Clearly, there can be no eternal subordination in terms of being. That would deny what the Nicene Creed affirms and affirm what it denies. But describing the social dimensions of the Trinity is far more difficult. I decline to speculate where I am not authorized by Scripture to go, but there is something important to the fact that the Father is eternally the Father and the Son is eternally the Son. Affirming separate wills within the Trinity would be heresy, but ..
Russia has been accused of backing the Russian Orthodox Church at the expense of evangelicals.
Russian evangelicals are praying, fasting and petitioning President Vladimir Putin after measures severely restricting their ability to evangelise and practise their faith were passed by the country's upper legislative house.
The measures are included in a package of anti-terrorism laws put forward by Deputy Irina Yarovaya and have now been passed by both houses, the Duma and the Federati..
Two Iraqi asylum seekers, including a 16-year-old, stood behind an alter seeking sanctuary. They were accompanied by Church-goers in solidarity
A 16-year-old Iraqi was among the asylum seekers forcibly removed from a church in Iceland by police, and is now facing deportation.
The Icelandic church opened its doors to two Iraqi asylum-seekers, Ali Nasir and Majed, on Monday evening, hoping to prevent their deportation.
Police and immigration officials entered the building at 4 am. The t..
Orthodox evangelicals believe in something called a “closed cannon.” In other words, we believe the Bible as it is presently constructed – 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament – are the complete, written, inspired, inerrant Word of God. This matters for lots of reasons, but two big ones: a) we have all we need for faith and practice (2 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 3:16) and b) there is no new revelation, no new Scripture. The latter point takes seriously Revelation 22:19 in th..
As Harold O. J. Brown warned, the gates of hell often come very close to the church. Confusing the questions endangers the church, and no faithful theologian would willingly risk that danger.
I have spent my entire adult lifetime concerned with the danger of heresy. As a young theologian, I worked through the early centuries of church history and understood that knowing the difference between orthodox Christianity and heresy is really a matter of life and death for the church. A failure to recognize and refute heresy means disaster for the church and its witness to Christ.
At the same time, I saw that two dangers quickly emerged. The first, and most dangerous, is the unwillingness of many modern theologians to acknowledge the reality and danger of heresy. Liberal theology denied the possibility of heresy and then openly embraced it. The second danger is like the fable of the b..
Just over two weeks ago, our lives were turned upside down when our three-year-old grandson, Chandler was taken to the hospital by ambulance with severe necrotizing pneumonia. We’re so thankful for the many who have prayed for Chandler in these past days, and we’re thankful for how the Lord has answered prayer in bringing healing.
Although Chandler is now at home and resting well, he still has pneumonia and is taking strong antibiotics. We ask for continued prayers for his full recovery and tha..
I don’t see how CBMW can move forward from this in a healthy way without cleaning house and publicly apologizing to those it has misled. How can CBMW speak to a culture with “widespread uncertainty and confusion in our culture regarding the complementary differences between masculinity and femininity” (from the first rationale in the Danvers Statement) when there is diverse teaching on both first order doctrine and complementary differences within their own council? And why should..
The second book in the 1980s that profoundly influenced me and my ministry is Eugene H. Peterson, Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work. Think of all the phrases: paradigm shift, game changer, a new way of seeing, where have I been all my life. This little book literally overhauled my identity and vocation of pastor. I wrote about the transformative impact of Peterson’s book in my book Jesus the Pastor: Leading Others in the Character and Power of Christ. Eugene graciously wrote the..
When my husband and I went to our first home school convention in 1992, we expected to discover curriculum and how-to’s. My husband picked up a sample of a devotional booklet from an exhibitor on our way out the door at the end of the day. In a sea of vendors hawking brightly-colored curriculum promising academic success and spiritual bulletproofing to prospective home school f..
Patriarchs disagree over how many disputes—out of centuries' worth—to tackle in 10 days.
The last time the 14 separate branches of the Orthodox church met, in 787, they hadn’t yet split with the Roman Catholic church.
So pulling together a Holy and Great Council meeting of the global representatives of 300 million Orthodox Christians for next week hasn’t been easy—even with the event being discussed since 1961.
A number of issues have cropped up in the last 1,000-plus years. The short li..