-
Submit to One Another
Our world has a strange relationship with authority. We saw this in the “Occupy” movement of a few years ago. Formally, everyone had the same role, but inevitably, “leading voices” popped up and made sure the countercultural drum circles beat to the same rhythm. Turns out that when everybody’s following the lead nonconformist, irony is not lacking. Modern Christians have had their own struggle to understand authority. One of the most frequently misunderstood passages in Scripture, for example, is Ephesians 5:21, where Paul calls for “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Some commentators have understood this verse … View Resource
-
What the Future Holds
“Religion in America takes no direct part in the government of society, but it must be regarded as the first of their political institutions; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it.” So wrote Alexis de Tocqueville in his 1835 travelogue Democracy in America. Religion as observed by the Frenchman enjoyed no prejudicial role in America. The country, unlike many in Europe, recognized no state church. Yet Tocqueville’s observation that religion was “the first of their political institutions” is equally revealing. A thousand denominations and spiritual movements flourished in the country, … View Resource
-
The Religious Affections
Many years ago, in a wild and woolly period known as the First Great Awakening, colonial pastor Jonathan Edwards took on the tricky task of sorting out what place the “religious affections,” as he called them, have in the Christian life. Here’s what he said as a foundational tenet: There are false affections, and there are true. A man’s having much affection, don’t prove that he has any true religion: but if he has no affection, it proves that he has no true religion. (Works of Jonathan Edwards 2:121) Edwards wrote these words to help people process the revivals … View Resource
Owen Strachan
Dr. Owen Strachan is associate professor of theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., and president of the Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood.
