My wife and I enjoy watching period movies and TV series. Recently, we stumbled across yet another British-clergy-as-crime-fighter TV series on PBS called Grantchester. The series takes place during the 1950s and 60s in the eponymous real-life village close to Cambridge University. Its protagonists are an Anglican parish vicar and a hardened police inspector who develop an unlikely… Read More »
One of my wife’s and my favorite Bible passages is commonly known as the “Aaronic Blessing,” “Aaronic Benediction,” or “Priestly Blessing.” If you have a religious heritage based in Judaism or a liturgical Christian denomination, such as Methodist or Episcopalian, you have certainly heard it pronounced over the congregation by the rabbi or pastor, usually at the end… Read More »
For those of you who haven’t read my bio here at Miscellaneous Ramblings, I was born in El Paso, Texas, as was my mother, my half-sister, my aunt, and most of my cousins. I spent my childhood and tween years there before departing for Northern California with my parents as an early teenager. I later returned as an… Read More »
The Barna Group recently found that 80% of professing Christians do not know how to apply their Christian beliefs to their everyday lives. This condition is called “pietism.” The NT uses another term: carnality. Pietism divides human existence between the “spiritual” and the “unspiritual” aka the “sacred” and the “secular.” As a result, pietists do not believe God’s… Read More »
One of the common objections raised against the prosperity message is that Jesus, as our perfect earthly Example, and His disciples were all poor folks who didn’t have two shekels to rub together. This article will hopefully put that hoary myth out of our misery once and for all. One of my favorite non-fiction authors is the late… Read More »
One of the poster-children of the anti-prosperity crowd is an internationally-famous-within-Christendom Calvinist-Baptist theologian, pastor, and published author named John Piper. He is regarded as a theological titan among Calvinists and Baptists alike. He is the founder and teacher of desiringgod.org, chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary, pastor emeritus of Bethlehem Baptist Church, and a Council member of the… Read More »
One of the common objections I’ve heard from the many critics I’ve encountered concerning the so-called “prosperity gospel” is a theologically silly discussion of the dichotomy between “wants” and “needs.” Both sides of this discussion lay claim to the following verse, yet interpret it in entirely different ways: And my God shall supply all your need according to… Read More »
I felt led of the Spirit to clarify this term which is used both by those who accept and those who oppose the doctrine of divine prosperity, often with little precision in what is meant by it demonstrated by either side. The pro-prosperity side tends to say that God is not the Author of failure and that God… Read More »
