Attributed to Augustine, the old adage says, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” I suspect the wise Christian will heed this advice. Though one wishes to believe that all Christians will agree on every point, our finite and limited perspective will never allow us to have complete understanding of the depth of God’s revealed Word. As such, Christians will disagree at various points along the theological spectrum. The question that then…
Jeremiah, in some of his best known words, wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” The implication to the final rhetorical question seems to be no one can understand it. And, in particular, we cannot understand our own hearts. We think we know ourselves, but our own hearts deceive us, blinding us to our real motivations, thoughts, feelings. We do not need Satan to deceive us when…
As evangelicals, we tend to promote “faith not feeling” as a necessary reminder that we do not live by our changing emotions (driven by changing circumstances) but by the unchanging rock of God’s Word and character. All this is right and good. But is there more to it than that? Dietrich Bonhoeffer, reflecting on Spinoza, wrote, “Emotions are not expelled by reason, but only by stronger emotions.”[1] I suspect there is a good bit…
Humanism, as Francis Schaeffer noted, is what happens when “man is the measure of all things.” In our educational system, is man the measure of all things—or the Man? That is, are we Christian or humanist? Stemming from recent, fruitful conversation with colleagues about what makes education truly Christian instead of humanist, I have tried to compile a short, and undoubtedly inchoate, list of distinctions. As always, comments—corrections, suggestions for improvement, additions—are more than…
There is a false humility that breeds subjectivity and precludes certainty. Because we cannot know anything absolutely, we assume we can know nothing adequately—and forbid others from thinking or speaking so. There is another humility, born of conviction, that produces faithful service and selfless love. Because we know some things with certainty, we act with conviction and grace-driven purpose. To one of these we are called. To the other we succumb with alarming…
The last in a three-part series on Christian education.[1] As I am a pastor by training and an educator by hobby, I am certain my reflections will be limited and misguided. I invite correction by those with greater wisdom and experience. Please comment below. Modern educational principles apply unequally to the various disciplines. Owing to the unique content and skills objectives in each discipline, very little of what works in one class will work…
The second in a three-part series on Christian education.[1] As I am a pastor by training and an educator by hobby, I am certain my reflections will be limited and misguided. I invite correction by those with greater wisdom and experience. Please comment below. Today we set out to answer a challenging question: Can a Christian school ever be as good educationally as a secular school? I would suggest two possible answers—both true, paradoxically.…
The first in a three-part series on Christian education.[1] As I am a pastor by training and an educator by hobby, I am certain my reflections will be limited and misguided. I invite correction by those with greater wisdom and experience. Please comment below.  “Teachers, don’t you care if we drown . . . in a sea of humanism?” (cf. Mark 4:38). Much of modern education is self-avowedly steeped in liberal humanism. In…
There exists a disturbing trend among Christians today to forsake the Word of God for a secular counterfeit. Now, I am not talking about paying more heed to pop psychologists, celebrities, and other ill-suited mentors than to expositing Scripture (though that may be true). I am speaking instead of our preference for faddish jargon rather than the eternal Word—seemingly innocuous, but devastatingly dangerous. A few examples may prove the point. Evangelicals often speak…
In a famous passage the apostle Paul enjoins us, “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8, NIV). I wish to focus on the first part today: what it means to think about “whatever is true” only. This encouragement has broad implications for our lives, for training our minds to live by the revealed truth…