Author: Vince
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A letter to the exhausted believer
Dear friend, Read this slowly, if you will. Not because what follows is complicated, but because the thing I want to say is the kind of truth that slips past a hurried mind. You are tired. Not because you are failing, but because you are working. You are straining to complete something that was completed…
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If the Quran Is True, Then the Quran Is False
The Quran claims to be the final and definitive revelation of Allah. Yet this claim carries an internal contradiction that is worth examining carefully. The Quran and the Bible The Quran explicitly acknowledges the Jewish and Christian Scriptures as authentic divine revelation. A selection of relevant passages: The Quran further asserts that the words of…
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More Than a Morning
There is a version of Easter that costs nothing. Chocolate, flowers, the vague warmth of spring — a cultural ritual that asks no questions and makes no demands. Christianity, however, is not in that business. The apostle Paul, writing to a church in Corinth roughly twenty years after the crucifixion, stated the stakes with uncomfortable…
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One Baptism, Many Claims: Rethinking Spirit Baptism from Scripture
If you spend any time in overlapping Pentecostal, Reformed, and broader evangelical circles, you quickly discover that “baptism in the Holy Spirit” functions as a kind of theological Rorschach test. For some, it is a dramatic post‑conversion crisis marked by tongues; for others, it is simply Paul’s shorthand for conversion itself; for yet others, it…
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Covid: When the Church’s Moral Crisis Was Exposed
Recently, my thoughts drifted back to the “Covid times” for several reasons. My plumber’s brother fell ill last year and was diagnosed with myocarditis. Interestingly, the first question the hospital doctors asked him was “How many doses of Covid vaccine did you have?” This is a stark contrast to the shunning faced by those who…
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The Gospel: not good advice to be obeyed but good news to be believed
In modern evangelical circles, we often hear a message that sounds deeply pious: “If you want to be saved, you must surrender every area of your life to God. You must put everything on the altar. You must pay the price of discipleship to receive the gift of salvation.” While these sentiments may aim to produce…
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God or Absurdity
Let us introduce a theoretical objector. He is intelligent, articulate, morally outraged by evil, and firmly committed to a godless worldview. He insists that morality is real, that some acts are always wrong, and that God, if He exists, must answer to moral scrutiny. He is confident that his position is both humane and rational. We…
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Panentheism and the Collapse of Morality
Pantheism and panentheism have gained renewed traction in contemporary Western culture, often without being named as such. These views are routinely smuggled into public consciousness through a variety of cultural avenues: New Age spirituality, certain strands of environmentalism (including ideological expressions within the vegan movement), and broader appropriations of Eastern religious thought. They are frequently…
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The Pagan Origins of Calvinism
The history of Reformed theology is often presented as the recovery of truth passed down from the Apostles. However, things are not exactly so. Dr. Kenneth Wilson, an Oxford-trained theologian and orthopedic surgeon, has in the past few years made waves with his challenges to this narrative, with a provocative thesis: the deterministic theology that…
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When someone leaves a congregation
When someone leaves a congregation, the instinctive reaction is often defensive and self-protective. The narrative forms quickly and predictably. The person who left is assumed to be at fault. They lacked maturity. They resisted authority. They grew spiritually dry. They did not want to serve. They were unwilling to sacrifice. In short, their departure is…