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Creation Science: My Vision of Its Future
The organizers of the International Conference on Creationism 2023 assigned me this topic as the keynote address on opening night at Cedarville University. My paper included more examples than I used during the address since my allotted time would not allow the fuller presentation.
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Creation: Critical to Biblical Faith
The Master’s University invited me to speak in chapel on February 21, 2024 as part of the 30th Creation Summit. For that chapel I chose to address the student body and faculty on the topic of biblical faith as related to biblical creation. My text: Hebrews 11:1–3.
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Q & A: Free will in Heaven?
While reading Benjamin Warfield’s critique of perfectionism and the attendant descriptions of both justification and sanctification, I received a question from a friend whose son had asked if we will have a free will in Heaven.
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Christmas Meditation
Something Special For me the Christmas season has special meaning on two different levels: the spiritual and the familial. Every year celebrates two corresponding realities: the love of my Savior and the love of my wife. My final Christmas separated from my Savior took place in 1961.
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Israel Research Trip, #16
Due to the amount of information I desired to communicate about Beth-shean / Scythopolis, this site required two posts. Post #15 covered Old Testament Beth-Shean and this post covers New Testament Scythopolis.
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The Psalms: A Primer for Prayer
For six and a half years we worked our way through the Psalter psalm by psalm (Psalm 1 through Psalm 150). After reading each psalm at the start of our Sunday morning class, we then prayed sentence prayers based upon that psalm.
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Israel Research Trip, Post #4
Caesarea Maritima / Caesarea Palestina Intertestamental Period In the 3rd century BC the Persians gave the area to the Phoenicians who built a small anchorage here and named it Strato’s Tower.
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Lessons on Hope for Suffering Saints
In a fallen world filled with conflict, uncertainty, sorrow, death, and disease God’s people often face suffering. God’s Word in both Old and New Testaments offers hope.
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Shalom Living for God’s People
In 2014, as part of my participation in the ministries of Abraham Lincoln Foundation of Albania (ALFA), Robb Provost (ministry director) asked me to prepare and present a study about “shalom living” from the Old Testament.
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The Book of Genesis and Resurrection Sunday
HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED! Sometimes we allow ourselves to so compartmentalize the Bible’s teachings that we fail to grasp the overarching unity of Scripture. On this Resurrection Sunday, I found a tremendous blog at the website for Is Genesis History? Yes, the superb film produced by Dr.
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Peace-Loving Believers in an Age of Violence, Part 2
Just war advocates normally base their stance upon passages revealing the divine origin and approval of government and its functions. Romans 13:1–7 forms the anchoring text for developing their view of governmental authority in the lives of Christians. The apostle Paul represents
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Peace-Loving Believers in an Age of Violence, Part 1
Scripture disallows seeking peace at any price. Some apologists argue that even believers must draw the line somewhere to stand up to the forces of evil. Wherever one stands, Christians need to be pro-active. As Friesen, Langan, and Stassen observe in their introduction to Just P
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Practical Pauline Missions: Athens
Brethren, we are not apostles, but their example instructs us. We cannot be exactly like the apostle Paul, but we can learn basic principles and practices from the biblical record of Paul’s missionary service. We can even develop a biblical evangelistic or missions methodology ba
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Messianic Hope and the Gentiles–Thinking Through Romans 15:8-13
Romans 15:8-13 provides us with the apostle Paul’s theology of Messianic hope as founded upon the scriptures of the Hebrew Bible. In this significant text he builds upon the revelation of hope about which he speaks in Romans 15:4.
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Messianic Hope and the Gentiles
Even before the creation of the world (1 Peter 1:17–21), God appointed Christ and His perfect sacrifice as the basis for showing mercy to the Gentiles. Through Christ they could experience hope in spite of being strangers to Israel and not being recipients of God’s covenants with
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When God Takes a Faithful Servant Suddenly and Unexpectedly
Pastor Jim Barrick (Feb. 9, 1948 – Aug. 11, 2017) As my wife and I were boarding our flight from Gatwick Airport in London my cell phone buzzed. It was not a good time to answer it and I knew if it were important, the call would be repeated when we landed in California. Sure enou
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Blessing–Even in Affliction
Sometimes our lives seem as fragile as a bluebell clinging to its perch on an ancient chapel’s stone wall. The prophet Jeremiah caught the deep emotional pain disobedient Jerusalem must endure as the Lord brings upon her the covenant curses as discipline.
