Month: July 2013

Finney: The Proper Attitude for Spiritual Renewal

  

Everywhere Finney went, revivals followed. Often, those of a different theological persuasion chastised him for believing Christians could actually work to bring people to a state of repentance. Seeking to put all the onus on God, they left out the agency of man in God’s plans. Conversely, others would be envious of what Finney accomplished in his preaching and teaching. He deals with both views in this section of his Revival Lectures: A revival may be expected when ministers and… Read more »

Lewis: God Didn’t Make a Toy World

  

Last Saturday, in my weekly C. S. Lewis post, I quoted him on the subject of free will. He had quite a lot to say on that doctrine, and I like what he has said. Therefore, I’m giving him a wide berth today by relating a passage from Mere Christianity that makes the point even more forcefully than the quote I used last week: God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or… Read more »

Snyderian Truism #1

  

When I teach, I try to impress upon students certain truths. I know that sounds impertinent to the ears of some. “What is truth?” they may say. I seem to recall a historical figure named Pontius Pilate who asked the same thing. Jesus, standing before him, had already made it clear He was the truth. So, yes, I believe truth exists. There are certain things I’ve gotten in the habit of telling students over the years, so last summer, before… Read more »

The Christian Response to Zimmerman-Martin

  

I’ve made pretty clear in my last two posts that I don’t think race had anything to do with the events on the night Trayvon Martin was killed. Yet we are now mired once again in racial tension over the verdict in that trial. America doesn’t need this. We’re already a severely divided nation; this only increases that divide. Unfortunately, there are some who want to foment unrest over the trial’s outcome. One of the premier agitators is the Rev…. Read more »

Zimmerman, Martin, & the Media

  

Yesterday I mentioned the three groups most responsible for ramping up the racist angle in the Zimmerman-Martin case. The Florida prosecutors and the perpetually aggrieved, self-identified civil rights activists who are still living in the middle of the twentieth century were two of them. I believe, though, that the third group—the mainstream news media—was the catalyst for all the trumped-up drama we’ve witnessed. Right from the start, the media played this tragedy as a racial thing, as if this one… Read more »

The Zimmerman Verdict

  

I deliberately held off saying anything more about the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin media event until after the verdict had been reached. Now that Zimmerman has been declared not guilty by the jury—that includes both the second-degree murder and manslaughter charges—here is what I take from the drama that has mesmerized a large number of our citizens for weeks. First, it appears the jury did its duty. This was no snap decision; the six women that comprised the jury took plenty… Read more »

Finney & the Travail of the Soul

  

Continuing in Finney’s autobiography, I came to another instance of what God taught him about prayer that I think worth sharing. Here is how he explains it: The Lord taught me, in those early days of my Christian experience, many very important truths in regard to the spirit of prayer. Not long after I was converted, a woman with whom I had boarded . . . was taken very sick. She was not a Christian, but her husband was a… Read more »