Bart Ehrman, one of the most influential atheists/agnostics today admitted: The problem of suffering became for me the problem of faith. After many years of grappling with the problem, trying to explain it, thinking through the explanations that others have offered—some of them pat answers charming for their simplicity, others highly sophisticated and nuanced reflections of serious philosophers and theologians—after thinking about the alleged answers and continuing to wrestle with the problem, about nine or ten years ago I finally admitted defeat, came to realize that I could no longer believe in the God of my tradition, and acknowledged that I was an agnostic: I don’t “know” if there is a God; but I think that if there is one, he certainly isn’t the one proclaimed by the Judeo-Christian tradition, the one who is actively and powerfully involved in this world. And so I stopped going to church (Ehrman, Bart D., God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer, HarperCollins. Kindle Edition, 2009, 3-4).
Read moreModern Slavery or Human Trafficking
There are more slaves today than at any other time. We call modern slavery human trafficking. Modern slavery is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the United States with North Carolina among the most affected states. In 2019, 266 cases of trafficking were reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, ranking North Carolina 11th among the 50 states in cases reported. According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, there is now an average of 78 sex trafficking cases every year in North Carolina, and Charlotte is the #1 city.
Read moreDon’t Waste Your Life (Psalm 127)
Solomon in the only Pilgrim Psalm (Psalm 127) he wrote, challenged us three times in two verses, not to live a “vain” or empty, worthless, or wasted life. John Piper wrote a book entitled Don’t Waste Your Life. In chapter three, he wrote of two women who some might consider to have wasted their lives. In April 2000, Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards were killed in Cameroon, West Africa. Ruby was over eighty. Single all her life, she poured it out for one great thing: to make Jesus Christ known among the unreached, the poor, and the sick. Laura was a widow, a medical doctor, pushing eighty years old, and serving at Ruby’s side in Cameroon. The brakes failed, the car went over a cliff, and they were both killed instantly…. Was that a tragedy?
Read moreForgiveness
An unwillingness to forgive is sometimes described as burying the hatchet but leaving the handle sticking out. Country music singer Garth Brooks actually wrote a song about forgiveness called We Bury the Hatchet But Leave the Handle Stickin’ Out
Read moreShould Believers be Teetotalers?
John MacArthur, Norman Geisler, John Piper, and Charles Ryrie answer “Yes.” MacArthur states why he totally abstains from drinking: “In Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8, Paul warned against doing anything that would cause another believer to stumble. I am certain that if people thought I drank wine, they would say, ‘Since John MacArthur drinks wine, then certainly I can.’ Some of those people might lose control, do something irresponsible that hurts other people, or even become alcoholics. I do not want that to happen, and I do not want the fear of that weighing on my conscience” (Pastoral Ministry: How to Shepherd Biblically, p. 76).
Read moreGod is Incomprehensible and at the same time Knowable!
When Muhammad Ali was the current reigning world heavy-weight champion boxer and at the height of his fame, he was on an airplane that was preparing to take off. The flight attendant came by and reminded him to fasten his seat belt. Ali said, “Superman don’t need a seat belt.” To which the quick-thinking flight attendant replied, “Superman don’t need an airplane, either.” Ali buckled his seat belt. Ali, you may remember, was famous for obnoxiously boasting, perhaps to intimidate his opponents, “I am the Greatest, I am the Greatest” (Charles Swindoll, Shedding Light on our Dark Side. Insight for Living, 1993, 85).
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