Many years ago I followed a guy who was a Christian bookstore owner who also sought to go further into ministry, particularly in terms of consulting and writing. I never contacted him directly, but in my mind I wished him well. I knew that was a hard road to travel, but I could relate somewhat …
Category: Faith and Doubt
Trying to Align Current Events with Prophecy was Bad Enough, BUT…
I used to be very involved in End Times prophecy. I suppose this depends on how you use the word "Very." I certainly read a lot and listened a lot back in my college days (40 years ago). Back then Hal Lindsey and Jack Van Impe were all over the place. This was before the …
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Is Sharing the Good New of Christ ALWAYS a Good Thing?
Is sharing the Good News of Christ always a good thing? In theory it always is… but theory can fall apart when bumping up against reality. I will give a few little examples that I have shared before, but then will put more focus on the last one since I haven’t talked of it before. …
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Not All Doubt is Bad: Ranking Forms of Doubt
One of my favorite topics is that of Doubt and Faith. I have long believed that doubt is not bad… but it is a precursor to faith. Recently I read an Islamic article where the writer said that doubt is a healthy first step to Islam with doubt leading to belief. I think I will …
Maybe Struggling in Faith is Good?
I was listening to a podcast. It is a series called "God After Deconstruction" hosted by Thomas Jay Oord and Tripp Fuller. The two hosts have gone through somewhat of a "deconstruction" of their faith and understanding of God over the years. Oord was raised up and active in the Church of the Nazarene, while …
Valuing One’s Faith
How does one value one's Faith. In this case, I am using "faith" to mean the religious belief system one adheres to in some way. I saw something interesting in the book THE SKILLED HELPER, by Gerald Egan (I am quoting from the 1975 version). "A value, according to Raths and Simon (1966) is something …
Some Perspective Categories on God
CategorySub-CategoryBrief DescriptionAtheistPositive AtheistPositively believes in the non-existence of a supreme personal God/beingAtheistNegative AtheistStates lack of belief in a supreme personal God/beingAgnosticClosed AgnosticDoesn't know if there is a God, and doesn't believe it is something knowable.Agnostic"Ignostic"Doesn't know if there is a God, and doesn't really care.AgnosticOpen AgnosticDoesn't know if there is a God, but would like …
Teaching Doubt
I am a big fan of doubt---- because, in part, I am a big fan of faith. I believe faith is empowered by doubt. As such, faith is damaged by dogma--- not in the sense of holding onto core beliefs, but dogma in terms of training people to conform to beliefs without allowing them the …
3 H’s of Persuasive Dialogue
I have been going over different Asian religions in my Dialogue in Asian Religions course. I started with Judaism in Western Asia and worked my way across to Shinto in the East. Now I am looking at Atheism. Atheism has deep roots in Asia. Some forms of Buddhism and Hinduism could be described as Atheistic, …
Responding to Doubters Inside and Outside of the Church
There have been some recently-in-the-news people who are famous for being Christian, who have "left the faith." One of these is Josh Harris. When I was dating age (decades ago), he wrote a book called, "I Kissed Dating Goodbye." I never read it. Marty Sampson, a member of Hillsong, also publicly announced his loss of …
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