent and irrational, if not delusional.

It isn’t my purpose here to talk about whether the Bible teaches a doctrine of hell. The New Testament does. I will say that I find that Christians of every variety seem to routinely have more to say about this subject than is merited by a reasonable reading of scripture. That particular habit will be a common factor in many of the topics we will visit in this series of posts.Continue reading “Evangelical Anxieties 3: Does Believing in Hell Make Christianity a Religion of Fear?”

Evangelical Anxieties 2: Fear, Faith and God’s People

anxiety3.gifI continue my look at the role of fear in evangelicalism with some thoughts on how the people of God, both now and in the Biblical past, have faced the choice between fear and faith.

Somewhere in the South, an evangelical Christian mom is suing her child’s school system over the use of the Harry Potter books in the school’s library.

This particular mother isn’t unusual in evangelicalism. I am surrounded by good, normal Christian people who are afraid of the Harry Potter books. Despite a complete lack of evidence that anyone, anywhere has become a wizard due to the influence of J.K. Rowling’s novels, hundreds of thousands of evangelical Christians are afraid these books are a tool of Satan for bringing in a New Age, occultic, end times religion.

In fact, a parody story from the internet site “The Onion,” claimed that Rowling admitted the books were written to recruit young people into Satanism. The story was used in pulpits and Christian publications everywhere to prove the exact point the story was parodying.Continue reading “Evangelical Anxieties 2: Fear, Faith and God’s People”

Evangelical Anxieties 1: Is Christianity a Religion of Fear?

anxiety3.gifThis is the first in a new series of posts exploring the increasing role fear is playing in evangelicalism. I anticipate ten or more posts in the series, and I hope they will be helpful to my readers. I could write more on these topics, but this is a blog, not a book. I look forward to your comments.
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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. -Solomon, Proverbs

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some detestable insect, over the fire, detests you, and is dreadfully provoked: His wrath towards you burns like fire; He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be thrown into the fire…-Jonathan Edwards, Sinners In The Hands of an Angry God, 1741 (Updated Language)

Is Christianity a religion of fear?Continue reading “Evangelical Anxieties 1: Is Christianity a Religion of Fear?”

Alastair “Adversaria” Roberts: The IM Interview

ar.jpg1. Let’s start with the essential bio: Who are you, where are you, how’d you get there and what are you doing with yourself?

Most people who know me will know me from my blog, Alastair.Adversaria, which I created shortly after I started studying in the University of St. Andrews, in October 2005. Before I moved to my present blog, I posted at 40Bicycles and the relatively short-lived Sacramental Blog. 40Bicycles was my first blog and was started in September 2003. I am a 26 year old student, in the third year of a four year M.Theol. course in the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Outside of term time I spend much of my time in the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England.

My name is Alastair Roberts. One of the amusing things over the past few years has been observing the various spellings of my name that have been used in the blogosphere. There are over thirty different variant spellings of Alastair and there are a number of well-known Alastairs in Christian circles — Alister McGrath, Alasdair MacIntyre, Alistair Begg, etc. The fact that just about every Alastair spells his name differently is somewhat annoying and so I am not at all offended when people spell my name wrongly.Continue reading “Alastair “Adversaria” Roberts: The IM Interview”

Grace and The Gospel in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”

prospero.jpgI love my Shakespeare, and I love relating what I teach to my students to the Gospel. Those of you who haven’t read Shakespeare will have to excuse me for indulging my passion for The Bard.

My AP English IV students just finished reading Shakespeare’s, “The Tempest.” The last few years, this play has risen in my personal Shakespeare canon to a favorite place. I’ve come to love it as wonderful prelude to the Gospel, and a longing look at the goals for the second half of life.Continue reading “Grace and The Gospel in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest””

Antidepressant Medication: A Christian Psychologist’s View by Mike Benoit

psychology4a.jpgFor one last post on the issue of Christians and Antidepressants, I’ve asked former BHT fellow Mike Benoit to share his perspective from within the discipline of psychology.

Mike Benoit is finishing a Ph.D. dissertation in Counseling Psychology and looking for an academic position somewhere. His new venture is a podcast called Giving Psychology Away found at http://givingpsychologyaway.podomatic.com/ or at iTunes. He and his wife have two children (one unborn) and live in Ohio.

All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects.” – Aldous Huxley, Brave New World on the effects of soma.

I want to publicly applaud Michael and Denise for their honesty and willingness to disclose their personal struggles to the benefit of the Body of Christ. The stigma of depression has been steadily declining in our culture, yet in the Church there remains a strong reticence to discuss any mental health issue. We need to avoid the extremes of theological discussion devoid of compassion and entirely anecdotal accounts that claim to be the last word on the issue. What follows is a reaction to my experience with many Christians struggling with depression, not just to what Michael and Denise have written.Continue reading “Antidepressant Medication: A Christian Psychologist’s View by Mike Benoit”