Giovanni Orseolo, a prince of Venice in the early 11th century, married Maria Argyropoulina, a Byzantine princess who brought with her a fascinating little piece of technology that the Venetians had never seen: a two-pronged golden fork.  She shocked everyone by using it to eat her meals.  Peter Damian, a fiery monk, denounced the fork as a sinful luxury.  As the story is told by some, Damian insi...  Read More

I converted to evangelicalism as a teenager convinced I was leaving error for truth. I left Catholicism because so many practices seemed unbiblical and its traditions of repetitious liturgy seemed to lack life.  Evangelicalism, I was sure, would be different.  Evangelicals trusted the Bible, the Word of God rather than the traditions of men.  How could evangelicalism go wrong with that foundation?...  Read More

As a pastor, I have often been put in a difficult place by people I love.  They claim that something I have taught or that our church stands for has hurt them.  “If you were teaching truth,” they say, “I wouldn’t feel hurt.  And if you really love me you will apologize, recant what you’ve said, and change your teaching.”  Every time a pastor experiences this—and all pastors experience it—he is pla...  Read More

The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, recently proposed “free” (i.e. taxpayer-funded) dental care for the city’s crystal meth addicts because “you can’t succeed without teeth!”  This proposal is compassionate, and showing compassion is good.Those who support the proposal are compassionate, support a good thing, and are therefore good people.Opponents of the proposal must lack compassion and must t...  Read More

I've noticed a pattern in how people respond when they bring me hard questions.  Sometimes they leave satisfied. But sometimes — maybe more often than not — they leave with more questions than they came with. People come hoping for a clear answer and instead find me saying something like it depends or there's more than one thing true here or I'm not sure that's quite the right question.I want to e...  Read More

We seem to be living at a time when “the centre cannot hold” for much longer.  The nation is polarized.  Politicians and the media call for unity but they can’t unite around ideology or practice.  They perpetuate the division.  Social media extends the battlefield to the citizenry.  We heatedly re-argue the points put out by the media without any resolution.  We on the right see the world falling ...  Read More

The pendulum of human history swings along a spectrum.  On one end there is liberty and personal freedom; on the other, order and restraint of chaos.We all want two things at once.  We want the freedom to choose, to speak, to own, to worship—the freedom to pursue happiness.  But we also want predictable rules, stable families, stable markets, social trust, and deterrence of wrongdoing and protecti...  Read More

In my last blog, I outlined the covenant cycle between God and Israel (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28-30) that always leave an open door for the Israelites to repent and return from dispersion and exile.STEP 1: Obedience to God brings blessing in the landSTEP 2: Disobedience brings hardship to lead Israel to repentanceSTEP 3: Failure to repent leads to Israel’s expulsion from the landSTEP 4: Israel’...  Read More

How is it that despite continued Jewish hostility to the gospel and despite seeing Gentiles outnumber Jews in the Christian church Paul can still hold out hope that the Jews will someday turn to Christ (Romans 11.12,15,23-24,26-27)?  I believe the answer is to be found in the nature of God’s covenant promises which, Paul says, belong irrevocably to the nation of Israel (Romans 9.4-5 cf. 11.29).Man...  Read More

As regards the gospel, [the unbelieving Jews] are enemies for your sake.But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. (Romans 11.28)How can unbelieving Jews be enemies of the gospels and yet “beloved” in terms of divine election at the same time?Paul qualifies his statement with two phrases:  “as regards election” and “for the sake of their forefathers”.First, unbeli...  Read More

Do not be arrogant toward the branches.  If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.  (Romans 11.18)A consistent problem in apostolic Christianity was cultural conflict between Jews and Gentiles in the church.  To address the problem, Paul in Romans 11 depicts Israel as a cultivated olive tree growing from a holy root (the promises to Abraham).  Jewish ...  Read More

This series of blogs is not about opinions on Israeli politics.  Like citizens of any free nation, Israelis differ on Israeli politics, so it is no surprise if American opinions on the topic differ.  Nor is it about American foreign policy toward Israel or the wars in Gaza or Iran.  Political opinions are not antisemitism and not my concern.  Intimations of hatred toward the Jewish people are my c...  Read More