A Gift Still to Be Opened The new year teases like a bright green package still waiting to be opened. What does it hold in store? We want a new beginning, but we don't want things to change. We pick up a blank journal, turning hope into history with a deep resolve to meet our destiny unafraid. Some people take Christmas with them, leaving up tiny twinkle lights all year. But what if we all kept candles burning out of holy expectation? A Revelation to Behold A revelat

Introduction How does one fallacy reproduce itself many times over? When Dallas Jenkins links stereotypes of Jesus with "statues and stained glass windows," he not only begs the question by basing his claim on untested assumptions, he creates a false analogy between stereotypes and stained glass windows, presumably to prejudice his audience in favor of his show. In this, he comes dangerously close to relying on the propaganda device known as dysphemism by linking something

Introduction This is not a historical overview of religious art but only a philosophical tribute in cameo form. Although I do mean the visual arts, I do not mean only the visual arts but those that involve the process of human creativity, which includes literature and music. As created in the image of God, we are inherently creative, some more than others, it is true, but even those who claim to possess little creativity of their own generally appreciate its expression in

When Dallas Jenkins utters one of his most frequent comments--that he wants to break stereotypes of Jesus as "statues and stained glass windows"--he is saying that all three--people's ideas of Jesus, stereotypes, and stained glass windows--are merely two-dimensional. He wants people to see Jesus as three-dimensional, which will happen when they see his show. What he doesn't say is that his show also uses a medium that is two-dimensional, so, despite the nature of his commen

Students of John Milton's epic Paradise Lost cannot soon forget his Biblical description of hell. Writing out of his own blindness, Milton paints hell as a place of "darkness visible." Not only is hell a place of palpable darkness, it is an abyss of sulfurous flames in which the newly cast Lucifer, now Satan, rolls in thunderous pain as the embodiment of Leviathan. But it is Satan himself who defines hell also as a state of mind, a state which, in his rebellion, he deceive

A Refutation of The Dissenter's Jeff Maples' Dismissal of Charles Wesley Why I Struggle with Jeff Maples Last week, I received in my email an article from the online periodical known as The Dissenter , written by Jeff Maples, in which he explores the doctrinal correctness of Charles Wesley's Christmas hymn, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!" Having myself written a blogpost on the Christmas carols recently and having noted the theological integrity of these great hymns, I

Created by Dallas Jenkins in 2017, The Chosen is a multi-season television series dramatizing the humanity of Jesus from the viewpoint of His disciples. Jenkins, in the spirit of literary license, has created 95% of the show's material to fill what he calls "gaps" in the Biblical record. The show's predominantly fictional content has not precluded its being billed as historical drama; nor has it hindered the credulity of Jenkins' fans. On the contrary, the vast majority of

It wouldn't be too surprising to hear that Christians these days are going through an identity crisis. This crisis might not involve merely the question of who we are ourselves but also with whom we can identify anymore. The Christian landscape seems ever changing, to the point that people we thought we trusted yesterday turn out to be someone entirely different today. That respected leader lets us down, and we find out that we have no heroes left, after all. Some people'

Most of us will never know what really goes on behind the scenes during the week of Halloween. If you have ever felt more Satanic oppression during this time than at others, you are not alone. Perhaps your spirit feels a burden you cannot shake, a heaviness you cannot explain, a depression you cannot dismiss. What's really going on? My mother told of a time when she and my father experienced unusual Satanic oppression when they had a next door neighbor who was a practicin

Introduction Without apology, I think it is fair to ask that a show about Jesus be produced from a uniquely Christian perspective. Viewers have a right to know the influences behind The Chosen , and they have a right to critique the show accordingly. If these influences are determined to be less than Christian, whether in the screenwriting or in the acting or even in the production, we have the right to ask why Jenkins is using them. And if Jenkins has a prejudice against

Introduction: Jenkins Takes Aim at Statues and Stained Glass Windows Jenkins' frequently expressed intention to break stereotypes of Jesus as "statues" and "stained glass windows" triggers all those images of COVID-ridden 2020, when we watched what felt like half the nation march from coast to coast to protest George Floyd's horrific murder. Burnings, breaking of glass, looting, and the pulling down of our nation's most iconic statues filled the news night after night, w

The Ark Encounter Two years ago, I got to visit the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky. I had wanted to go for a long time, and...

Jenkins' "Chosen" Jesus said no one can serve both God and mammon. Neither can anyone serve both truth and relatability. By...

A "More Human" Jesus? I have long wrestled with Dallas Jenkins' portrayal of Jesus in The Chosen. From what little I have watched in...

An "Authentic" Jesus? In a show designed to entertain, I think it is fair to ask whether this purpose also applies to its...

Introduction: The Internet, smartphones, GPS, digital cameras--these staples of daily life were foreign to most of us two generations ago, and, if they existed at all, were initially regarded as novelties, if not downright oddities. But someone's idea found not only "wings" but "landing gear," (as C. D. Jackson, a United States government psychological warfare advisor, put it), and here we are wondering how we ever got along without these "necessities." Whether these conv

Do Christians Sin Every Day?    "I sin every day." This common statement is often attached to the prevailing claim that all sins are...

Those who argue that faith is purely a gift of God contend that a dead man has no power to exert his will.  If he did, he would be...

Have you noticed these days how faith--the very means of our salvation,  upon which Luther's Protestant Reformation was built--is often casually dropped from the process of salvation? The omission, we find, is intentional.  It is also contradictory.  Those who preach that we are saved by grace alone  and who leave out "through faith”  seem afraid we will discover that there is, after all, a condition of salvation.  If there is a condition to salvation, then free will is invo

Is faith a work? Of course not, most self-respecting, healthy people will answer. Why would you ask that? Thank you. I agree. Is faith a gift? Well, now, that's a tough one. I always thought faith was the single proof of righteousness, my required response to grace, so I guess not. But then, again, didn't the disciples ask the Lord to increase their faith? And didn't the father of a suffering boy ask the Lord to help his unbelief? Now you've got me all confused. I