Is It True that “What’s Good for Business is Good for America?” There it was again—in an editorial of a newspaper—the cliché I’ve heard all my life: “What’s good for business is good for America.” As a Christian theologian I have spoken out against folk religion which consists of unconsidered, unreflective clichés. Is there such a thing, perhaps, as folk economics? The editorial was promoting the election of “pro-business” candidates for public office. For that particular editorial writer “pro-business” meant... Read more

Remembering Billy Graham (1918-2018) On Wednesday, February 21, American evangelist Billy Graham passed away just months before his one hundredth birthday. By all accounts he had been an invalid for a few years which is probably why the national media did not spend as much time reporting on his life and death as they did when Pope John Paul II died. I remember thinking to myself, while watching the lengthy and elaborate journalistic and media encomiums for the pope, “I... Read more

Would You Be Mad at God if He Saved Everyone? Another way of getting at the same thing is to pose this question: “What if, somehow, by some means, you became convinced that God will, eventually, save all people? Would you be angry at God and would you drop evangelism?” What’s the point of the question? Well, it is to measure the actual “temperature” of a person’s Christianity. Over the years I have posed this question to many Christians. Usually... Read more

What Is “Progressive Christianity” and Why Should You Beware of It? First of all, do not assume anything! I will define what I mean by “progressive Christianity” here. It is, of course, an indexical phrase which means it cannot be defined except within a particular context. And, of course, different people mean different things by it. And yet, it is being used within churches and denominations and Christian organizations and cannot just be ignored. Generally speaking, at least outside of... Read more

One Cause of Christian Syncretism Beautifully Explained in a New Documentary: What Is New Thought? If you are a Christian, especially an American Christian, and you are concerned about the eclectic blending of non-Christian philosophies and spiritualities with Christianity (syncretism) in contemporary American culture, you must watch “What Is New Thought?”—a documentary available on Amazon. It is free for those with Amazon Prime and can be purchased by others. I have long known about and been very concerned about the... Read more

Why My Conversations with Calvinists Are Rarely Productive One of the reasons I started this blog—before it was picked up by Patheos—was to promote classical Arminianism. Another reason was to explain why I am not a Calvinist. This was at the height of the so-called “Young, Restless, Reformed Movement” in which many young evangelical Calvinists and their older spiritual mentors were misrepresenting Arminianism and promoting a version of Calvinism that even many classical Reformed theologians found troubling. I have had... Read more

The facts are irrefutable now; American football causes long-term and irreversible brain damage in many players. Read more

My stock answer is: What’s the alternative? Read more

Many evangelical and especially Pentecostal-charismatic evangelists have claimed the ability to cause people they pray for to fall down without willing it to happen. Read more

R. C. Sproul R.I.P. A Great Evangelical Thinker Remembered Last month (December, 2017) evangelicalism lost one of its most articulate intellectuals and a man who, through his many books and articles influenced me and an entire generation of evangelical Christians—mostly for the better. Robert Charles Sproul (b. 1939) passed away after a life of dedication and service to God and the Body of Christ. Throughout the 1960s until at least the first decade of the 21st century he was one... Read more