A list of the articles I saw (mostly through twitter) this week and found very helpful.
3 Reasons You Should Reject the Prosperity Gospel – RAAN
Cole Brown of the Reformed African American Network does as excellent job here of providing some basic reasons to reject the prosperity gospel — beginning with the most important of all: “It Abuses God’s Word.” It isn’t a new article, but since it was new to me I wanted to share it.
On Gungor and Whether Doubt is Okay – Owen Strachan
Building on the news of Gungor’s theological shift, Owen Strachan explores the difference between two kinds of doubt: temporary confusion and existential doubt. I thought it was a very good assessment of each and especially the danger of the latter.
“Those who wish to call themselves Christians but emphasize their doubts end up reducing the faith to a feeling, a mood; in our day, they often say something like, I disbelieve certain doctrines, my doubts are on many days stronger than my convictions, and it’s not the Word of God that is my rock, but a feeling or sense of connection to God and other people. This is not okay. It is deeply problematic and spiritually disastrous,” he writes.
That danger is something I’ve also written about in regard to Jay Bakker’s book “Faith, Doubt and Other Lines I’ve Crossed.”
Not Our Problem: Why Collectively Ignoring Mark Driscoll Isn’t an Option – Christ and Pop Culture
Christ and Pop Culture addresses the matter of ignoring Mark Driscoll and why it can’t be done: “There is simply no pastor, and no local church body for that matter, that is exempt from the need for accountability and exhortation from the outside. This was the case in the early church, and it is even more so in an age when an unassuming Sunday morning sermon can set the world on fire. ” H/T Challies.
A Birdseye View of the Gospel in One Big Sentence – Kevin DeYoung
Kevin DeYoung provides a really long sentence that is a great gospel message from John Witherspoon.
Pyromaniacs: The Pastoral “Call,” and How There Isn’t One – Dan Phillips
Dan Phillips points out that the Bible doesn’t have a verse about the pastoral call.