LEGATO...

Between the Dallas shootings, the Hillary mess, and so much more, I've been thinking about the relationship of the Church in America to the moral decay and lawlessness in our society. Now, if you think about it, most culture-minded Christians assume that our national problems are largely a byproduct of the failure of churches to "transform" their surrounding culture. They are absentee in their cultural mandate. Having written a great deal on the cultural mandate, I see that  connectivity as well. However, I want to suggest that the real problem is not "with" the church and its cultural program. The problem is instead "within" the Church. Let me explain this nuance. When Paul, for example, says in 2 Tim. 3:1-4 that "in the last days difficult times will come", then gives his long list of difficulties, it is natural to think he is decrying the state of affairs in the culture. But read vs 5. The treacherous people Paul is talking abo...

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is unquestionably the greatest writer in the world of English literature.  A committed Christian, Shakespeare used biblical themes as the foundation of many of his greatest literary ideas. The Christian impact on his work is documented by Ernest Marshall Howe’s Spiritual Values in Shakespeare, and in Dr. George Morrison’s Christ in Shakespeare.  In Hamlet, the writer builds on a theme from Psalm 8: “What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him?  And the son of man, that Thou dost care for him?  Yet Thou hast made him a little lower than God, and dost crown him with glory and majesty,” to write: What a piece of work is a man!  How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving, how express and admirable! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a God!” Shakespeare articulated his belief in Jesus Christ in his last will and testament: I commend my soul into the hands of God my Creator, hoping...

“A biblical Worldview is seeing the world the way God sees it. It is thinking God’s thoughts after him in all areas of life” ( Earth Restored, 2002). As those of you who have read my book Earth Restored know, I do not typically treat the topic of Christian worldview according to philosophical categories, as is typically the case in many Christian colleges. However, this is not to say that we cannot learn a great deal from the traditional categories. The following offers a list of the traditional worldview elements and their implications for our cultural debate, much of which follows the thinking of Ronald Nash. Epistemology : “The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity.” Secular humanism claims that the basis for knowledge is autonomous reason. The God Christians believe in is the God who has revealed himself in the Old and New Testaments. The Christian faith is a revealed-religion . Ron...