“Belong, Believe, Behave?” Or “Believe, Behave, Belong?” I’m not sure who first suggested the idea, but some years ago someone associated with the “emerging church” movement said that churches need to move from a policy of requiring right belief and right living for belonging to offering belonging followed by believing and behaving. For some postevangelical Christians this has become a hallmark of the difference between emerging (or emergent) churches and traditional evangelical churches. While I sympathize with the impulse behind... Read more

Something that dismays me is the common confusion between “Christian orthodoxy” and “fundamentalism.” There are probably many reasons for it, but I think the common one (among Christians, anyway) is that people “burned” by fundamentalism run from orthodoxy due to an over reaction. Some people I know almost break out in hives when they hear “orthodoxy” used in a positive, prescriptive way–as in “There are certain beliefs that are normative for all Christians.” They can only hear that as fundamentalism.... Read more

Suppose someone said “God is sovereign but God’s sovereignty is different from our ideas of sovereignty. God is sovereign but possesses only the power of persuasion.” Someone else objects saying “But wait. There is no meaning of ‘sovereignty’ known to man that is compatible with having only the power of persuasion.” The first person responds, “Oh, but you are assuming a human idea of sovereignty; God’s sovereignty is higher and better than any human idea of sovereignty. We can’t project... Read more

Why (High) Calvinism Is Impossible By “impossible” I don’t mean, of course, “doesn’t exist.” I mean “exists but doesn’t work.” By “doesn’t work” I mean “cannot be believed consistently and coherently.” In brief, my argument is that belief in the Bible as God’s Word and motivation to engage in its exegesis presupposes belief that God is trustworthy, that God cannot deceive. But this assumes that God has a stable, enduring, eternal character that is “good” in a way analogous to... Read more

What Attracts People into the Young, Restless, Reformed Movement? That is probably the question I’m asked most often when I talk about the “new Calvinism” that has swept up thousands of Christian young people in the last twenty to thirty years. There’s no doubt this has been and is a religious phenomenon. Most recently even the New York Times has taken notice; a few years ago Time magazine mentioned it as one of ten great ideas changing the world. Everyone... Read more

When Jesus Said “Follow Me” Did He Mean “On Twitter?” Ethics and Social Networking The Knudsen Lecture in Ethics, March 10, 2014, University of Sioux Falls Roger E. Olson Foy Valentine Professor of Christian Theology and Ethics George W. Truett Theological Seminary “Our on line relationships are totally manageable and therefore shallow.”   Many years ago, when I was a child, I was fascinated by the cartoon character Dick Tracy—a fictional detective who wore a tiny watch-like, two-way television on... Read more

So, John Piper has now responded to Austin Fischer’s book “Young, Restless, No Longer Reformed” (Wipf & Stock, 2013). (For those of you who don’t know, Austin is Teaching Pastor at The Vista Community in Belton/Temple, Texas and his book is a run-away seller about his spiritual and theological journey in and out of Calvinism.) Of course, you should read Austin’s book before making up your own mind whose right in the current debate about it–John or Austin. But see... Read more

I simply don’t have time to moderate scores of messages every day. Whenever I touch on “gay” issues people who normally never come here flood my comment box with arguments pro and con. It’s obviously a very controversial issue. But what bothers me is that even when I BEG people to stick to the issue I raised they don’t. The issue was the free exercise of religious conscience based on membership in a church that has a clear doctrinal standard... Read more

Many people have asked me to listen to and respond to John Piper’s comments about me and about Arminianism on his episode 238 (of his podcast “AskPastorJohn”) entitled “Where’s the Arminian John Piper?” You can find it by Googling it or going to Piper’s web site.  Many of you heard it and asked me to respond. That was months ago now. I finally got around to listening to it. Here’s my response. John (he calls me Roger so I’ll call... Read more

Thoughts about the “Gay Marriage” Debate and Christians’ Rights             I have already stated here and elsewhere how I think the “gay marriage” debate should be settled. Get government out of the business of decided who’s “married” and let government decide who may enjoy the privileges of “civil union.” My suggestion is that any two people should be permitted to enter into that arrangement which would have only to do with matters such as property sharing, privileges of making decisions... Read more