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Implications or Applications?: Preaching Biblical Narratives
Some preachers produce abundant applications (or, implications?) for their congregations from biblical narratives, whether they are Old Testament historical narratives like Judges 4 or New Testament Gospel narratives like Mark 3. Other preachers insist they should offer only theo
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Pentecost Meditation: The Significance of Christ’s Ascensions
Bible readers often pick up on the apparent fact that Jesus ascended more than one time into heaven following His resurrection. Indeed, there appear to be three different ascensions, each accomplishing different purposes.
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Why is Bible translation an important missions ministry?
Share The Word of God must be at the core of all missions strategy. Without the Word of God, no ministry can be satisfactorily performed— the Word provides the authority for ministry, the instruction for ministry, the power of ministry, and the message of ministry. To all of this
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Hebrew Whiteboard Update: Psalm 5 Complete
The final two verses of Psalm 5 (vv. 12-13, Hebrew verse numbering) close out the psalm on a very high note. It expresses a climactic crescendo of rejoicing, a six-fold emphasis centering upon Yahweh Himself, and a series of parallels with the first stanza of the psalm (vv.
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The Resurrection of Christ and Missions
Share From the start of our Christian faith, we all have received the testimony of Matthew’s Gospel regarding the resurrected Lord’s appearance to His disciples in Galilee where they met with Him on the mountain to which He had instructed them to go (Matthew 28:16). At that time
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Biblical Genealogies: Begetting a Devotional Reading
What do you do when you come to the book of 1 Chronicles in your Bible reading? Skip?–Jump over genealogies without reading. Skim?–Read the inserted headings, but not the text. Scavenge?–Read only the narrative inserts, like the one about Jabez. Squirm?–Read with distinct discomfort.
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Biblical Genealogies: Begetting a Devotional Reading
You’ve heard it and maybe even said it yourself, “When I get to a genealogy in my Bible reading, I just skip it.” Genealogies (lists of names telling who is related to whom) can be boring and intimidating—especially if you have to read all those hard-to-pronounce names aloud for
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True Spirituality, Dealing with Addiction, and Self-Help Manuals
Counseling individuals with various types of addictions presents an ongoing challenge. How can you best help them to help themselves? How can you encourage them? What resources do you recommend?
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True Spirituality, Dealing with Addiction, and Self-Help Manuals
Dealing with addictions can push a Christian to the limits of patience, trust, and exhaustion. The addiction might involve drugs, alcohol, tobacco, food, sex, pornography, power, popularity, wealth, social media, technology, or recreation—and many more. Recovering addicts soon fi
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Hi-def Leadership in a Hi-def World
The attributes of godly leaders occupies a good deal of Scripture. Sometimes we find it necessary to synthesize the biblical teachings on leadership in order to sharpen our understanding of its seriousness and its challenges.
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Hi-def Leadership in a Hi-def World: Attributes of Godly Leaders
High-definition (or, Hi-def , or HD ) refers to increased visual resolution as compared to the commonly used standard of resolution. This involves twice as many scan lines per frame, a proportionally sharper image, and a wide-screen format. In other words, this technology produce
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What Books Do You Recommend Most Highly?–Part 2
As I continue to populate my list of books I most highly recommend, I move now to the New Testament commentaries. See What Books Do You Recommend Most Highly? (click on that title–it is a link that will take you to that first post) for the start of the list and the identification of the Old
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Creation–Peripheral Doctrine?
Is the doctrine of creation a peripheral or secondary (or even tertiary) biblical doctrine? Some scholars opine that instantaneous, miraculous, divine creation as a doctrine should be exchanged for natural evolution.
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Works, Words, and Wisdom–Divine and Human
Works, Words, and Wisdom—Divine and Human Psalm 111 by William D. Barrick Commencement Address—Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary May 12, 2016 Introduction A professor had just finished the final lecture for his introductory course in philosophy.
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Brazilian Creation Conference PowerPoints and Notes–in Portuguese
In June 2015 I had the great privilege of participating in teaching and preaching in Fortaleza, Brazil. The organizers translated my PowerPoint presentations and conference notes into Portuguese. The topic for the conference was Creation.
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How Do I Know If I Am Saved?
I know that I am saved, because . . . I am not like Cain (1 John 3:11-15). I do not hate others. I am like Jesus (1 John 3:16-18). I love others sacrificially. I love others selflessly. My heart says so (1 John 3:19-22). An obedient heart. A God-controlled heart. The Holy Spirit says
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The Christian and War
Answering the question, “Should a Christian be a member of the military?” is the best way to elaborate on “The Christian and War.” On the positive side, the military emphasizes the importance of moral character for its leaders.