His name was Charles, and he worked with the Boy Scouts in our state. A troop was starting to use our building, and I was the staff liaison. Charles and I met together every month, and I found out that he was a Baptist preacher and a serious Christian. Over the years, I watched Charles walk through the nightmare of his wife leaving him, divorcing him, and marrying another man. He lost his ministry and was a broken person.

What I remember most is a discussion we had one day when Charles kept referring to the woman who was now married to another man as his wife, and continued to talk about his hope of reconciliation. She had abandoned him. She had divorced him. She had married another man and started another family. Charles refused to recognize any of these things as a “done deal.” He had no plans to move on with his life or to recognize these events as “final.” In his mind and heart, he was a married man, praying and hoping for reconciliation and a return to ministry.

You won’t be surprised, I’m sure, that I told Charles he needed to accept what had happened as real and over. I urged him to recognize that his marriage was over, his wife was now living as the wife of another man, and God wanted him to move on. Waiting for his wife to leave her new family and come back to him was not the path God had set before him. His way forward was to accept the tragedy and to find the good gifts of God in a new chapter.Continue reading “Divorce, Remarriage and The Gospel: Part 1”

Nevertheless, young people do not feel disenchanted, lost or alienated in a meaningless world. “Instead, the data indicated that they found meaning and significance in the reality of everyday life, which the popular arts helped them to understand and imbibe.” Their creed could be defined as: “This world, and all life in it, is meaningful as it is”, translated as: “There is no need to posit ultimate significance elsewhere beyond the immediate experience of everyday life.” The goal in life of young people was happiness achieved primarily through the family…The researchers were also shocked to discover little sense of sin or fear of death. Nor did they find any Freudian guilt as a result of private sensual desires. The young people were, however, afraid of growing old. – Recent article in the London Times.

“I am a deeply religious nonbeliever…. This is a somewhat new kind of religion.” -Albert Einstein

Romans 3:11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.Continue reading “A God-Shaped Void? Maybe Not”

David Wayne has an excellent post at Jollyblogger on the foolishness of what he calls a “purely” incarnational ministry, by which he means a focus on the earthly ministry of Jesus that omits the present reign of Jesus as Lord of the universe and Lord of the church. Mostly because I really don’t like the title, and because as someone whose theology centers around the incarnation, this whole business challenges me pretty deeply, I want to respond to a few of David’s thoughts.

For starters, there’s this:

In his typical snarky way, Driscoll says that the exclusively incarnational Jesus who forms the basis for so much of the emergent church is a hippie Jesus. I don’t know if Driscoll said it this way, but I am thinking of a guy with long hair and a beard, a long tie-dyed robe and sandals with a guitar singing “I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony . . . ” I guess maybe I’m picturing the Coca-Cola Jesus (and for those of you who don’t get that, you are way young – ask someone over 40 what I am alluding to – and if they don’t know ask them just how stoned they really were during the whole 70’s).

I don’t know if this is the right place to start, but it is a provocative point. David- and Driscoll if this is a quote of any accuracy- may be caricaturing the emerging view of Jesus for the sake of a point. I’ll admit that there have been people promoting a “guru/hippie” Christ for decades, but if they are, it’s at the expense of the Gospel record.Continue reading “Triumph of the Hippie Jesus?”

Readers interested in an objective view of the life of A.W. Pink should read Iain Murray’s Biography of Pink, which has the virtue of being complimentary of Pink the theologian and teacher, and honestly critical of Pink’s eventual inability to be part of a church fellowship.Continue reading “Stop Me Before I Turn Into A.W. Pink”

With all the discussion of Marcus Borg’s “Christianity” lately, it might be good to actually read the man. So for those who want to hear from Borg what he believes, I’ve put together a few Marcus Borg links that should provide you a good introduction.Continue reading “Marcus Borg: Decide For Yourself”