Gospels | TLG Christian News

The “Lost” Chapter

23/06/2016 0 Comment

Of the four gospels in the New Testament, the one written by the physician Luke is my favorite. It has more words of Jesus than any other book in the Bible. If you have a Red Letter Bible, where all the direct words of Jesus are in red letters, there you will notice at times page after page is all in red. This is a marvelous fact since Luke was not one of the original disciples and came to know Jesus through the memories of others. Secular tradition says that Luke was well acquainted with Peter,..

Top Ten Books 5

17/06/2016 0 Comment

Jesus Roiling His World

Ministry in the 1980s included a two year teaching opportunity on the faculty of Moody Bible Institute and being called as pastor to Bella Vista Church, Rockford, MI, where I served 24 years. You can imagine the many books that I read to keep my mind and heart vibrant. Yet, reflecting on the decade of the 80s, two books were profoundly influential on my view of Jesus and pastoral ministry. In the line-up today is book #5 of ten that shaped my life: Donald B. ..

How To Use Your Mind To Engage a Broken World

16/06/2016 0 Comment

Luke 10:27 tells us, “…’You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ (NLT).” Sadly though, many Christians, if not most, tend to leave out the “mind” portion of this verse. They wrongfully think there should be no intellect in Christianity. “Leave the theology to those in the ‘Ivory Towers.’” Well, this should not be the case.
In addition, we often hear Christians..

Church Grammar: Theology as the Language of Christianity

01/06/2016 0 Comment

If you’re anything like me, you’ve had your favorite dinnertime evangelists, the local Jehovah’s Witnesses, show up at your door. They’re kind. They smile. And they even tuck in their shirts. To top it all off, they speak Christianese pretty well.
Or do they?
Though they sound like Christians, they come bearing bad news–an anti-gospel that denies the divinity of Jesus and only offers the possibility of Heaven for a select few people. Their gospel sounds so close to the bib..

Risen: Not Just Another Bible Movie

17/02/2016 0 Comment

A scene from the new movie, Risen, starring Joseph Fiennes.

There are films that are entertaining. There are films that are soul-stirring. And there are films that are faithful to the source material (when the source material is the Bible, this third category becomes an important one for many believers). It is rare to experience a film that checks one or two of these boxes, let alone all three. Risen, starring Joseph Fiennes and opening in theaters February 19, is a film that definitively inhabi..

Risen: fictional or historical?

28/01/2016 0 Comment

Risen, in the spirit of Mel Gibson’s Passion, is a forthcoming blockbuster film about the first few days after Christ’s resurrection. It tells the tale from the perspective of a roman soldier, who, tasked with disproving the resurrection, finds his assumptions challenged and his worldview shattered. I love historically responsible depictions of Biblical and classical events, and I can’t wait for this film to appear.

But is the film accurate? Does its story depict things the way they (probably) were, or is its tale-telling too fanciful? I haven’t seen the movie yet, but the fact – surprising perhaps – is that the historical evidence for Christ’s bodily resurrection is actually quite strong for such an ancient event. Consider the following three points.

First, there were numerous people in a number of different circumstances who encountered Jesus after his death. These stories appear in the Biblical gospels and they were attested to by other ancient writers as well. True, the writers of ..

Hope of the World

15/12/2015 0 Comment

In the Bible, the following story is told only in the gospel of Matthew. It is powerful. It is unique. It is also as puzzling as it is captivating. If we let it, this story is not only beautiful but also as relevant today as the morning news.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod he..

“Enlightenment” and True Freedom

11/12/2015 0 Comment

“I think, therefore I am.”

René Descartes penned this popular line in his 1637 treatise, Discourse on the Method, and it’s a good summary of the book itself. Heralding the importance of scientific discoveries and the necessity of doubting one’s own view of the world, Descartes’s work is often considered the first domino to fall in what is now called the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment, with its explosion of scientific discoveries and philosophical arguments, had one task:..

My 5 Favorite Books of 2015

07/12/2015 0 Comment

It seems like everyone makes a best books list around this time, so adding my list probably isn’t going to shatter anybody’s world. In any event, there are a few reasons why I’ve compiled this list. First, I love reading and I love to share what I’m reading. Second, I’m also always encouraged by others’ thoughts and their lists often help me pick out a few last books for my Christmas wish list. Third, I get a lot of books from publishers, and while I don’t feel compelled t..