What do Ann Voskamp, Beth Moore and Sarah Young have in Common?

All three women have succumbed to the wiles of our enemy, the devil—leading masses away from sound doctrine and luring them to follow and practice panentheism, western mystiscm (e.g., lectio divina), extra-biblical revelations and viewing our holy relationship with God Almighty in a sexual manner.

Though I will speak clearly and firmly as I ought about all three women and the dangerous effects of their writing, speaking and teaching of God's holy Word, I will refrain from making any unnecessary personal attacks for as far as I know, all three women are my sisters in Christ.

The purpose of this article is not to demonize any of these sisters, but to carefully and lovingly warn and exhort them and other women to be more diligent in studying the Word, seeking wisdom and biblical teaching from their husbands (if they're Christians), submit to their husbands' headships whether or not they are Christians (1 Cor 7:13-16, 2 Peter 3:1-2) and imitate the faith of those who are singularly faithful to God and His Word—with no deviation or imaginations (Heb 13:7, 2 Tim 1:13-14, 2 Cor 10:4-6).   Continue at Sunny Shell

Can we trust the New Testament?

Several years ago I was walking in a park and met a man who identified himself as a pantheist. As I shared the Gospel with him, he raised a series of objections, the first of which concerned the reliability of Scripture. “The Bible was going along fine,” he explained, “until King James came along and changed it all. Now we have no idea what the original Bible actually said.”

The man’s objection was obviously more than a bit misinformed, but it does raise a significant question: If we do not possess the original manuscripts of the Bible, if the existing manuscripts do not completely agree with each other, and if there is no absolutely sure method of determining the original reading where these differences exist, then how can we have confidence in the Bible we possess today?

The points of difference between existing manuscripts are known as textual variants, and the process of determining the original wording where variants exist is known as textual criticism. Because this process is at least partly subjective in nature, it is not infallible and therefore we cannot know with absolute certainty what the original manuscripts said in a given place. For this reason, the question is indeed a significant one: Can we really trust the Bible as it has been handed down to us?    Keep Reading...

Mistaken Monotheism

Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God? This is perhaps the most significant question that has emerged during the increased interest in Islam in the decade following 9/11. Theologian Miroslav Volf tackled this thorny question in his new book, Allah: A Christian Response. Volf’s answer to the question is a qualified yes. That is to say, while Muslims and Christians have different understanding of aspects of God’s nature and character, so do Christians and Jews and, for that matter, so do different kinds of Christians. If we say that Muslims and Christians do not worship the same God, Volf argues, we have to concede that Jews and Christians (and Arminians and Calvinists for that matter) do not worship the same God. While Volf’s argument has a certain appeal, when we dig a little deeper, we find that it is built on a rather shaky foundation.

What Is Monotheism?

Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are commonly known as the “three great monotheistic religions.” But this label may assume too much. The word monotheism was not coined until the 17th century when Cambridge don Henry More used it to describe any view that held to one person (or principle) as God. The word was co-opted in the 18th and 19th centuries by OT critical scholars who were engaged in revising OT composition history. In the spirit of that age, they saw the history of religion on an evolutionary scale. As human religion developed, it progressed from pantheism to polytheism and finally to the “ethical monotheism” we see reflected in “Deutero-Isaiah,” his friend “Trito-Isaiah,” and other later prophets. This evolutionary process was a movement from the belief that all things are spiritual and divine, to the belief that only a few things are divine, and finally only one thing is divine. Keep Reading...