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“ Of two evils, choose neither ." Spurgeon's quote has been posted numerous times on social media by Christians who find themselves in a moral conundrum at the very thought of voting for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. Here’s the problem with Spurgeon’s idea. Biblically there is no such thing as a choice between two evils. Let me explain. Moral philosophers and theologians have long spoken of the problem of "tragic moral choice", also known as the “incommensurability in values.” The man on the street simply calls it “choosing between the lesser of two evils.”   The best known example of tragic moral choice is the one about the Nazis during WW II. Do you handover the Jews knowing that your choice makes you complicit in their deaths? Or do you lie and violate the Ninth Commandment? The Lutheran scholar, John Warwick Montgomery, has argued that such choices are unavoidable and of necessity cause us to sin. The Bible, however, takes a dim view of the...

The struggle to find a satisfactory resolution between authority and freedom remains an uphill battle for contemporary Christian ethics. Paul Tillich (1886-1965) was highly influenced by existentialist themes, most notably Schelling, but also Kierkegaard and Heidegger. But he was also a foundationalist. By this, his dogmatics is based on a type of ontological-metaphysical “realism.” Tillich’s realism is of a sort that sees God as virtually synonymous with Being itself (otherwise the Ultimate, the Absolute, the Unconditional). All of his dogmatic and ethical formulations are thus based in metaphysics of Being. God is the a priori of all thinking, feeling, and acting. He addressed the problem of doubt and anxiety saying that to overcome these things requires one to make the necessary choices and to commit oneself to the “courage to be.” Problematically, Tillich’s ontological authority is incapable of establishing its own criteria. The “Ultimate” is purely Tillich’s symbolic way of s...

Whether a nun or wife of an aristocrat, townsman, or peasant, a woman in the Middle Ages was considered inferior to a man and by nature subject to a man's authority. Although there are a number of examples of strong women who flew in the face of such an attitude, church teachings also reinforced these notions. These two selections are from Gratian, the twelfth-century jurist who wrote the first systematic work on canon law, and Thomas Aquinas, the well-known scholastic theologian of the thirteenth century. Gratian writes in Decretum, The image of God is in man and it is one. Women were drawn from man, who has God's jurisdiction as if he were God's vicar, because he has the image of the one God. Therefore woman is not made in God's image. In his Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas says, As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active force in the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the ...

The following testimony was written by Rev. Martin Odi, an African minister whose son was murdered and the grace God gave him and his wife to forgive the killer in person. After 20 years of pastoral ministry, Martin now serves with Equipping Pastors International in East Africa. A MUST READ. Testimony on Forgiveness By Rev. Martin Odi In the past I have shared with some of you about what happened in our family in 1996. Our first born son, Bildad, who was then age 14, was maliciously poisoned by our neighbor about eight months after I had taken office as the Bishop of the PAG churches in Kumi district, an area of 2681 sq km in the northeastern part of Uganda in East Africa. We were left with two sons. One was not even a year old and very weak as he was born pre-mature under very bad circumstances. I kept asking God “WHY?” I cried out loud and burnt with anger inside. This went on for years but I had no intention at all for revenge. However, I remained very bitter toward God and myself! ...

Here is the cover for my little booklet, Art to the Glory of God (available in the coming weeks). You know, not only art, but also all things are to be done to God's glory, including eating and drinking (1 Corinthians 10:31). Have you considered that every time you take a sip or take a bite, you can do it to magnify the awesome God of heaven and earth? I'll bet you've heard this idea but really haven't thought it through. Nor have you thought it through to its logical conclusion: that God wants all of us...every bit of us, and that that every bit is an expression of our worship of him. If God expects something as seemingly mundane as consuming calories to be carried out to his glory, then ought we not spend more time considering how every area of our lives ought to reflect honor to his glorious name? Please think and pray on it.

The following letter was written by a Ugandan pastor not long after the election of President Obama. The substance of the letter is a response to Obama's signing of a law that allows funding for the killing of innocent unborn children in foreign countries. Though months old, the letter continues to represent an essential position in our public discourse regarding abortion. This letter should be read throughout the world. The impression in our world is still growing with the election of Obama as the first black president of the USA. Almost all people have gigantic hopes that the relations of USA and other nations will begin to change to the better; but the relation of America and the unborn children has again become very bitter. The man we have hopes in has in less than 2 weeks in office signed a law allowing funding for killing of innocent unborn children in foreign countries! This is the man and his team who claim that they will bring peace to the Middle East and stop the killing ...

On Fox news, Shepherd Smith first drew out attention to a new phenomenon, if you choose to call it that, in which people are now eating hamburger, laden with cheese, and whatever, and putting it all between a sliced, Crispy Cream doughnut. Some years ago, it was Aristotle who mentioned the need for "balance" in all things. But the issue is really not one "balance" but of glorifying God in all that we do, in this case, our bodies, the temple of the Holy Spirit. It may appear as a small thing, but to apply the claims of Christ to our ever-dissolving culture, we must not overlook a single thing. Is putting a hamburger between a doughnut (see the video above and you'll gain a better sense of how hedonistically wacko this idea is) too small a thing for a Christian response? We live in a culture of pleasure, and one that is forever discovering news ways to seek it, even in the most cavalier and indeed stupid ways. The hamburger/doughnut combo is the equivalent of skat...

From an observational point of view, compare the average Christian to the average non-Christian and generally speaking what do you see? One goes to church on Sunday, the other might, but likely doesn’t. One shows some level of interest in Christian theology, the other likely has very little interest at all. One anticipates attending some sort of mid-week, Christian corporate gathering, the other probably doesn’t. Now we could go on, but let me stop to ask a question. Where do you see similarity between the two? In how they live. These days, it’s become increasingly difficult to discern any real difference between the way Christians and non-Christians live. It’s a question of ethics. Those who make claim to the holiness of Christ, but show no manifestation of the Holy One who indwells them, are close to Jesus in their profession, but closer still to the atheist in practice. Such people are not fooling the Holy God of heaven. Paul couldn’t be more to the point. “They profess to know God,...