“’For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” –Romans 8.36-37 On November 4 this year Christians gather to pray for their suffering brothers and sisters. The annual International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church provides a time to lift up believers who suffer deprivation, torture, and death for confessing Christ. Martyrdom has been a part... Read more
Paul speaks of the church as being the body of Christ, and he’s rather literal with the metaphor. “The eye,” he writes, “cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you'” (1 Cor 12.21). The Christian life depends upon other Christians. Ours is a contingent existence. Only in communion with each other do we find the means to live our faith. I reflected on that... Read more
After addressing Ayn Rand’s anti-Christian philosophy, I think it’s important to propose an alternative. This is particularly important for Christians who defend the free market and would like to expand economic freedom. Just because Ayn Rand is of the devil doesn’t mean that capitalism is too. They are not the same thing. Sadly, some people seem to think so. “I think Christians would be less likely to embrace socialism if they understood that the economic philosophy of Ayn Rand is... Read more
“[A]s you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.” –1 John 2.18 An interesting convergence of cultural trends and events has pushed Ayn Rand’s name and views back into the news, including the vice presidential candidacy of Paul Ryan, the multipart movie adaptation of her 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged, and the overweening policies of the current presidential administration. But libertarians and conservatives — particularly those who confess Christian faith — should be wary of adopting... Read more
When a woman named Susan wrote the 700 Club looking for answers, she surely wasn’t expecting the kind she received. The mother of three adopted daughters, each from different countries, wrote to say that the men she was dating invariably got cold feet when it came to the subject of her children. “Why,” she asked, “are these men acting this way?” Pat Robertson’s answer left audiences with their jaws hanging low. “A man doesn’t want to take on the United... Read more
After the shootings at the Aurora movie theater, the Milwaukee Sikh temple, and now Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., I’m hearing renewed talk about banning guns. It’s something of a ritual, and the well-known rubrics describe the basic order of events: man commits atrocity, nation stands aghast, nation looks for answers, nation comes up short, people advise the prohibition of firearms. But Americans don’t have a corner on violence, and it’s instructive to see how such violence is handled... Read more
Some people want the Bible to be untrue. Mmm, scratch that. Some people desperately want the Bible to be untrue. This desire can manifest in a number of ways, including finding ways of explaining scriptural accounts that undermine the witness of the text. One of my favorite examples of this is the scholar who announced in 2002 that the visions of the prophet Ezekiel were the product of epilepsy, not the revelation of God. Can’t be divine, so it must... Read more
At the start of his gospel, John refers to Christ as “[t]he true light that enlightens every man.” He was likely an old man when he penned the line, and I can’t help but wonder if his mind traveled back to an experience of his youth, during the earthly ministry of Jesus, one in which he experienced that light in a supernatural way. Jesus had at times a large entourage, but he revealed certain things to small and select group... Read more
How often do we listen for God, hear the thoughts of our hearts, reflect, and pray? Our days are hurried, and that’s problem enough. But noise is a real problem too. I’ll speak for myself here — you’ll have to weigh how much of an issue this is for you — but noise for me is nearly constant. My car stereo plays jazz, rock, folk, classical, audio books, and podcasts, but it always plays. My iPhone often doubles as a... Read more
The intense fight over Obamacare’s HHS mandate highlights a real disdain for religion in public life. Obamacare has had religious detractors from the start because of abortion concerns, but they have had their own detractors among the political and chattering classes. While paying lip service to the right of Catholic bishops to participate in the conversation, for instance, one pundit actually said (before the bill had passed) that the hierarchs were holding America “hostage” by their refusal to back down... Read more
Joel J. Miller
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