Category Archives: Articles

Rick Warren plays the Pharisee card

Rick Warren, CEO of Saddleback Church, yesterday played the Pharisee card. He wrote:

‘It drives Pharisees nuts to watch God keep blessing ministries they ridicule & despise.God’s sovereignty is often humorous.’

What’s the Pharisee card? Good question.

Legalism and licence

Which of these two statements is true?

We are never permitted to sin.
We cannot avoid sinning.

Both of these assertions appear in an excellent article by Todd Wilken (of the Issues, Etc radio programme). Todd writes:

They seem so different. One person lives his life striving for moral perfection. The other person doesn’t try that hard. The first [...]

What is a sermon for, and is it right for us to judge a poor one?

My friend James kindly posted some thoughts in response to my How to diagnose a sermon article. That article gave a three-step diagnostic (courtesy of the Issues, Etc. radio programme) for reviewing sermons. You can read his comments in full on that article, but his three main points were:

That I seemed to be ‘casting judgment [...]

What if? (Absolute truth)

Many people in the Church seem to be asking ‘What if’ questions. Which started me thinking…

What if…there exists a truth which is absolute?
What if…it is true that there is a God?
What if…this God made the heavens and the earth?

The point of the ‘sheep and the goats’ passage is NOT that we should try harder to do good works

During his Olivet discourse, Jesus tells His disciples of the coming day of judgement when He shall separate the sheep from the goats:

31When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before [...]

Am I wasting my time studying 2,000 year-old texts?

Someone called Bill left a comment on my previous post. Bill asks a good question, namely this:
Is it worthwhile for us to spend significant amounts of time studying the Bible, the newest parts of which were written over 1,900 years ago?

Yes! In every way.
Why do I believe this?

An exercise in paying close attention to the text – should elders be married and have children?

I’m guessing that your church’s elders/pastors/shepherds/overseers/bishops — Biblically, all the same office — are not required to have children, right?
Given that opening question and the title of this article, you might be expecting me now to try and convince you that they should.
Nope, that’s not it.
I am going to make the argument that elders should [...]

A listener’s guide to the pulpit

‘Most of the preachers were dynamic, engaging, interesting and even entertaining. Most of their sermons were terrible.’

I’ve just come across this magnificent article (courtesy of Chris Rosebrough from Pirate Christian Radio), written by Todd Wilken of the Issues, Etc. radio program. It clearly shows the difference between a good and bad sermon.

A listener’s guide to [...]

How to diagnose a sermon

The excellent Issues, Etc* radio programme has this very handy diagnostic for reviewing sermons:

How often is Jesus mentioned? Keep a simple running tally. It’s a problem if He is mentioned only a few times, or tucked in at the beginning or the end. If He is mentioned, even only once, go on to step 2.
Is [...]

Does God have two wills?

If it is true that the Bible teaches that God unconditionally (i.e. not on the basis of foreseen faith) chooses those who are to be saved, and it does, does the Bible contradict itself when it says that God ‘desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth’ (1 [...]