Tag Archives: Christianity

Egypt: Coptic Christianity

Members of an historic Christian community in Egypt find themselves persecuted in the midst of political and economic turmoil.   How should Christians at large throughout the world pray for them?

The international media highlights the conflict between the secular elite and Islamic fundamentalists in Egypt.  But what about Egypt’s historic Christian community, the Copts?  How should believers around the world pray for them?

Since the Arab Spring of 2011, Egypt has been a focal point of political renewal … and unrest. Much of the conflict in Egypt is between a secular minded ruling class and a resurgence of fundamentalist Islam. What will take shape in Egypt? A Westernized secular democracy? A return to a traditional Islamic state?

What many do not realize is that there is another group of people in Egypt often caught in the middle: the Coptic Christians.  It is a situation where many other Christians, like me, here in America, find it difficult to comprehend.
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Grace & Truth (& Distractions)

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
John 1:16-17 (NIV84)

Being a blogger is a lot like being a fisherman—lines in the water all over the place, always fishing for material to share.  I learn a lot.

One of the places I like to go fishing is in podcasts, listening to the likes of William Lane Craig, the scholars at Reasons To BelieveAndy Stanley, and Dick Woodward while commuting.  But this summer I agreed to read straight through the Old Testament, and that meant weeks of listening to the reading of all 39 books.  No podcasts—just reading through the Bible (an essential prerequisite for personal discipleship).

Finally, I reached the end of Malachi and the next day it was time for something new.  I really missed the podcasts, so I pulled out my iPhone and ran through some favorite podcast libraries, settling almost randomly on an Andy Stanley sermon entitled, “When Gracie Met Truthy.”  It’s a really powerful message on what it means to be a ‘Christian’, and I couldn’t wait to share it here on Veracity.

So here you go.  Click on the image below, then click on the video that appears and listen to some very fine homiletics.

When Gracie Met Truthy

Sometimes Less Is More

But…when I sat down to link everything up for this post, a simple Google search produced a lot more than I bargained for.  It turns out this is THE controversial sermon Andy Stanley preached on August 15th, 2012.  You know, the one where he made an illustration about a messy situation involving homosexuality and adultery.  The rocks started flying in the blogosphere, and even some big names weighed in on the attack. Continue reading


Wisdom: John R. W. Stott

John R.W. Stott, author of the classic introduction to the Christian faith, Basic Christianity.

John R.W. Stott, author of the classic introduction to the Christian faith, Basic Christianity.

I fondly remember listening to John Robert Walmsley Stott teaching tapes in college some thirty years ago. Stott was a staple speaker at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship conferences in the last third of the 20th century. Verse by verse, Stott would calmly expound each point in the biblical text. He was not flashy, but in his eloquent British voice he was passionate about gaining an in-depth perspective on God’s Word. Stott died a few years ago at age 90, on July 27, 2011.

John Stott still embodies biblical wisdom for me. He was scholarly but still had a pastor’s heart that enabled him to care for people. How do the great truths of the Bible impact not only the way I am to think, but the way I am to live as a Christian? In the dozens of books and biblical commentaries Stott authored, he tackled tough issues with day-to-day applications in a tender and very practical way.

In celebration of Stott’s contribution to the church, Christian Audio is offering a FREE audio download of Stott’s classic book, Basic Christianity, during the month of August, 2013.

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What’s a “Melchizedek”?

Abraham meets the Priestly-King Melchizadek. Dieric Bouts (1464-1467),  The Church of Saint Peter, Leuven, Belgium.

Abraham meets the Priestly-King Melchizadek.
Dieric Bouts (1464-1467), The Church of Saint Peter, Leuven, Belgium.

So, what is “Melchizedek” all about? Is a “Melchizedek” the level above the “Parking Deck”? No, not quite. In the Christian New Testament, the writer of the Book of Hebrews makes the priesthood of Melchizedek a central theme in that letter.  Jesus the Christ is also our high priest, standing in the order of Melchizedek.  So where does Melchizedek come from?

Originally, there are just a couple of obscure references in the Old Testament to Melchizedek, someone who has no described ancestry and no known descendants. He just appears and vanishes in the biblical scene quickly. Contemporary speculation abounds about Melchizedek, ranging from the writings of Joseph Smith to the Urantia book of the New Age Movement…. Mmmm….Is the writer of Hebrews just making things up as he goes along, making too much of a big deal over an insignificant character?
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Biblical Tension

“It seems easier to go to a consistent extreme than to stay at the center of biblical tension.”
Robertson McQuilkin

Scaling El Capitan, photo by Bronson Taylor Hovnanian, 2011


 
A sagacious Veracity reader recently served up the above quote while discussing perspectives on the role of women in church leadership.  I hadn’t heard it before, but it sounded profound and worthy of some quiet-time bird dogging.  I quickly traced it to Robertson McQuilkin, a man of great integrity.

The Christian faith inherently involves biblical hermeneutics—simply put, we have to interpret the text in the Bible.  In wrestling with our different interpretations there seems to be no limit to the chasms we create over issues large and small.

So this new quote from Robertson McQuilkin seemed to hold potential as a way to work though our differences.  Jesus was the master of big thinking, never getting lost in the details.  When we disagree, one tact is to find a higher principle, teaching, or value upon which we can agree.  We can use tension to elevate to a higher common ground.  Lots of things don’t work without tension.  Maybe biblical tension is prescribed for our health and well being.  The left versus the right, with peace in the middle.  No more getting stuck in the parking lots of our own arguments. Continue reading