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Breaking Boundaries
Pluralism has found a home among the people of God. While pluralism — the acceptance of nonbiblical ideas and practices as compatible with biblical faith and life — is not a new phenomenon, its persistence in church history and the pervasiveness of …Read More
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Greed & Liberality
My guess is that you can’t guess who the fastest growing debtors in America are. According to the Wall Street Journal (1/19/07, W2), it’s the super rich — not to be confused with the obscenely rich. The …Read More
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Pride & Humility
Pride is the idolatry of the self. It is the nature of pride as competition with God — the displacing of God by the self at the center — that has led many Christian thinkers through the ages to regard pride (superbia …Read More
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Standing Firm
Martin Luther, in his Table Talk #403, makes the statement that “an upright shepherd and minister must improve his flock by edification, and also resist and defend it; otherwise, if resisting be absent, the wolf devours the sheep.” Resisting and …Read More
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Graven Images?
In 726, Emperor Leo’s order to destroy the image of Christ at the imperial palace provoked a riot, and a long and virulent controversy engulfed the Eastern church. Not until the Empress Irene called the second council of Nicea …Read More
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Perseverance in the Face of Persecution
Gilbert Meilaender is a truly heroic figure. I would like to share my admiration for him with others as an encouragement to persevere in the face of persecution. Meilaender is an internationally known ethicist and one of a group of …Read More
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American Idols
We are made in God’s image. The sheer fact that we could spend the rest of our lives contemplating what it means to be made in God’s image, without beginning to scratch the surface, reminds us that we …Read More
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Not to Us
Our society applauds the rich religious diversity found throughout the world. I know this because the satellite dish on the roof of my house keeps receiving signals from National Geographic, Discovery Channel, and a host of other programs daring …Read More
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Young Women, Idolatry & the Powerful Gospel
We are all inveterate worshipers — it’s just something we do without thinking about it. Worshiping is part of our nature because God created us to worship Him, and, by doing so, we bring both Him and ourselves deep pleasure …Read More
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The Idol-Crushing King
“Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). If the heart of man is, as John Calvin described it, “an idol-making factory,” then the way in which those idols are destroyed should be of utmost importance to us …Read More
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The Church and Idolatry
“Now set your mind and heart to seek the LORD your God” (1 Chron. 22:19). All sin is idolatry because every sin is an exercise in trust of something or someone other than the one true God to satisfy …Read More
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Eastern Idolatry
C.S. Lewis gets many things right. Years ago, he concluded that there were only two possible answers to the religious search: either Hinduism or Christianity, which are ultimate, contradictory expressions of religion—that is, either One-ist pantheism or Two-ist …Read More
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When God is Not Enough
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Augustine, Confessions). “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but …Read More