As we draw near to the dawning of the 21st century we hear much talk about the “Shape of the church in the 21st century.” Seminars are offered which are intended to teach us how to be prepared for ministry in the 21st century. You can go into any Christian bookstore and find an increasing […]
Question: What do you believe concerning the “holy catholic church” of Christ? Answer: That the Son of God from the heginning to the end of the world, gathers, defends, and preserves to Himself hy His Spirit and Word, out of the whole human race, a Church chosen to everlasting life, agreeing in true faith; and […]
We have heard predictable explanations for the tragic killings of four children and a teacher by children in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Some say it’s violence on television and in films. While today’s graphic “entertainment” violence is far worse than the cowboys, vaporizing aliens and monsters I grew up watching, that alone seems an incomplete excuse. Others […]
Recently, the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, a broad coalition of Christian leaders, released an “Appeal to Fellow Evangelicals” to the Christian community in response to “The Gift of Salvation,” a joint Evangelical-Roman Catholic statement of the Gospel sponsored by Charles Colson of Prison Fellowship and Roman Catholic theologian, John Richard Neuhaus. The Alliance issued its […]
We are in the fight of our lives. Daily you can tune in to the skirmishes as they unfold on CNN or CNBC.you can watch the debates on C-SPAN. You can hear the crack or idealogical canon fire on “Crossfire,” and you can almost see the soul of America shriveling up like cellophane on hot […]
In the Patmos model of revival and reformation all the outer garments of Judaism and institutional Christianity had been removed. Five essentials were there. John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day. There was a Christian, the Spirit of Christ, the Word, the lampstands and the Lord’s Day. (This is not a model for […]
Many of us are probably familiar with the saying, “there is nothing more certain than death and taxes.” Not only does this saying reveal an almost universal distaste for paying taxes, but it also reveals a grudging recognition that life, at least life in this body, eventually comes to an end. Though people are adept […]
An elderly Oregon woman who suffered from breast cancer took a prescription dose of barbituates recently, mixed the drugs with syrup, and washed down the concoction with a glass of brandy. She then drifted off to sleep. And never woke up. “I am looking forward to it,” said the woman, reportedly a grandmother in her […]
Members of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission heard some sharp criticism of state lotteries at a recent meeting in Boston, but several of those same critics stopped short of calling for an end to the state-sponsored practice. “We need to understand that this is a national addiction with significant social consequences, because lotteries are […]
Outlook readers probably all sensed God’s hand at work in 1989 when the Communist governments of Eastern Europe began to collapse. One after the other they toppled like dominoes in a row . It seemed to me that God was both judging the system of communism and offering the people who had lived in darkness […]