Tag Archives: veracity

August 17, 2013

Egypt: Coptic Christianity

By Clarke Morledge
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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August 14, 2013

Grace & Truth (& Distractions)

By John Paine

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 Believe, Andy 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

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August 11, 2013

Wisdom: John R. W. Stott

By Clarke Morledge
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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August 6, 2013

Jesus the “Zealot”?

By Clarke Morledge
Reza Aslan's, Zealot, has profited greatly from a television interview gone viral. But does Aslan's creative thesis really deliver?

Reza Aslan’s, Zealot, has profited greatly from an embarrassing television interview gone viral. But does Aslan’s creative thesis really deliver?

Was Jesus a “Zealot”, a Jewish political revolutionary? According to a new popular book by Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, the answer would be “yes”.

Aslan’s conclusion is in marked contrast with what I wrote on Veracity just last week and before. There I briefly made the case that Jesus offered an alternative between those Jews, like the tax collector, Matthew, who colluded with Rome, and others like Simon the Zealot, who sought to violently eject the Romans from the land. Matthew and Simon joined the group of Jesus’ twelve disciples and were drawn by Jesus’ extra-political claim as being the One who transcends and personally fulfills the messianic hopes and national aspirations of first century Judaism. A less convinced author, Reza Aslan, pretty much casts aside Jesus’ relationship with those like Matthew and places him squarely in the Zealot camp, prior to the formation of a distinct “Zealot party” that dominated Jewish politics during the era of Josephus.

But the Zealot issue is not what has captured the public’s attention about Aslan’s book. Rather, the spark was a recent, combative interview on the FOX television network. The controversy originated over whether or not a Muslim had a right to write a book about Jesus. The case that Aslan was making got lost in a series of ad hominem attacks. Yikes!! Granted, Aslan makes an embarrassingly big deal about how many academic degrees he has (“look how smart I am!”), but might I suggest that the way FOX conducted the interview was not terribly helpful, to put it mildly?
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August 3, 2013

Dr. Bell’s Submarine Chaser

By John Paine

“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
Romans 1:19-21 (ESV)

Bell Hydrofoil

Alexander Graham Bell’s HD-4 “Submarine Chaser” Hydrofoil. Constructed in 1919, it set a marine speed record that remained unbroken for two decades.


 
I read a very touching letter this week—from one of the Twentieth century’s most inspiring women to one of mankind’s most brilliant pioneers. By any measure, Helen Keller and Alexander Graham Bell were truly remarkable people.

“Dear Dr. Bell, it would be such a happiness to have you beside me in my picture-travels! As in real journeys you have often made the hours short and free from ennui, so in the drama of my life, your eloquent hand in mine, you make the way bright and full of interest, give to misfortune an undertone of hope and courage that will assist many others beside myself to the very end.”
Helen Keller letter to Alexander Graham Bell, July 5th, 1918

Alexander Graham Bell and Hellen Keller

Helen Keller and Bell “finger spelling,” August 29th, 1901.

For someone saddled with blindness and deafness, who was disappointed by her own speech, Helen Keller had a profoundly beautiful and powerful voice.  Her letter to Bell is affectionate, expressing deep love and gratitude.  But when she writes “your eloquent hand in mine,” she is alluding to something that surpassed a simple display of affection—she and Bell conversed through “finger spelling.” Continue reading

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