Theology | TLG Christian News

What Happened at the United Methodist General Conference 2016?

23/05/2016 0 Comment

Timothy Tennent, a United Methodist who is president of Asbury Theological Seminary (with roots firmly planted in Wesleyan soil), reflects upon the recent general conference for the United Methodists. Here is an excerpt:

In the past the system managed to work reasonably well because, despite the numbers, there was a broad agreement concerning the gospel, the Wesleyan message, and there was, frankly, more integrity about covenant keeping. All of that is gone today. The church is left without lea..

That the Word of the Lord May Speed Ahead

20/05/2016 0 Comment

Paul yearns to see the Word of God, the gospel of Christ, race across the world, knowing that the Day of the Lord is coming, when there will be no more days left to preach.

If you want to know what people really believe, the philosopher Roger Scruton once explained, listen to them pray. It is one thing to ask a person what he believes, but it is another thing to listen to him pray. Prayers reveal the underlying theology. As the old Latin formula reminds us, Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi — As we pray, so we believe.

I think we can safely take Roger Scruton’s point one step further. We learn a great deal about someone by what they ask others to pray for. That point draws me to the Apostle Paul, and to his prayer requests as found in 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5.

“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered fr..

Pastors: The End of the World is Complicated

26/04/2016 0 Comment

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Most Protestant pastors believe Jesus will return in the future. But few agree about the details of the apocalypse.

A third of America’s Protestant pastors expect Christians to be raptured—or taken up in the sky to meet Jesus—as the end times begin. About half think a false messiah known as the Antichrist will appear sometime in the future.

A surprising number think the Antichrist has already been here or isn’t on his way at all.

Those are among the findings ..

New Book — Rooted: Theology For Growing Christians

18/04/2016 0 Comment

As you may know, my friend Jeff Medders and I wrote a short, accessible book on the most important doctrines of the Christian faith. It’s called Rooted: Theology for Growing Christians, and it released this weekend from Rainer Publishing.

As two men who’ve served in church leadership in various ways, we kept running into laypeople who were accidental Universalists, Arians, mystics, and even worse. We’ve found that it’s often not their fault; rather, they spent most of thei..

The Withering of Vice and the Sexual Revolution

15/03/2016 0 Comment

The modern or postmodern quest for sexual emancipation cannot be neutral when it comes to the teachings of the Bible and the moral witness of historic Christianity.

This post is the final in a four part series on Secularization and the Sexual Revolution.

How Did We Get Here?

The question remains, how did all this happen? As already noted, the sexual revolution did not emerge in a vacuum. Modern societies created a context for moral revolution that had never been available in intellectual terms before. In other words, certain cultural conditions had to prevail in order for the revolution to get the traction it needed to succeed. One of the things we need to note is that we are looking at an explicitly cosmopolitan revolution.

Urbanization, Technology, and the Weakening of the Family

Modernity and modernization brought urbanization such that increased numbers of people were now livin..

Searching for Jesus: A Q&A with Risen’s Joseph Fiennes

17/02/2016 0 Comment

Rome, Italy – February 3, 2016: Joseph Fiennes attends RISEN photocall overlooking Vatican City.

“If I was to take anything away personally from making this film, it’s the concept of redemption and forgiveness and second chances. The second chance for Clavius resonates with me, and I think it might for a lot of people.” — Joseph Fiennes, who plays Roman Military Tribune Clavius in the new movie, Risen

What would it be like to be the Roman military official assigned to find the body of Jesus afte..

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..

Inside Out (2015)

19/06/2015 0 Comment

Take a deep dive into your own head. Do an archaeological dig. Work your way all the way to the center. What do you find?

Core memories. Foundational impressions. The moments that made you.

Me? Mine are almost all related to creativity:

– Reading books — fairy tales and fantasy, mostly.
– Writing and illustrating my own fantasy stories with crayons, and then learning how to type out the words with my index finger on a typewriter.
– Drawing pictures on church bulletins during church while my mom softly shushed me.
– Opening presents on Christmas morning at my grandparents’ house, and discovering that my grandfather has built me my very own puppet stage.
– Hanging out with my dad while he read theology books and graded high school students’ papers all evening.
– Playing basketball in the backyard all by myself, inventing new variations on the game, and pretending to be every player on opposing teams as I acted out whole games.
– Watching Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on the bi..