Theology

A prominent Christian apologist believes that mass media has made Americans vulnerable to mass-marketed spiritual ideas, like those pushed by Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra.

Dr. Ravi Zacharias, who details this in his new book , Why Jesus? Rediscovering His Truth In An Age of Mass Marketed Spirituality, said that Americans have been made susceptible to the allures of spiritual ideas because of mass media.

In an interview with CP, Zacharias said that television has "built in it the capacity of god-makers." more >>

Christians should understand that being able to give reasons for their faith is not merely an option – it's biblically mandated, says apologetics author and speaker Lee Strobel.

To help Christians better explain and defend their faith, Strobel and ministry associate Mark Mittelberg have launched The Institute at Cherry Hills, an apologetics and evangelism ministry at Cherry Hills Community Church in Highlands Ranch, Colo. The institute is aimed at innovating new approaches to defending and sharing the faith.

Strobel and Mittelberg will kick off a series of national simulcasts to be hosted at churches starting in March with the event "The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask," based on Mittelberg's book by the same title. more >>

At a conference in Florida, a conservative Presbyterian group has officially given a name to the "New Reformed Body" they created.

The Fellowship of Presbyterians has decided to call the recently created reform body the "Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians" or ECO for short.

"ECO is a denominational entity under the umbrella of The Fellowship of Presbyterians that is committed to growing and planting flourishing churches and nurturing leaders," reads a Fellowship statement. more >>

Accurately translating the Bible from its original sources to modern-day languages has been the cause of much debate, especially in America, where political speech influences almost every aspect of society. But is it ever necessary to make Scripture "adapt" to the times to get the "good news" across?

Some experts argue that accuracy and truthfulness should be the strict points of concern when translating and interpreting the Bible; others, who see cultural influences as inevitable, have taken up projects to ensure the word of God is presented in the language most relevant to whichever culture it speaks to.

The Conservative Bible Project on Conservapedia.com, a website upholding conservative ideals, tailored after the Wikipedia model of users contributing their own information in building articles, is an effort to remove what it calls "liberal-bias" from modern Bible translations in America and emphasize conservative values – two of which it identifies as accepting the "logic" of a real, eternal hell and expressing free market parables. more >>

South Carolina Pastor Perry Noble came to the defense of Elevation Church and its pastor, Steven Furtick, amid criticism that the church is not preaching a biblical gospel.

Noble, pastor of NewSpring Church, addressed thousands attending the Code Orange Revival Tuesday night and responded to "rumors" about Furtick "that he don't preach the Bible."

"I don't even know where that one came from," Noble said. more >>

Jefferson Bethke’s “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” YouTube sensation has garnered over 15 million views and thousands of comments since its Jan. 10 release. In a tell-all interview with The Christian Post, Bethke shares his views on religion, the controversy surrounding his video, and changes he wish he could make to his message, now gone viral.

The 22-year-old shared that this video was “not as big as it looked” – that it was the collaborative product of his poetry and a friend’s video production skills. However, the emotion behind “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” was Scripture-based, he told CP.

“My heart behind the video and the lyrics really has to do with just reading the Scripture and seeing a staunch juxtaposition that Jesus would always do in regards to highlighting people who are only about the external not the internal,” Bethke said. more >>