The Practice of Christian Hospitality
by Emily Vickery The Biblical command to be hospitable often makes us feel the need to buy better decorations for the living room or find the perfect recipe for teacakes. It conjures up images of lace doilies and fine china and often leaves us feeling quite unable to measure up to the Mary Berrys and Joanna Gaineses of the world. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In her latest book, Rosaria Butterfield advocates for what she refers...
Who Is Jesus? William Whiston and Athanasius Convicted of Forgery
Introduction Who is Jesus Christ? It’s hard to imagine a more foundational question for the Christian faith. In fact, after Jesus’ own disciples rattled off other peoples’ opinion of Him, He directly asked them: “But who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29, ESV) In some ways, the answer may be simple, but, in other ways, it is more complex than we might expect. Some have argued that Jesus is a created being, even the greatest of all...
Free Will Baptists and Communion: Open but Cautious
by Cory Thompson When the church observes the Lord’s Supper, who is invited? All believers? Only properly baptized believers? Only members of that particular Baptist church? Baptists have debated the question of who may come to the Lord’s Table since their beginning. Defining Open and Closed Communion Baptists have answered this question in two ways: closed communion and open communion. Closed communion is the position that only...
Unity and Diversity: Reaching the Hispanic Population in the U.S.
By Zuri and Rebekah Zuniga Introduction In the 1990s, two Spanish-speaking Free Will Baptist churches (Iglesias Bautistas Libre[1]) were formed that have had tremendous, positive impact on our lives. Our experiences in these churches taught us about service, humility, and Hispanic culture. Our time working with these churches also allowed us to see the shortcomings of a Spanish-language-only[2] model for our Free Will Baptist churches...
What Concord Hath Christ with Marx: Can Socialism and Marxism be Christianized?
Socialism has become a dominant topic of discussion in American culture recently. Since the 2016 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders (b. 1941), many Democrats across America have made public their affinity for socialism and socialist policies. No one who has spent time on a state or liberal private university campus in recent years should be surprised by this development. Democrats are simply playing to a significant portion of...
Modern Technology and the Human Future: A Christian Appraisal
(Note: An earlier version of this book review appeared on the Center for the Study of Ethics and Technology website) The world is changing quickly. The nature of the change varies from region to region, but behind these economic, social, and political “accelerations,” to use Thomas Friedman’s term, lays one unified force: modern technology. “Modern automatic machine technologies,” as author and professor Craig Gay states it, are...
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