Theology

Reverberations from a pastors theological roundtable continue as Christian leaders share their thoughts on the Elephant Room held more than a week ago – some saying the event resulted in harmful side effects.

While co-host Pastor Mark Driscoll wrote this week that he believes he learned more about leadership during his "24 hours in Chicago for the Elephant Room than any other experience" of his life, other pastors, such as Tim Raymond, state the event lifted "up men with minimal theological commitments as examples to pastors."

Raymond, who is the pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Muncie, Ind., wrote in his post published on the Credo Magazine Website on Wednesday, that although he did not want to evaluate the "gospel according to [Bishop TD] Jakes" (one of the pastors participating in the Elephant Room), he wanted to warn Christians of the danger from the event's inclusivity. more >>

A 3-day pastors conference hosted by the Desiring God ministry designed to illuminate what the Bible says about male leadership turned to the subject of what the role for women should be in the Christian community during a panel discussion on the last day of the event.

On Wednesday, evangelist John Piper and other conference guest speakers were asked to tackle the question, "What is biblical femininity?" Piper had declared a day earlier that God's intention for Christianity is for it to have a "masculine feel."

What is viewed by society as traditional male and female attributes are a "cultural thing, not a Bible thing," said panelist Darrin Patrick, lead pastor of The Journey in Saint Louis, Mo. "So, we have adopted that and then kind of spit that out as masculinity and femininity." more >>

With a growing number of authors and theologians releasing books about doomsday and rapture predictions, one title that stands out is by the Rev. Gerald Haug, who insists the world is not ending any time soon and that religious leaders teaching otherwise are doing damage to the church. 

Haug's book, Ortho-Millennialism: Bringing Order to End-Time Chaos, focuses on analyzing the books of the Bible that might offer clues on the timing of the Rapture, when followers of Jesus will be caught up to meet him in the air – and the reverend says his work dispels all speculation and proves with absolute certainty that Jesus will not be returning to Earth for at least another 100 years.

Haug, a member of the Assemblies of God convention, the largest collection of Pentecostal denominations with some 62 million members worldwide, shared in an interview with The Christian Post that he has spoken about his book to thousands at his assembly and has convinced them of the validity of his work. more >>

The number one lie that Christians are often confronted with is the argument that evil, pain, and suffering prove that there is no God, said author and apologist Mark Mittelberg.

Providing a rebuttal to the question of why God would allow such things can be challenging, said Mittelberg, who is the author of The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask and other books about defending the Christian faith.

Mittelberg told The Christian Post recently that in fact, it was the issue of evil that initially led the renowned author and scholar C. S. Lewis into atheism. However, upon further reflection, Lewis began to see that if there is no God, then there is no such thing as evil either. more >>

God's intention for Christianity is for it to have a "masculine feel," evangelist John Piper declared on Tuesday.

"God revealed Himself in the Bible pervasively as king not queen; father not mother," Piper said at this year's annual pastors conference hosted by the Desiring God ministry. "Second person of the Trinity is revealed as the eternal Son not daughter; the Father and the Son create man and woman in His image and give them the name man, the name of the male."

He continued, "God appoints all the priests in the Old Testament to be men; the Son of God came into the world to be a man; He chose 12 men to be His apostles; the apostles appointed that the overseers of the Church be men; and when it came to marriage they taught that the husband should be the head." more >>

Prominent evangelical pastor John Piper along with other church leaders plan to tackle the issues of men becoming strong Christian leaders in today's world during the Desiring God ministry's annual pastors conference held Monday to Wednesday at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Joining Piper at this year's conference, titled, "God, Manhood & Ministry – Building Men for the Body of Christ," will be Doug Wilson, Crawford Loritts, Darren Patrick, and Ramez Atallah. The main sessions –which begin with Wilson's message, "'Father Hunger,' in Leading the Home" – are Webcast for free at www.desiringgod.org starting at 7 p.m. EST.

In a short video clip introducing the conference, Piper said, "It seems to us that a really important thing to us is helping men be men – Helping men discover what is [their] unique contribution to life, church, family, mission as man, not just as human, but what is God calling [them] to be as a man." more >>