John G. Stackhouse Jr.'s Blog, page 8

A Bestselling Thriller Author Gets Good Friday Wrong

In his popular recent novel, The Order, thriller writer Daniel Silva decides in the name of Judaism to launch a missile at Christianity. The result is a massive exercise in missing the point. To his credit, Silva has done some homework. … Continued

Southern Baptists Expand the “Baptist Faith and Message”

LOUISVILLE, KY — (Baptist Press) Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., President, CEO, and Oracle of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary today announced a dramatic expansion of the central doctrinal statement of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), known as the “Baptist … Continued

Musings for Lent, Holy Week, and Easter

In case any or all of these can bless you, especially if you have to speak this week, a small list of previous posts:

The Inescapable Weirdness of Easter

Here comes another Easter weekend. So what? Chocolate eggs, downy ducklings, and fluffy bunnies—nice enough, but hardly the haul we get at Christmas…or even our birthdays. As for the religious part, why the big deal about a belief that Jesus … Continued

Holy Week Prayers: What Do We Really Want?

Holy Week brings into focus a number of Big Questions. Among the most searching is this: What do we want?  In particular, what do we want from God? From life?  The Gospel according to Mark opens the Jesus story with … Continued

Is Hell Eternal?

I’ve written about the awful idea of hell elsewhere, and those keenly interested in a proper discussion of it can look HERE. On Facebook recently, however, some friendly folk from the “Rethinking Hell” website and confraternity engaged me in clarifying … Continued

Throw Away All Your Ravi Zacharias Books? Or All Your Luther?

A friend grieves the news of a report on Ravi Zacharias’s awful sins. And there are more on the public record now that don’t show up in his report (such as his absolutely disqualifying lies about his academic credentials, accomplishments, … Continued

Churches and COVID-19

I’ve held fire on this subject until now. But a number of folk have asked me to comment, and the court cases are increasing across Canada. So here goes, friends— A few basics on which I’d like to think we … Continued

Why I Attack Certain Public Figures

A couple of friends have asked me why I’m uncharacteristically mordant about certain people I have dealt with on social media. These friends have said that they normally count on me to avoid ad hominem arguments and to stick to … Continued

Expectations for Christian Leadership

I’ve had reason recently to consider patterns of Christian leadership among evangelicals around the world. And among fast-growing churches, a paradigm emerges: If you succeed in this marketplace, you’ll have great clothes, fine cars, big houses, and high status. From … Continued