Father’s Day: An Important Question

Is God your Father?

You sum up the whole of New Testament teaching in a single phrase, if you speak of it as a revelation of the Fatherhood of the holy Creator. In the same way, you sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God.

~J.I. Packer~

Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL; Intervarsity Press; 1993) p. 266. (HT: Crossquotes)

Read Full Post »

Are Mormons Christians?

In a recent op-ed piece in the NY Times, one Mormon answers the question of this post emphatically, “I am not a Christian.”

Justin Taylor both comments on the piece and provides a very helpful review of the key differences between Mormon beliefs and Christian doctrine.  Read “Are Mormons Christians?”

Read Full Post »

What is the future of national Israel?

One of the foundational tenets of dispensational theology is that God has a future for national, ethnic Israel.  But did you know that many throughout church history, including many in the Reformed tradition have shared a belief in the future salvation of the Jewish nation?

Nathan Busenitz supplies the evidence with quotes from Tertullian (2nd century) to Spurgeon (19th century).  Read “Church History and Israel’s Future.”

Read Full Post »

The end of your story

Mark Altrogge reminds us in “The Story Isn’t Finished”:

God isn’t finished writing your story either. He’s still writing your children’s stories. Still writing the story of your church. He isn’t finished yet, but we know how the story ends –  he accomplishes all his purposes. He conquers sin and darkness and sickness and sadness.

And in the end–Jesus wins!

Read Full Post »

What waiting tells us

“How I respond when I have to wait tells me everything about what I’m living for and trusting in at that moment.” Jeff Purswell

Read Full Post »