The Theologian's Table

Examining the Morality of Secular Humanism and Defending the Christian Worldview Introduction The narrative of the Old Testament tells the story of relationship between God and Israel. Through the Torah we see how humankind was formed, how, Israel was formed, captivated, and then liberated. That is not all, however, that reader learns about. In the Torah, as well as the prophets, the reader finds many stories of how God’s people try to skirt around serving him, or even trying to outwit him, such as in the case of Jehoshaphat and Ahab (1 Kings 22). Yet the reader also sees in these stories of how the truth of God always wins the day. In contemporary times, the creatures of God, humanity, continue the same behavior of human cleverness of the Israelites so that they can avoid the truth. One of the most prevalent movements of this behavior is what is known as Secular Humanism. The philosophy of secular humanism has devised a complex and even sometimes compelling system that completel...

Alternate title: What I Know Only Based on Observing and not Actually Participating. So, because I blog, I often read other blogs. Some of them are entertainment blogs, but most have to do with Christianity. There are certain blogs in the Christian sphere that have really become beyond annoying. They are whiny, preachy, and don't offer a lot in the way of solutions. They all have to do with kids Sunday school and youth ministry. Most of these blogs say, and I'm paraphrasing, "We need to stop doing this, we need to stop doing that, stop with the lock-ins, the Superbowl parties, and turning worship into a rock show!" The criticism mounts to the point that what the church is doing is not working. Some of these criticisms may have some validity, but most of the time they come off as condescending, insulting and insinuate that the kids and youth group leaders are being lazy. When presenting solutions, all we get from the authors is that we need to re-evaluate how the c...

To My Savior Jesus the Christ, "Paul, the brother and fellow servant you have given me, has done well in reminding your flock about giving thanks to you in all things. As you know, in my quiet hours, I reflect on what you have done, and I cannot fully express how thankful I am to you, but I must tell you one more time." "Thank you, Lord, for calling me, a simple fisherman, to follow you. Thank you, Lord, for giving me my name. Thank you, Lord, for showing me the wonder of your work. Thank you for explaining the life in your words when I was slow to understand and prone to second-guessing. When storms appeared on the horizon without warning, and I feared, thank you for showing me that you are in control! When you called me out upon the water, and I faltered, when I thought I would drown, thank you for reaching out to me amid my doubt, oh Lord, and teaching me what faith is." "Thank you for rebuking me when I tried to box you in. Thank you for showing m...

In my last entry, I talked about my strategy in dealing with anxiety. Mainly, it's summed up in trusting the goodness of God. There are a couple more things though that help me fight anxiety and the one I want to talk about today is worshiping God. More specifically, I want to highlight two worship songs that have helped me immensely, then try and explain why they have helped me, and what I think worship accomplishes for us. The first worship song that I want to highlight is called Fill My Cup, which is fairly new, and its actually from Lee University's worship band on their debut album. Musically, the whole song has this calming effect, but what impacted me the most was just one line of the song, "in you[God] I'm made whole." There are so many theologically significant things I can say about this, but it mainly points me back to what Scripture says about our beings residing in God's care. Psalm 139:13 says, " For it was you who formed my inward par...

I'm not sure what it is with my generation, the millennials, and anxiety. It seems every time I get onto social media I see some post about it. In fact, since there is so much about it out there now, the temptation is to wonder if people aren't confusing it for something else, or are just trying to seek attention. The latter part could be true, but we as a people have already become so dismissive of each other that I do not want to add to that problem. And then, of course, there is the fact that I myself publicly admitted last week that I've experienced several anxiety attacks within the last month or so. My attacks have interfered with everything, work, faith, family, and self-worth. They didn't just come out of nowhere. Since these recent episodes happened I have had to look back through my life and see if I had anything similar happen. I remember around the age of 19 that, at times, before I would work, I would lay in bed until the last possible second trying to ...

Unless you have lived under a rock for the past week then you are probably aware of the hashtag #metoo that went viral recently. Triggered by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's deplorable practice of sexual assault and harassment, the hashtag is meant to shine a light on those issues as well as unite women who've been the target of that behavior. The movement has since sparked a conversation of how widespread the issues are and why they seem to persist even in places that seem, for the most part, egalitarian.* There are some corners of thought that have dismissed the whole thing as some kind of liberal slacktivism, but scrolling through my social media feeds and seeing women I trust post #metoo.... I have to say that I was deeply disturbed. Disturbed by the fact it happened to them and disturbed that people would be dismissive of it. Sexual Ethics in Christian Ministry The history of Christian ministry is littered with stories of sexual misconduct by people in positions of aut...

This is a paper I wrote for my Old Testament course I attend. I thought it might be interesting to some people who are curious to see what students in seminary work on. GLORY GOES TO THE WILLING: A READING OF THE PROPHET DEBORAH Introduction When God recruited Moses to free the Israelites from bondage, Moses hesitated and then struck a bargain with God where Aaron would speak on his brother’s behalf (Ex 4:10-17). Later in the book, the characteristic of this interaction repeats itself when the Israelites, the nation who would be a light to the rest of the world, struck a deal with Moses where he would speak to them on God’s behalf (Ex 20:19). In both cases, the parties whom God recruited showed hesitation and insecurities in their own skills, and both showed a lack of understanding of God’s empowerment. Therefore, it can be argued that both Moses and the Israelites missed out on a deeper relationship with Yahweh than had they agreed with Him from the start. The book of...