Left field is now center-stage. Leading Republicans recently ensured that gay marriage became state law in New York. The sexually abnormal is the new normal, and our children’s future defies description. A worldview tsunami, made of the wildest waves of human fantasy, is bearing down on Western culture, which, shorn of its biblical moorings, will be carried helpless into a nightmare destruction of biblical values.
Read MoreIO 80: Out of Left Field, a Perfect Storm
At truthXchange we are sometimes accused of being reductionistic by limiting all worldview options to only two: One-ism or Two-ism. I admit that this approach could seem overly simple, but the Bible is finally very simple. There are not 365 different ways to relate to the world. According to the apostle Paul there are only two. He says with clarity and simplicity in Romans 1:25 that you either worship creation (One-ism) or you worship the Creator (Two-ism). Support for this approach comes from odd places.
Read MoreIO 79: Worldview Gridlock
Dr. Peter Jones spoke at the Ligonier Ministries 2010 West Coast Conference, themed, “A Christless Christianity.” He explained that Americans are incurably “spiritual,” but this spirituality expresses itself in ways that are incompatible with biblical Christianity. It expresses itself in ways that are essentially Gnostic. The American church has not been immune to the influence of this American Gnosticism. In this video, Dr. Jones compares this private, mystical, and inward religious mentality with the corporate, doctrinal, and visible faith of orthodox Christianity. In a second video, he joined a panel with Michael Horton and R.C. Sproul to answer questions about the church.
Read MoreDr. Jones Explains the Gnostic Gospel
According to Messiah College professor, Jenell Williams Paris, “Heterosexuality…is an abomination.” As an “abomination” Paris means the false classification of persons as merely homosexual or heterosexual, a practice she feels gives a person identity only on the basis of sexual choices or desires, rather than on their status as creatures made in God's image and loved by God. This inflammatory statement is doubtless meant for maximum effect, since the Bible declares male on male sex as “an abomination” (Lev 20:13). One is led to ask how an evangelical Christian scholar, published by a Christian publishing house (IVP) justifies such a shocking formulation.
Review of Jenell Williams Paris, The End of Sexual Identity: Why Sex Is Too Important to Define Who We Are (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2011).
Two years ago, President Evo Morales, of Incan/Aymaran descent, claimed the rights to all three branches of government, and his goons were eliminating opponents in the dead of night. At the time, I was teaching pastors in Cochabamba, Bolivia and so witnessed the rise of indigenous paganism as a political force. In January 2011, Morales introduced legislation that grants legal rights to the Earth and provides an ombudsman to hear nature's complaints as voiced by the all-knowing high priests of deep ecology, who claim to be spiritually in touch with Nature! The worship of Pachamama, the fertility Goddess of Nature, is now a fundamental element in the law code of Bolivia, and Morales (in his commitment to Pachamama and to the ancient Incan religion of Bolivia) is supported by a shadow cabinet of shamans…
Read MoreIO 78: Pachamama Wants Your Children
In March, One-ism and Two-ism made its way to Oxford in my suitcase. After the chaos of London traffic, I breathed in the beauty of Oxford in the Spring: Medieval and Elizabethan colleges, surrounded by twenty-foot-high walls; soaring chapels; stunning wood-paneled dining halls; perfectly mown grass quadrangles that produce a sense of scholarly solidity and peace; and, on High Street, high-fashion boutiques designed with exquisite modern taste. Some may consider “One-ism and Two-ism” to be simplistic, but they are only terms that reflect the same stark choice the apostle Paul describes: worship of the Creator or of the creation.
Read MoreIO 77: One-ism and Two-ism Goes To OxfordRead MoreThe Truth and the Lie in Mystical TrendsContrary to the expectations of sociologists, secularism has been in decline for forty years. What created this unexpected situation? Philosopher David Harvey believes he knows: "The moral crisis of our time is a crisis of Enlightenment thought." And the "assumptions of secular humanism” have been undermined by Postmodernism as it deconstructs every reasonable, objective grounds on which reason used to stand. Such deconstruction raises a serious question: where does Postmodernism lead our culture? Many now believe that grounds for existence can only be found in the irrational, in the age-old metanarrative of pantheistic One-ism. Christians initially treated the NEw Age as the latest, more or less harmless religious sect, which would go the way of the hula hoop. Instead, these changin' times have, in one generation, radically transformed how popular culture thinks about sexuality, the family, gender roles, marriage, abortion, pornography, American history, the dating of history, the names of national holidays, the use of the Constitution, free speech, globalism, education, environmentalism, psychology and religious unity. How did we get to this moment of One-ist triumph?
Read MoreConfronting Neopaganism in the Culture and the Church
I kept pinching myself. Was I not in Mexico, the…
Peter Jones, the director of truthXchange, has written a most incisive treatment and application of Romans 1. He considers, with good reason, that the two hottest issues today are Christian uniqueness and homosexuality. When we reject the revelation that God has given to all mankind, our theology is distorted (Rom.1:18-21), then our spirituality or worship (Rom.1:22-23), and finally our behaviour, especially our sexuality (Rom.1:24, 26-32). This does not make for pleasant reading, but it is no time for Christians to make-believe that all is well.
Review of Peter Jones, One or Two: Seeing a World of Difference (Escondido: Main Entry Editions, 2010). Published with permission.
We are not surprised to hear that political freedom in the world has declined for a fifth straight year, especially in the Middle East and in North Africa. But loss of freedom in the West does surprise us. Freedom has shrunk partly because of silencing "hate speech." Is the "climate of hate" warming or cooling here at home? No matter what the world says and no matter what consequences await us, we must speak the name and truth of Jesus for all to hear.
Read MoreIO 75: Verbal Warming
The recently disenfranchised lame duck Left pulled off its most extreme legislative coup thus far, by homosexualizing the United States military—using their own version of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. They did not ask, in a Pentagon poll, if repeal was morally appropriate. They asked whether, in practice, the implementation plan would work. By including those with “mixed feelings,” they manufactured a 70% majority By not really asking, the ideological politicians prevailed.
Read MoreIO 74: Don’t Ask (Awkward Questions), Don’t Tell (The Long-Term Consequences)I came across this editorial this morning. The author argues against…
Since the 1960s, the Southern Poverty Law Center has served as a self-appointed watchdog to track hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nation. Though its efforts have doubtless been helpful in certain areas, the SPLC’s recent (November 24, 2010) list now includes as "hate groups" thirteen upstanding Christian organizations, accused of propagating “known falsehoods” about gays and lesbians. Is this political posturing, personal animus from a lunatic fringe, or an escalation of the conflict between two irreconcilable worldviews, both of which claim the right to be heard in the public square?
Read MoreIO 73: Look Who Made the Hate ListThis morning I discovered that the city which ranks first…
The Elephant House When my son Julien was fifteen months…
Those who love biblical orthodoxy need to panic. Post-Evangelicalism is roaring off in the wrong direction. Interfaith is becoming one of the distinguishing marks of Post-Evangelical orthodoxy, but Jesus says, "No one comes to the Father, but by me."
Read MoreIO 72: Rohring down the Rails toward a Fuller Evangelicalism
You know—the Age of Aquarius, chakras and crystals, Shirley MacLaine’s…
Here are a few questions/comments I’ve received, and my answers…
In response to my Inside/Out #70, “the Gospel for 21st…
Regarding “gay marriage” the brilliant New York Times social commentator,…
This is an historic moment—at least for me. My first…
Marxists state that “everything is political.” While incorrectly emphasizing the…
I have never stood on a ten meter high diving…
