When I wrote Who Can Be Saved?, everything I had read by William Lane Craig regarding his Molinist understanding of the situation of the unevangelized fell within the gospel exclusivist position. (See my “Typology of Positions Concerning the Salvation of the Unevangelized.”) At that time, he posited that “God in his providence so arranged the […]
Category: Evangelism
Last year, Gail and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary, and we often had occasion during the year to thank the Lord for his kindness to us. We started dating when we were 17 and 18, so we sort of grew up together. We are grateful to have reached this stage of life with good […]
I was delighted to hear voices from the missionary world speaking to the issue that has become serious in the procedure begun by Wheaton College to terminate the employment of Lrycia Hawkins, because the school thinks that her statement that Muslims and Christians worship the same God conflicts with the school’s faith commitment. In a […]
Today, I received by email an earnest plea for theological help from someone with whom I have had previous correspondence regarding the doctrine of the atonement. My questioner wrote as follows: I love God with all of my being but I cannot wrap my mind around this concept [penal substitutionary atonement] as it does not […]
Peter Berger offers a well informed but tentative analysis of the future prospects for Christianity in China, in view of the questions that naturally arise in retrospect of what “seems to be a concerted government effort to clamp down on Christian churches in Wenzhou, the city with the highest percentage of Christians in China.” Berger’s […]
In secular western societies today, proselityzing missionaries are viewed very negatively, but Robert Woodberry (son of J. Dudley) has demonstrated conclusively, through massive research, that one of (if not the) major contributing factors to the rise of democracy was the work of 19th century Protestant missionaries with a focus on conversion. I find this exciting. […]
She interrupted the sermon I was preaching. “Excuse me. I don’t mean any disrespect. I’m a lesbian. You’re talking about all of this love and mercy. What does this mean for me?” It was the launch day of our church plant in Long Beach, California. Long Beach has a large LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual) […]
When I was born, my father was interim pastor of a church in Ontario. The congregation understood that my parents were headed for India as missionaries, but in 1944 it was not simple to travel, and they were still developing a support network. Both my mother and father had a passion for getting the good […]
I was stimulated by Louis McBride’s short blog post today, and so I’m sharing the thoughts his post triggered for me. I’d better clip in the whole of Louis’s post, since it is brief and gives you what fostered my comments. Louis McBride’s post: In reading Kevin Harney’s new book Reckless Faith he offers a perspective on […]
“It’s a small world,” we often say, as when we get glimpses of the intricate web of connections through which God works graciously in the world. We got one of those glimpses this morning, in communication from my wife Gail’s brother Murray Robinson, who has recently returned from a ministry trip with Tim Challies, in […]