Reflections on the 2015 Theological Symposium
This past Monday and Tuesday, numerous students, scholars, and ministry leaders gathered in Mabee Hall on the campus of Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College for the annual Free Will Baptist Theological Symposium. The theme of this year’s program was “The Theology of Discipleship.” As eight participants of various scholarly backgrounds presented papers on a diversity of subjects, it was rewarding to see how each subject not only bore...
Responding to Intolerance: World Transformation
Increasingly we find ourselves in a society that treats us with hostility for our Christian convictions.* What do we do? How do we respond? First, we allow the gospel to transform our lives, impacting our heads, hearts, and hands, as the saying goes (see Responding to Intolerance: Life Transformation). However, salvation is about more than our personal redemption; it’s about the renewal of the world. Thus we respond to intolerance by...
The Battle for the Mind
Conservative Christians are often perceived by the world as backward, bumbling purveyors of ignorance. Some even go so far as to describe conservative Christians as willfully ignoring plain facts in order to retain outdated views. These representations are painful, sometimes infuriating, though perhaps not completely unfounded. Even though Peter commanded us to always be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason...
Recommended Books (Autumn 2015)
Orthodoxy (right teaching) and orthopraxy (right actions) are ever present concerns and topics of discussion for Christians. The New Testament is replete with pleas for the church to protect the sound doctrine that had been handed down to them and to live in accordance with the Scriptures. One generation later, Clement of Rome (ad 95) rebuked the Corinthian church: though they used to have “[t]he commandments and the ordinances of the...
Scripture and Decision-Making
In a world filled with test-tube babies, drones, and physician-assisted suicide, Christian ethics can become unpredictable, with positions turning irrelevant as soon as they are broadcasted. This dilemma causes us to ask, how do we move from the ancient text of the Bible to contemporary ethical issues? Do the Old and New Testaments give answers for ethical dilemmas in public policy, genetics, creation care, and politics? While moral...
Faith Versus Science?
by Benjamin Banks Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827), a French mathematician, physicist, and astronomer, was most known for applying Newton’s theory of gravitation to the solar system. The product was a complex system of planetary movement that extended and supplemented Newton’s theory. Presented with the work, Napoleon remarked, “They tell me you have written this large book on the system of the universe, and have never even mentioned...
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