When I came across this statement somewhere, that bad doctrine is a cruel taskmaster, it stuck with me. I asked EPM staffer Julia Stager to provide some verses demonstrating it, and I added my summary statements to hers.
I have long been concerned about the tendency for Bible believing Christians to confuse conservativism and speaking “Christian language” with a true relationship and walk with Jesus Christ. I addressed this several years ago in my article "Conservative, Liberal or Christian?" So I really resonated with Justin Taylor’s blog, part of which I’ve placed below.
In the previous blog I expressed concerns about some doctrines in the new bestselling book To Heaven and Back, by Mary Neal. This is my second and last article on this subject. It’s lengthy, but I think it’s important and I don’t want to drag it out with several shorter articles.
I’m writing this while returning from ICRS, the annual Christian book convention. I’m sitting in the Atlanta airport, reflecting on some of my conversations the past four days. I did many interviews about recent and forthcoming books, and talked with lots of evangelical booksellers, publishers, and authors.
Does studying God—and doctrine—have to be a dull discipline, or can it be an exhilarating exercise that transforms your life? I believe that theology is the foundation upon which worldview is built. People have good worldviews because they have good theology and bad worldviews because they have bad theology. I say this partly because I can't divorce heart orientation from theology. The word believe in the New Testament (for example, in John’s gospel) stresses belief as trust and submission. This is my approach to theology. It’s not a dried up system of intellectual affirmations divorced from a passion for God; rather, it is a life-transforming belief of both seeing and embracing God’s truth. It is a belief that is a trust—one which permeates your mind and heart and life.
If you're looking for something to read, go to the only book of which these promises are made:
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish ...
In this three-minute video, I share about an upcoming graduate course on Heaven I’ll be teaching at Corban University in Salem, Oregon May 8-10, 2012. The course is available for graduate credit, but anyone is welcome (and encouraged) to come audit it.
As a student of theology, writer, and occasional preacher, I loved reading Martin Luther talking about learning theology, and about the “little books” some of us write and the little sermons we preach. Sometimes the reformers really make you smile.
In many conversations over the last few years I’ve said to people, “If God had given me a vote on whether or not there is a hell, honestly I would have voted against it. But that is not a point of pride, it is a confession."
I love the redemptive message of Les Misérables, from book, to stage, to screen. It reminds me of the song “Amazing Grace,” because it is deeply loved even by those who don’t fully believe its message. The beauty of the story is so great that even those who don’t believe in God, his grace and forgiveness and his ability to transform a man, still love it.
I'm the author of over 40 books and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries. I love Jesus, my wife Nanci, and our daughters, sons and five grandsons!
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