Pecking Parties

When I was a child, my father had about 600 chickens that he kept so that he could sell their eggs. They were not free range, but caged in pairs. When he was a child, his family had chickens free around their home. There were places built for them to roost, where their eggs could be gathered, but they were […]

Praying the Kingdom Comes

Around 650 AD, Muslims finally prevailed in their attempts to conquer Persia. Their “evangelism” then included an invitation to become servants of Mohammad’s allah, or to be infidels subjected to a tax called jizya, or to be enslaved, or to be killed. Descendants of Persia still don’t consider themselves to be Arabs, and have their own version of Islam, setting […]

Perfecting the Broken

Paul wrote to the Galatian congregations that if they encountered a person who had failed, whether intentionally or just through weakness, by implication of the word used to describe the error, the spiritual among them should restore the person, being humbled by their own weaknesses and iniquities: Brothers, if someone is caught in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual should […]

Is Baptism Required?

Here are a few denominational descriptions of baptism: Baptist: It is not entirely necessary for salvation. By immersion only. Baptisms of other churches accepted if done by immersion. Infants are not baptized. Candidates must first believe. Roman: By pouring, sprinkling or immersion. Baptisms of other churches accepted when performed as Catholic Church prescribes. Necessary for salvation. Infants are baptized. Eastern: […]

Testing Your Faith

Paul brought up the idea of testing ourselves to be sure we are “in the faith.” John was very clear in his statement in what we call his first epistle: “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.” (1 John 3:14,15 Holman Christian Standard […]

Go to Church

What is your interaction with other believers like in your congregation? When I worked on the front counter of the local post office, I frequently encountered cliche’ questions like, “How are you doing?” With rare exception, the questions were simply fulfillment of social responsibilities of being polite. We were instructed in our cultural education to greet each other with a […]

Being More Awesome

He went to His hometown and began to teach them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “How did this wisdom and these miracles come to Him? Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t His mother called Mary, and His brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, aren’t they all with us? So where does He […]

Once And For All

Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the actual form of those realities, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, once purified, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in the […]

A Higher Life

When Paul wrote the following instructions to the congregations he had launched in Colossae, he clearly had in mind that believers should be easy to pick out of a crowd. Not because they wore their hair in buns, or had long dresses, or had a fine selection of “church hats.” Because they had their minds so set on another dimension […]

Leaving Home

Today I read some of Philip Schaff’s “History of the Christian Church.” It saddened me to see his account of the migration of congregations from meeting in each other’s homes to the building of temples that were clearly inspired by the same designs used to worship Saturn or Zeus or Dianna: Let us glance first at the places of public […]