Benjamin Button – more about death than life

I took my wife to see the Curious Case of Benjamin Button on Christmas day. We both enjoyed it a great deal. It’s a love story, and an adventure story. Someone compared it to Forest Gump, but it’s never as emotional as that masterpiece, nor as funny. But it’s got some humor, I’d give it [...]

Q: Why was Jesus sent to Earth?

Hi, Brian and Kimberly, My apologies for taking so long to answer you. Jesus told us that God’s motivation is love, and that his goal is to bring life to whoever believes in Jesus. John 3:16 Of course, the mainstream traditional teaching is that most people self-select themselves out of that opportunity, by choosing to [...]

Happy Heretic, meet Happy God

I’m happy to rediscover Judith Hayes, the Happy Heretic. I’m a happy heretic myself, being convinced that most of Christianity is dead wrong about the end game God has planned.  In her most recent post, Judith points her incisive wit at the 7 visions of Hell described in an article she reviews. All the views, [...]

Q: Why OT/NT dichotomy?

Hello Brothers and Sisters… I am a true follower of Christ, and I accepted Christ as my only saviour. But I have one question that bothers me…We know the Old testament and the new testament are different. Why is it that God is an ‘angry and destructive’ God in the Old testament, and written that [...]

An Unfinished Life

Einar Gilkyson: You think the dead really care about our lives?? Mitch Bradley: Yeah, I think they do. I think they forgive us our sins. I even think it’s easy for them. Einar Gilkyson: Griff said you had a dream about flying. Mitch Bradley: Yeah. I got so high, Einar. I could see where the [...]

Problem of Pain

MM writes in her “Theology of the Body” blog yesterday that as many philosophers have noted, there are two primary issues relative to evil that we must lay at God’s feet: the “acts of God” that involve human suffering in an incomplete or unfriendly planet, and the “moral failures” that flow form human free moral [...]

Grandfather’s role

Yesterday I got to do two things that are part of Grandfather’s role, as I am discovering it. The first is fixing up the family’s house. Yesterday, it was a frustrating little plumbing leak. Also, looking into a refrigerator problem. And getting to hold the baby and help with its bath. Guess what. These are [...]

Yet more wrath?

I love the premise of “Desiring God” — that our chief end is to delight in God, enjoying Him forever. It can and should be “all joy” to know, and be loved by, the great and good God of the Universe. But when John Piper gets to describing what God is doing, and how the [...]

Why is God happy? My first response to John Piper

I am not the first to notice that Paul calls God the “happy God” twice in his epistles to Timothy. Many have commented on this extensively. One of the most prolific is John Piper, whose book Desiring God I am now reading. In the link above, Pastor Piper states what he calls “the ultimate Biblical [...]

God can defend himself

Friday I talked about how God needs a PR firm. But the truth is as the poet said, “God is his own interpreter. He will make it plain.” I poked some fun at people who like to justify God’s actions or inaction in the world. The spectacle of a faith-healer calling God to action at [...]