This post was first published in January, 2015. —ed. Have you ever considered what the unbelieving world thinks about your pastor? He doesn’t need to be a household name or a celebrity preacher with a worldwide audience—it’s not a question of how famous he is. Put it this way: What do the nonbelievers in his… Continue reading The Shepherd’s Public Reputation
Category: Bible Introduction
Should Fallen Pastors Be Restored?
It always saddens me to watch church leaders bring reproach on the church of Jesus Christ. What’s perhaps most shocking to me is how frequently Christian leaders sin grossly, then step back into leadership almost as soon as the publicity dies away. It seems like Christians don’t expect much of their leaders anymore. Some time… Continue reading Should Fallen Pastors Be Restored?
God’s Infinite Perfection
This post was first published in June, 2020. —ed. We can’t fully understand God’s holiness. But we can understand it much better than we currently do. By and large, the typical evangelical’s understanding of God is pathetically superficial. Too many professing believers think about God in only self-centered and self-indulgent terms, reducing Him to little… Continue reading God’s Infinite Perfection
Face to Face with the Holy One
This post was first published in July, 2020. —ed. No human eyes have ever seen the full manifestation of God’s holiness and glory. But some biblical authors caught a glimpse and lived to tell the tale. In Isaiah 6, the Old Testament prophet brings us along with him into the throne room of heaven. Verse 1… Continue reading Face to Face with the Holy One
The Revelation of God’s Holiness
This post was first published in June, 2020. —ed. God is never becoming—never growing, learning, or increasing in anything. From eternity past to eternity future, He is always being who He has always been. His infinite perfections cannot be improved upon. It’s hard for us to comprehend the difference between being and becoming. God’s moral perfection and sinlessness… Continue reading The Revelation of God’s Holiness
The Seismic Shift in Christ’s Teaching
This post was first published in August, 2017. —ed. One very busy day near the end of Jesus’ second year of public ministry, the whole character of His teaching changed. The continual rejection of His teaching by hostile Pharisees triggered a massive and sudden shift. He stopped preaching straightforward sermons peppered with key prophetic texts… Continue reading The Seismic Shift in Christ’s Teaching
The Parable of the Sower and Bad Evangelism
This post was first published in August, 2017. —ed. One of the dominant myths in evangelicalism is that the growth of Christianity hinges on its popularity. The idea that more people will repent if only the preacher were cooler or funnier invariably causes the church to suffer through a ridiculous parade of entrepreneurial types who act… Continue reading The Parable of the Sower and Bad Evangelism
Seeing God
Just as the sun’s rays illuminate and warm the Earth, so Christ is God’s glorious light that shines into the hearts of mankind. That is the point that the writer of Hebrews makes when he describes Jesus Christ—God incarnate—as “the radiance of [God’s] glory” (Hebrews 1:3). “Radiance” literally means “to send forth light,” indicating that Jesus… Continue reading Seeing God
Making Sense of God’s Love
Love is the best known but least understood of all God’s attributes. Almost everyone who believes in God these days believes that He is a God of love. I have even met agnostics who are quite certain that if God exists, He must be benevolent, compassionate, and loving. All those things are infinitely true about God, of course, but… Continue reading Making Sense of God’s Love
Bird Watching and Beating Worry
With the fear and uncertainty generated by the current COVID-19 pandemic, we consider this series by John MacArthur to be even more timely now than when it was first run eight years ago. The following blog post was originally published on November 13, 2012. —ed. One of the most hopeless aspects of unrepentant sinners’ lives… Continue reading Bird Watching and Beating Worry