My wife and I have always enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes movies. We recently decided to watch the Netflix film Enola Holmes. The movie tells the tale of Sherlock’s younger sister Enola who has fled to London both in order to search for her missing mother and to escape being sent by her brothers to finishing school where she was to learn to behave like a lady. Sherlock, in search of Enola, makes his way to London. There he comes across... Read more
We have recently learned that the accusations of sexual misconduct against the deceased, iconic apologist Ravi Zacharias were in fact justified. The board of RZIM issued a statement in which they acknowledged: “Our trust in Ravi’s denial of moral wrongdoing and in his deceptive explanations of emails and other records that became public was severely misplaced, and our failures in 2017, including our failure to commission an independent investigation at that time, allowed tremendous pain to continue. . . .”... Read more
Have you ever been reading the Bible or contemplating it and suddenly a light bulb goes off? You have an understanding of it that you had never considered before! Maybe a good teacher or preacher was expounding the text and gave you an insight you hadn’t thought of. It is awesome (btw: this is one of the great blessings of memorizing Scripture). A few years ago, I was meditating on the Lord’s Prayer (it is good to say it daily,... Read more
“For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me” (Mark 14:7; Matt 26:11; John 12:8). I have personally heard this verse used by other Christians to suggest that ministering to the poor is a futile venture. A look at the context suggests it means precisely the opposite. This series of posts on Justice intends to provide a biblical context for doing justice and to provide a foundation for discerning what biblical justice looks... Read more
Today, the US will inaugurate its next president. For some, this day marks the end of an era of hope. Trump was viewed by many as an anti-establishment president who aimed to bring in and reinforce Christian values.[1] Many others consider today as the end of a horrible blemish from which the church has had to apologetically defend itself against a myriad of charges. It is important to recognize that the church has been divided since the first century.[2] Such... Read more
In all honesty, I hesitate to respond for several reasons: 1) I can only imagine the vitriol that will come from those who support the actions that took place in DC and the capitol building yesterday (the same sort of vitriol that all too often runs rampant on social media platforms making a mockery of the Gospel and our Christian witness). I hope and pray that I may be wrong but it is my conviction that the vast majority of... Read more
Two weeks ago, in my post “What is Justice?” I examined the meaning of “righteousness” and “justice” and noted the prevalence of these terms throughout the OT. From Genesis to Malachi (or Genesis to 2nd Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible), the people of God are called to pursue righteousness and justice. Last week, in my last post “Jesus and the call to Justice: what does Justice look like in a NT world? I noted that Jesus not only continues the ethical... Read more
Justice and righteousness In my last post, I listed verses from Genesis to Zechariah that emphasize the call for the people of God to do righteousness and justice. (if you haven’t read that post it is highly recommended that you do so). It is important to observe that the call to do righteousness and justice is not simply found in the wisdom of Proverbs. The call reverberates throughout the entirety of the OT. The call to righteousness and justice begins... Read more
“Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy” (Prov 31:8-9) Exhortations like this abound throughout the Old Testament. One may even say that the proliferation of the cry to do justice in the OT leads to the conviction that doing righteousness and justice are defining characteristics of the people of God. But, what is biblical justice? One of the problems with much... Read more
It is ironic that Christians are often viewed as unconcerned about social justice issues. After all, many orphanages, rescue missions, schools, feeding programs, and other social organizations were initially founded by Christians. In this series of posts, I would like us to grapple with the issues pertaining to justice. In the first post, I suggested that maybe I was to blame for some of the injustices in the world today. I am convinced that unless evangelicals are willing to acknowledge... Read more
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