I am told on good authority that it is offensive to invite people of other religions to convert to Christianity. Thus it is offensive to say to a Jew, “Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God and so you should be baptized and become a...
One is tempted to say that it takes a fair bit of either courage or foolhardiness in our culture to write in praise of virginity. But virginity is now so misunderstood and undervalued that some words need to be offered to understand it...
There are stupider things to do than arguing with a culty fundamentalist. As the late great Jim Croce reminded us, you don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, and you don’t pull the mask off the ol’ Lone Ranger. ...
A wise man once said, “What we believe always remains intellectually possible; it never becomes intellectually compulsive. I have an idea that when this ceases to be so, the world will be ending.” That is, in this age we walk by faith,...
We continue with our study of Israel in the New Testament, including our numeration of points for ease of discussion.6. Though the Jewish Christians (the followers of “the Way” as they were known) were initially regarded as fellow Jews...
One occasionally finds people who believe that the Old Testament is a Jewish book written for the Jews, while the New Testament is a Christian book, written for the Christians. Though this odd popular perception is wrong, one does see...
The Church has the same task in whatever land it takes root and finds itself, namely that of making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Trinity, and of teaching them to observe all that Christ commanded. How it...
Quiet confession just between us: nostalgic freak that I am, I still like listening to old songs from the Christian folk group “Children of the Day”. The group was one of the earliest Jesus People music groups, and consisted of four...
I have been reading liberal theology since my college days—i.e. theologies which deny many, most, or all of the major tenets of the traditional Christian Faith. The theologies are as many and as varied as their authors, but they all...
The earliest Church, from the days of the apostles and into the first centuries, had an abundant share of guts and what everyone else regarded as perversity. Its claims were so outrageous that it was hard for the average Jew or Greek or...
I sometimes tell inquirers at St. Herman’s when they ask that I began my Christian life in earnest as a Jesus People—which usually results in blank stares, since most of them are too young to have heard of the cultural phenomenon known...
I cannot be the only one who has had the experience of visiting a non-Orthodox church service and finding it stunningly empty and plain. After long familiarity with Orthodox worship with its icons, incense, candles, vestments, Gospel...
Recently I heard a very dark and serious song about the judgment of God and His wrath against sinners. It was the folk song “Great God Almighty’s Gonna Cut You Down” (accessed here). I was not aware of the song before; apparently it is...
I would like you all to meet a young woman, raised a devout Roman Catholic, who converted to Islam. Her online story reads in part as follows:“I’m one of the many western converts out there…I grew up in a very traditional orthodox...
One sometimes hears of Orthodox Christians converting to Roman Catholicism. In my experience, they usually do not leave Orthodoxy for Roman Catholicism because of their delight in the Novus Ordo post-Vatican II Mass, nor out of...
