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Thursday, January 14, 2021

Thursday's Catch: Christian Nationalism Is Worse Than You Think and More


Christian Nationalism Is Worse Than You Think [Podcast] Millions of Americans believe in this political ideology. What church leaders need to know—and how they can help those under its influence.

'How Did We Get Here?' A Call For An Evangelical Reckoning On Trump As fallout continues from the deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol, Ed Stetzer, head of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, has a message for his fellow evangelicals: It's time for a reckoning. Evangelicals, he says, should look at how their own behaviors and actions may have helped fuel the insurrection.

Most Evangelical Trump Voters Didn’t Turn on Mike Pence Christian political scientists say recent events won’t do much to separate Pence’s legacy from Trump’s contentious shadow. MAGA loyalists will side with the president over him, and evangelicals who respected Pence’s character from the beginning see his conscience on display as he broke from the president’s campaign to discredit the election.

Come, Let Us Reason Together The church is divided as never before. Okay, that may be an overstatement. But I think most Christians would agree that, from personal conversations and from social media scrolling, it certainly feels like the divisions are as bad as ever, and only getting worse. The church has been divided over doctrine before—sometimes for bad reasons, often for good reasons. That is to be expected. What seems new in our day is how Bible-believing Christians who share almost all the same doctrine on paper are massively and increasingly divided over non-doctrinal matters, torn apart by issues the Bible does not directly address.

8 Disruptive Trends That Will Shape the Church in 2021 Having been through a year like no other, what can you expect as a church leader in 2021? In all likelihood, this year will lead the church into the post-pandemic world. It won’t be the light switch you hope for (and suddenly, we’re all back!). Instead, it will be a gradual emergence into whatever our normalized future looks like. But at some point in 2021 you’ll look back and realize most of the pandemic is behind you and the future is ahead of you. The question is, what kind of new reality will emerge?

Want to Help Pregnant Women in Crisis? Look for the Lonely. I talk to pastors often about their church’s approach to ministering to women with unexpected pregnancies, and I frequently get a response like, “Well, we don’t have pregnant women in our church, so this isn’t an issue for us.” Unfortunately for many women in this situation, the church building isn’t the first place they think of to run to for help. It’s going to take a search-and-rescue team to go and find them and welcome them in.

We Believe: The Story of the Apostles’ Creed The Augsburg Confession. The Helvetic Confession. The Gallican Confession. The Belgic Confession. The Westminster Confession and Catechism. The Second London Baptist Confession. The Canons of Dort. What do these historic evangelical confessions have in common? Each of them has its roots in the Apostles’ Creed.

The Creed, also known as the Twelve Articles of Faith, expresses essential biblical doctrines that have been articulated, defended, and embraced for nearly two thousand years of church history. Many evangelical Christians throughout history have used the Apostles’ Creed as a personal proclamation of their own faith. Further, all evangelical denominations since the Protestant Reformation have affirmed the Apostles’ Creed without reservation.

Let Her Preach Kelly Edmiston asks some thought-provoking article on women and preaching and shares her perspective on this issue. Some conservative Anglicans would close the pulpit to women; others take a different position. The late John Stott held that a woman might preach if she was licensed by a bishop to preach. She was not preaching in her own authority but the delegated authority of the bishop. Stott saw the issue as a question of authority.

In his letters the apostle Paul takes contrary positions. He does not forbid women from prophesying when they are so moved by the Holy Spirit but then prohibits them from speaking at church gatherings. He qualifies this prohibition by saying that they should submit to their husbands and allow their husbands to instruct them at home. His prohibition appears to arise from the disruptions that husbands and wifes were causing in church gatherings, arguing about what the preacher instructing the gathering meant and how it applied to themselves or to others. Paul appears to consider the wives' behavior as unseemly. He argues that since God created man first, women should not contradict their husbands but accept his opinions on a particular matter. What we may see here is the collision of two cultures. Paul represented Jewish culture whose expectations were that wives should subordinate themselves to their husbands. The women in the Corinthian church represented Corinthian culture which permitted women to be outspoken in public.

5 Ways to Help Teenagers Live Out God’s Purposes Unlike past generations, teens today aren’t looking for the meaning of life. Instead, they’re searching for meaning in life, a purpose for living, something that makes their lives worth living. The fact is they’re seeking the very thing for which God made them, and that’s why it’s important that you consistently teach teens about their purpose in life.

How Veracity Suffers in the Age of Virality For millions of internet users, “going viral” is a goal to be achieved and a coveted symbol of success. For many it has become something of an obsession. What does it even mean to “go viral”? Generally speaking, a piece of internet content that “goes viral” is one that spreads exponentially. Typically it is disproportionately more popular than the creator’s other content, and it sort of takes on a “life of its own.” If the online content—a video, GIF, tweet, or otherwise—ends up becoming a cultural moment offline as well, that would be an additional sign it’s gone viral.

Explainer: The Supreme Court Reinstates Abortion Pill Restriction Today, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) granted the application for stay presented by the Trump Administration and reinstated requirements for women seeking medical abortion pills to first visit a doctor’s office or clinic. The decision was split 6-3, with the liberal justices in the dissent. The majority didn’t explain their reasoning, which is common with emergency applications. However, Chief Justice John Roberts did state that he went along with the decision to dissolve the lower court’s stay out of respect for government experts. Justice Sonia Sotomayer authored the dissent, and was joined by Justice Elena Kagan. Justice Stephen G. Breyer also noted his dissent, but did not join Sotomayor’s opinion.

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