Virtually everyone agrees that something is radically wrong with the church. Inside there is more polarization and conflict than ever, with all factions agreeing (for different reasons) that the church is in deep trouble.
Tim Keller reviews Chris Bail’s book, Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing (Princeton, 2021)
During these polarizing times where battles for political power or division from cultural struggles are crippling the influence of the Christian church, we need to refocus our attention and commitment to fulfilling the great commission.
During the January 6 storming of the Capitol, rioters exhibited Christian symbols and offered public prayer. Since then the working assumption of the mainstream media is that evangelicalism has now been revealed to be a white American supremacist insurrectionist force, committed to keeping power even if it means overturning democratic processes. The term “Christian nationalist” is now being used to describe white evangelicals. Is that accurate? Are the two terms essentially two ways to describe the same people?
Today, many Christian believers—who often share virtually identical doctrinal beliefs—are just as divided as Christians in Corinth over how to relate to our increasingly pagan culture even though the issues are often presented as political.
Tom Holland has written a book that is not so much a history of Christianity, but a history of the complex role Christianity has had in the formation of modern western culture. Here’s Tim Keller’s review.
Biblical justice is rooted in the very character of God. When we look at what the Bible says about justice we see that God not only punishes evildoing, but through mercy and grace he also restores those who are victims of injustice. Biblical justice is characterized by: radical generosity, universal equality, life-changing advocacy, and asymmetrical responsibility.
Which justice? There have never been stronger calls for justice than those we are hearing today. But seldom do those issuing the calls acknowledge that currently there are competing visions of justice, often at sharp variance, and that none of them have achieved anything like a cultural consensus, not even in a single country like the US. It is overconfident to assume that everyone will adopt your view of justice, rather than some other, merely because you say so.
Irwyn Ince discusses his work with churches and their leaders to bring about multi ethnic gospel communities like we see in the Bible and how he is working to help bridge racial divides in the church. As he talks about his work, you will learn why he is hopeful that the gospel can bring unity to the Christian community and more ethnically diverse churches.
Biblically, sin is anything that falls short of God’s will and glory, that violates his law and his character (1 John 3:4; Romans 3:23). There are at least four ways in which what we will be calling racism is a violation of God’s glory and therefore is a sin. It is sin.