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current affairs human rey's a point

Who Should I Vote For?

i voted sticker spool on white surface
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Who should I vote for: Candidate A (in 2024: Kamala Harris) or Candidate B (Donald Trump)? Maybe this is an easy question for some of you USian Christians. It’s not easy for me. I’m struggling.

I’m not struggling with other questions like how candidate A or B will ultimately come into power. God is in control of all governments even if people (or the state) don’t use their God-granted authority (to rule, judge, and even condemn) the right way.  

I’m not wrestling with how to act if someone I don’t want in the oval office gets there anyway. I have responsibilities to obey the government God put in place. The only time I have a different choice is if the ruler pits my obedience to the ruler against my obedience to God.

Further, I’m not struggling with the question if I should vote. Christians, regardless of their locale, should personify the best example of a citizen of a nation under the lordship of Christ. That would mean that a Christian, living in a system where he or she has the freedom and responsibility to mindfully perform civic duties—one of those being voting—should perform those civic duties. In general, I should vote. But it doesn’t follow that I (1) always have to vote or (2) have to vote for the candidates nominated by the two biggest parties. If the American democratic system produced Joseph Stalin (the far-left communist dictator) and Adolf Hitler (the far-right Nazi dictator) it doesn’t follow that I must pick one or the other.

In the current circumstance, I find myself considering and weighing my options. How do I weigh my options? Before I decide who to vote for, I need to figure out how I’m supposed to vote.

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church human

Causes of Division in the Church

a dinosaur biting and eating

The church today is known by her division. She’s gotten a reputation. Maybe social media makes it seem worse than it is, but that doesn’t matter.

That said, this doesn’t mean that all divisions are wrong. Paul, noting the divisions in ancient Corinth (1 Cor 11:18) pointed out that through divisions they would identify their true working Christians (1 Cor 11:19). Indeed, in Romans 16:17, Paul both warns about division and then encourages it in the same verse!

So, what should the church do? In seeking to be known by her love (John 13:35) should the church pursue unity at all costs? When, if ever, is it right to divide?

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human study

What Should Christians Teach on Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage?

wedding rings breaking showing marriage and divorce

When Marriage Goes Wrong: The Right Way to Respond

Someone was crazy enough to ask me about my position on marriage, divorce, and remarriage. I struggled because my answer was short and lacked context. Later, it made me think that we Christians need to adjust how we think about marriage. Too often we focus first on the posed situations. “When can people get divorced?” “Which marriage is recognized by God?” “Can marriage survive without love?” If we’re answering wrong, we build a list that shows what to avoid and when you’re okay. Indeed, we don’t have 613 laws for tough questions. We need to start elsewhere. (tl;dr)

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hermeneutics human salvation scripture study

What Is Faith (According to The Bible)?

abraham-faith-isaac

What is faith? I’ve seen answers that range from another religion (for example “one of many faiths”) down through some sort of fairy-tale opinion that stands opposed to science.

In the Bible, we’ll see all sorts of usage on “faith” and “belief”—sometimes even referring to when someone adheres to the doctrines that make up Christianity. One of the best usages of faith is the one that is tied to the concept of justification.

Faith is just an archaic word for trust. What I love about seeing faith, or trust, tied to justification in texts like Romans 4 (see more of the Romans study), that it explains the nature of the concept even while using, basically, case-law. No more fuzzy lessons grounded in someone’s personal trust issues, but rather taking the structure of Hebrews 11:1 where it says “faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen” and garnishing it with doctrinal meat.

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church history human

Sometimes, It Really Is Persecution

In recent days I have seen a circle drawn around the category of persecution that minimizes what some folk are going through. You’ll find that someone looks at Fox Book of Martyrs and defines “real” persecution as the things that those people had experienced.  You don’t have to run too far down the Internet—do a search for “real persecution” and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

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