I have done a few brief interviews (here is an example about 12 minutes long) on Jerry Johnson Live to address whether sign-gifts such as healing, speaking in tongues, prophecy, and the Word of knowledge are valid gifts for the church today. I do not believe they are. The Criswell Theological Review published my explanation of the cessationist position (the view that the sign-gifts have ceased) in the Fall 2006 issue. That article is available in its entirety here. That argument, however, is too long and a bit cumbersome for most people who might want to understand my view. So here is a very brief overview of what I try to defend more fully in that explanation: Read the rest of this entry »
The Exxon shareholders meeting held in Dallas today is the latest opportunity for economic gufus (or gufusses, if you prefer) to demonstrate their practically omnipotent ability to ignore reality. The Dallas Morning News describes the context of the meeting and mentions some of the conflict here. Protesters believe gas prices are too high. Here’s the reality. When gas prices are too high, people will stop buying gas–or at least buy significantly less of it. And as the demand goes down, so will the profits of the companies selling it. If people are willing to pay $4/gallon to drive to their Memorial Day weekend getaway, then gas prices are not too high for them. If a man takes his car to work every day instead of the bus, Read the rest of this entry »
I preached this sermon on James 1:19-27 while serving as interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Madisonville, TX. It is third in the series through the book of James and deals with what makes Christian faith authentic.
Audio sermons posted to date, including this one, are also available on the page, word.
The decision of some Reformed Jewish leaders in England to transform a book of prayer into a means for breaking the gender barrier (described here for instance) raises an old, pretty simple issue. But it also reveals a much deeper problem about how people attempt to evade the Bible’s message and use the very tools intended to clarify scripture to muddle it. The simple issue is whether masculine pronouns and images used about God throughout scripture–indeed, used on almost every page–communicate something true about the nature of God. Christians have been arguing more and more about whether God is male, or masculine, over the past half century. C.S. Lewis’ article on what he refers to as priestesses in the church (in God in the Dock) is his response to the Anglican push in 1948 to ordain women to the priesthood! This article at Crosswalk illustrates how common the topic is by raising it as the first question at issue after the existence of God. Read the rest of this entry »
A Jerry Johnson Live broadcast from May 26, 2008: An encore airing of an exchange-debate with Everett Berry, Denny Burk, and Darrell Bock aired originally on May 8. The first segment is about eternal judgment, the rest about the Evangelical Manifesto.
Here is the second exposition on James (chapter 1:13-18), through which I preached while serving as interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Madisonville, TX.
It is a message about how a Christian is to understand troubles, temptation, and the purpose of God in his life.
Audio sermons posted to date, including this one, are also available on the page, word.
A few very bright students in one of my classes put together this response to a very popular atheistic video on youtube. Much of the humor hangs on imitation of the original video, but it is worth seeing in its own right as well.
Solid!
A Jerry Johnson Live broadcast from May 21, 2008: I was Penna Dexter’s guest as we discussed gender biases and a question regarding masculine language about God.
I have done a few brief interviews (here is an example about 12 minutes long) on Jerry Johnson Live to address whether sign-gifts such as healing, speaking in tongues, prophecy, and the Word of knowledge are valid gifts for the church today. I do not believe they are. The Criswell Theological Review published my explanation of the cessationist position (the view that the sign-gifts have ceased) in the Fall 2006 issue. That article is available in its entirety here. That argument, however, is too long and a bit cumbersome for most people who might want to understand my view. So here is a very brief overview of what I try to defend more fully in that explanation: Read the rest of this entry »
On May 26th 
A Jerry Johnson Live broadcast from 
Protesters believe gas prices are too high. Here’s the reality. When gas prices are too high, people will stop buying gas–or at least buy significantly less of it. And as the demand goes down, so will the profits of the companies selling it. If people are willing to pay $4/gallon to drive to their Memorial Day weekend getaway, then gas prices are not too high for them. If a man takes his car to work every day instead of the bus, 
The simple issue is whether masculine pronouns and images used about God throughout scripture–indeed, used on almost every page–communicate something true about the nature of God. Christians have been arguing more and more about whether God is male, or masculine, over the past half century. C.S. Lewis’ article on what he refers to as priestesses in the church (in God in the Dock) is his response to the Anglican push in 1948 to ordain women to the priesthood! 
