Volume 37: Issue 3
CONTENTS:
04 From the Editor
Everyday Theology
06 Effective Evangelism
Out of the Nest and Off to College: A Time for Exploration
08 Practical Hermeneutics
Who Are the 144,000 of Revelation?
10 Osteenification and What It Portends
by Hank Hanegraaff
Doctrinal Discernment: With America’s largest church, and one billion impressions per month on Facebook and Twitter, Joel Osteen is the hip new personification of God-talk in America. But behind the glowing self-affirmations—“I am anointed,” “I am prosperous,” “My God is a ‘supersizing God’”—there lies a darker theological hue.
16How Does Sanctification Work? (Part One)
by David Powlison
Christian Discipleship: How does God change people? When we look closely at examples both from Scripture and from personal experience, we find diverse ways that the Word and Spirit minister to our human struggles. Both sources teach us that there is no single formula that produces change.
24Warren Jeffs and His Prophecies from Prison
by Eric Johnson
Today’s Religious Movements: Currently serving a life sentence in Texas while retaining his role as prophet of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Warren Jeffs has spent the past four years busily writing down “revelations” allegedly given to him by Jesus Christ. While the writings fail the test of genuine prophecy, they do provide a revelation of the dark mind of Warren Jeffs.
28You Say You Want a Revolution?
by Bob Perry
Ethical Discernment: While Just War Theory is a useful guide in determining the morality of war between nation states, its value is limited when it comes to determining the warrant for launching a revolution. Are there biblical principles that can help us determine whether revolutions ranging from the American to the Iranian can be justified?
32The New Theistic Evolutionists: BioLogos and the Rush to Embrace the “Consensus”
by Casey Luskin
Doctrinal/Scientific Discernment: The brainchild of NIH director Francis Collins, BioLogos promotes the view that the scientific “consensus” on neo-Darwinian evolution is fully correct, compatible with Christianity, and should be deferred to by nonexperts—despite recent scientific discoveries undermining neo-Darwinism. Has such uncompromising commitment to Darwinian orthodoxy compromised BioLogos’s commitment to Christian orthodoxy?
42Why the Followers of Jesus Recognized Him as Divine
by Craig A. Evans
Doctrinal Apologetics (A Summary Critique): Bart Ehrman wrote How Jesus Became God to answer the question: How did Jesus of Nazareth, who never spoke of Himself in divine terms and whose disciples never thought of their master as anything other than a mere mortal like themselves, come to be regarded as God? Perhaps the answer to this question can be found in reexamining its premises.
50More Than a Wager: Blaise Pascal and the Defense of the Faith
by Robert Velarde
Philosophical Apologetics/(Christian Research Journal Philosophers Series): Though cut short by his death at age thirty-nine, the writings of seventeenth-century French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist Blaise Pascal offer cogent observations on human nature, theology, and apologetics. They cut deeply into matters of the human condition and touch on subjects of great significance and relevance to everyday life.
58 Reviews
Glen Martin’s Game Changer…Wm. Paul Young’s Cross Roads
62 Ask Hank
What Is the Connection between Sundays, the Sacraments, and Our Resurrection?