Call me Icarus. My God-given name is Adam, and what’s unfortunate is I’ve always lived up to that name. The miracle came when God broke my rebellion and named me Christian, but when I began to suffer, the miracle seemed like wishful thinking.
Read moreIntegrating Faith and Work for a Meaningful Life
Hugh Whelchel’s book How Then Should We Work? just keeps on giving. I was reviewing my notes and came across quotes that seemed to answer the very same questions I’d been asking recently. It was uncanny.
Read moreTheodicy and the Problem of Evil: Toward a Christian Theodicy Which Explains all of Evil
This was a paper I submitted for a Systematic Theology class at Seminary a while back, but I never published it here because it is flawed. It can be verbose, broad-brushing, lacking detail and subtlety, and annoying to anyone currently suffering. And yet, I stand by the thesis. God allows evil in order to have something to redeem, to start a holy war that would reveal His character and glory for all to see. But that is a hard pill to swallow.
Read moreJob 20, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Zophar is the final guy in the debate segment. This is his last speech, and we still have one more segment to go through, so he doesn’t speak in the last one. Why? There are a lot of answers, but it’s probably because he just shuts up.
Read moreJob 19, Exegetical Notes from Abner Chou
Job responds to Bildad, refuting his Internal Causation scheme, proving the limits of science and the need for God to explain to him true reality: that both God and Job can be right: that there must be a Mediator.
Read moreJonathan Edwards vs Charles Finney: On the Causes of Conversion and Revival
Jonathan Edwards’s view on the causes of conversion and revival is more biblical than Charles Finney’s because Edwards maintains the biblical tension of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility in conversion—between God’s immediate and mediate actions—while Charles Finney loses that tension by overemphasizing the responsibility of man and the mediated nature of God’s work, and thereby loses grip on some key doctrines like the depravity of man and the sovereignty of God.
Read moreMy Personal Creed
Teaching the mind the way to go, and making sure that path is absolutely correct—overemphasizing nothing, leaving nothing out—is a task only accomplished by Christian creeds. It's time to make your own personal creed.
Read morePutting the Mental Monkey to Bed: A Case for Creeds
The mind is a power for great good and great evil, and it is our obligation to master it, to teach it the way it should go, otherwise it will lead us astray; and the main way to train and lead the mind is through developing and memorizing creeds.
Read moreAugustine vs. Cassian: On the Tension Between the Sovereignty of God and the Responsibility of Man
Augustine’s view of the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man is more biblical than Cassian’s because he honors the paradox of compatibilism presented in the biblical text while Cassian charges ahead too far into the mystery of God’s character and ends up diverting from other biblical doctrines, like original sin and the free will of man, in order to make this paradox more comprehensible.
Read moreThe Black and White Fallacy, and the Christian Gospel
It’s a little hard to believe that life is really just about a single choice. Actually, sometimes it’s impossible to believe—because often there is a third way. But what the Christian Gospel claims is that there is no third way, that among the millions of layers of complexity in life, there really are only two paths you can take. This, to the secularist, is illogical—the perfect example of the black and white logical fallacy.
Read moreThere Really is Only One Reason Why I Can't Listen to Most Music These Days
I don't live the life of a serial adulterer.
Read moreThe Light of the Moon in the Dark Night of My Soul
Four weeks ago I was standing on a beach on the coast of Georgia, watching the full moon rise over the water, bearing my soul to a dear brother in Christ about my sin, the foolish pride of my heart that led me to question God and doubt His goodness, grace, and mercy; but today my thoughts are the exact opposite, and I find it an odd coincidence that I'm here, on yet another beach...
Read moreIsrael, the Church, and the Spiritual Battle of Faith
We Bible readers often like to make fun of Israel because they are so pathetic. They’re easy to make fun of. But sometimes it hits a little too close to home.
Read moreThe Dark Night of My Soul: The Philosophy of Suffering
As many of you know, I've been through an extended period of suffering. It’s hard to communicate it to people who have never endured chronic illness, but it truly broke me. It broke my spirit and it caused me to ask questions I’m not meant to find answers for.
Read moreOn Motivations: Why I've Decided to Keep on Writing
I have fallen off (the writing bandwagon, that is), and I had almost decided not to get back on. To blog or not to blog? That was my question—drama and sentimentality included.
Read moreMaking Sense of the Proverbs, or, What it Means to be Wise
In reading Making Sense of the Old Testament by Tremper Longman (what a name! Tremper Longman!), I stumbled across this bit on the Proverbs and I thought it the best summary of how the book works.
Read moreThe Christian Manifesto, Or, What it Means to be a Christian
For me, being a Christian, one of the hardest questions to answer is also the most important question people can ask me: What does it mean to be a Christian? It’s like asking a hippopotamus what it’s like to be a hippo.
Read moreIn Pursuit of Rest, Dreams Can Get in the Way
A while back I wrote on the Sullenness of the In-Between, exploring the emotional angst of the crossroads in life, and I naïvely thought that was that. But life continues to frustrate me: my dreams get dashed, my hope wavers, my faith flames out, and I often wonder how to go on—specifically, how I’m supposed to keep dreaming.
Read moreCapitol Hill Baptist Church Weekender Conference (Debriefing)
As the plane bumped onto the ground, I realized I’d just seen something that would change my life forever.
Read moreDeath, Grief, and a Firm Foundation: In Loving Memory of Haddie Hardeman
I just had to look at the ground. The lady in front of me was wearing knee-high black leather boots that had a little metal tag on the back with fine print that read “The Frye Company” and I thought how nice they were, and then I thought how Haddie will never wear those.
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