The Sixth Commandment forbids murder. This commandment is one of God’s moral laws, grounded in His nature, and articulated across the dispensations. The first murderer, Cain, faced God’s judgment for his crime (Gen 4:8–12). After the Flood, God pronounced...

(With apologies to Wilbur Smith, who has already used this title, and to Murray Harris, who borrowed it from him before I could) I won’t sugar coat the news: I just turned sixty-five. I can remember when my mother’s father turned this age. He seemed...

One of the blessings of living in the United States of America is freedom of speech. No American needs to ask permission to state his mind, whether in public or in private. This freedom is recognized as a fundamental right—the kind of right that the Declaration of...

The summer has not gone as I intended. Of course, many folk can say the same, what with the restrictions imposed in the wake of COVID-19. That’s not what I mean, though. I saw those restrictions as an opportunity. Suddenly my entire summer schedule opened up. I...

This discussion about race and the church has been invigorating and thought-provoking. Yet both of us realize that we have only scratched the surface. We must proceed to the last two questions we want to consider. These questions help us to circle back to one of our...

What are tangible ways we can respond to racist attitudes in our churches? How can we promote healthy relations between people of different ethnicities in our churches? JP: Believers’ responses to racist attitudes in local churches should be the same as they...

Who is qualified to participate in a discussion about race in the church? JP: When I first contacted Emmanuel and asked him to consider writing about this issue of race in the church, he graciously agreed to do so with one condition: that a White person join the...

For the past two weeks, we have heard from Pastor Emmanuel Malone as he has answered several questions related to the issue of race in our American culture generally and then in our evangelical church culture particularly. We learned about the danger of minimizing...

Edmund Burke, in his Reflections on the Revolution in France, spoke of the “unbought grace of life.” What he meant was that we receive from our forebears a patrimony of ideas, perspectives, habits, attitudes, and sensibilities that together make life more...

In the most recent Nick of Time essay, Kevin Bauder introduced the subject of race relations based upon a recent conversation he had with his African-American friend, Simon. Kevin ended his article by posing two questions: 1) What should we do with the perceptions...

After two days of the rioting in Minneapolis, I had occasion to visit with a friend—I’ll call him Simon. Simon is nearly my age and has recently retired from two simultaneous careers: as a police detective and as a platoon sergeant in the National Guard, with whom he...

Robert G. Delnay arrived at Denver Baptist Theological Seminary when I was beginning my Middler year during the late summer of 1980. He came to the school both as dean and as a professor. In the latter capacity he taught Greek, homiletics, and church history. The...

Whether American churches are really facing a new Dark Age is debatable. What cannot be doubted is that ministry has become more complicated. We live in an increasingly secular culture that confronts Christians with new challenges. Christianity will not be conserved...

Anybody who gets into the business of predicting the future is on hazardous ground. None of us can see even one second into our future. Only God can, and where He does not reveal it to us, we had better admit ignorance. What we can do, however, is to project trends...

Twenty years ago almost no reputable college, university, or seminary offered distance education. In fact, “distance ed” was one of the marks of a diploma mill. Nevertheless, the new computer technologies, and especially the internet, were about to provide...

By every indicator, historic, mainstream fundamentalism is a shrinking movement. Churches are shrinking. Fellowships are shrinking. Mission agencies are shrinking. Schools have closed and those that remain are scrambling for students. Furthermore, the churches are...

To get to work I have to drive south about five miles and then west about four miles. I can take a variety of routes to cover that distance. I can drive south through city traffic on either Douglas or Winnetka Avenues. Alternatively, I can take County Road 100 or US...

One of the reasons I went to seminary in Colorado was because of the mountains. The Rockies were not my only reason. They weren’t even the most important reason. Some might think that they were a carnal reason, though I disagree. Nevertheless, the natural beauty...

 “My faith has found a resting place not in device nor creed….” This line opens one of the hymns that used to be sung regularly in Baptist churches. It is still sung in some. It can be taken in two ways. One is to suggest that devices and creeds (or...