Reading the Bible Christocentrically: Rescuing the Ark Narrative from Enlightenment Reductionism

Interpreting OT history is often a confusing task for the church. How do you apply Israelite history to the modern church? There have been two dominant attempts to resolve this tension: allegory and historical-grammatical method. Allegory arose mainly with people who deeply believed the OT was of value to the church and about Christ, so they struggled to read it as …

Jihadist Suicide Bomber? The Gospel and Samson

I remember having a conversation with my brothers and a friend of theirs in which the subject of Samson’s salvation came up. Their friend exclaimed, “I don’t even know if that guy was regenerate!” Of course Samson broke his Nazarite vow on several occasions, made multiple rendezvous with pagan women, cohabited with one, and committed suicide in some vain attempt …

Teaching Teens About Temptation

  A few days ago I got to speak to the teens in our church about temptation. Temptation comes to ALL of us. There are many temptations that teens face: “fooling around,” internet pornography, peer pressure, tearing down others to make yourself look cool, drugs and alcohol, smarting off to parents, self-righteousness among the holier-than-thou churchy teens, etc. I confessed …

The Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Story of Noah

The story of Noah has been popularized again and again and again. From Bill Cosby’s comic routine to the newly released “Evan Almighty,” the Noah story is everywhere, including YouTube. This atheist who calls herself “Hellbound Alleee,” posted this video about Noah’s Ark. She explains how ridiculous it is that Christian parents are so concerned with TV content and ratings …

Baptist 21’s Purpose

Baptist21 exists to contend for “the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).We embrace our past, believing this faith has been proclaimed in our Southern Baptist heritage. We work in the present, believing the Kingdom effectiveness of Southern Baptists will be in proportion to our fidelity to the Gospel. We cooperate for the future, believing the only …