Introduction What a beautiful tradition is gift-giving! For those whose love language is giving and receiving gifts, Christmas is the best time of the year, although nothing stops a cheerful giver from giving a gift when least expected. Now synonymous with expressing affection and celebration, gift-giving has not always been packaged with the pretty trappings of altruism. The historical roots of gift-giving reveal nations' underlying motives of self-interest and self-pre

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

If history is made up of individuals, it is also certainly made up of moments. The birth of Jesus Christ occurred in one divine moment centuries in the making, and remarkably, only one historian in the entire world has recorded that moment: the Apostle Paul's beloved physician and traveling companion, Luke. I never realized just how viciously Luke's account of Jesus' birth had been attacked until I borrowed a book one day from my father's extensive library. It doesn't loo

Nine years ago, one week before Christmas, my beloved mother passed away.  Sunday morning, December 18, 2016, at 4:20 of a cold, foggy morning, the Hospice nurse confirmed what my sister and I had just witnessed:  our precious mother was gone.  For eighteen sleepless hours, we had kept vigil at her side, reading Scripture, praying, and singing hymns.  At one point when we were quoting verses about heaven, I suddenly realized that my focus was misguided.  Thinking about heaven

Have you clopped along the cobbled streets of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, one of Germany's oldest and best-preserved medieval towns, where it feels like Christmas all year? This time-capsule of days gone by, tracing back to the 10th century, was once home to a handsome nutcracker that I took back to the States with me in August of 1989. Yes, that was a long time ago. The Berlin Wall was just a couple of months away from coming down. For those of us who heard President Ronal

Introduction The story of Hannah in I Samuel is one of my favorite in the entire Bible. After years of barrenness, Hannah sees her prayer answered, and she gives her little son to the Lord, exactly as she had promised. How easy it would have been to retract her vow and to keep Samuel for herself, but Hannah not only does nothing of the kind, she presents Samuel to Eli with triumphant rejoicing. Her prayer of dedication after Samuel has been weaned (I Samuel 2:1-10) bears

It doesn't take deep thought to realize that we live in not only a thankless but an angry world. People we don't even know leave nasty replies to comments on blogposts and videos if we dare to express a true statement that isn't very popular. Follow the comments section on the assassination of Charlie Kirk, for example, and see the hatred spewing everywhere. Not only do we live in an angry world, we live in a world corrupted to the core with selfishness and idolatry. Just