Are There Two Creation Accounts?

‘One often hears the idea that there are two creation accounts in Genesis 1–2, almost as if it were intuitively obvious. There are certainly differences between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. But the question is whether we have here two separate accounts of creation that have been joined together by some much later editor, or whether we have one unified account with different emphases. The former view came from the skeptical scholarship that arose from the Enlightenment. The latter has, for millennia, been the view of the church.’

Edgelords Won’t Inherit the Earth

‘Social media has mainstreamed the edgelord aesthetic. Platforms that optimize for engagement have discovered that provocation performs exceedingly well, and they’ve trained a generation of content creators accordingly. The anonymous forum-poster and the pastor with a podcast are now playing the same game by the same rules. And the church has become one of the latest audiences for this behavior.’

I Prepare Sermons 4 Weeks in Advance: Why I started, How I do it, and What I think about it.

I prep my sermons about 3 months ahead of time. I find similar benefits to this one.

10 Reasons Evangelicals are Cringe

Aaron Renn recently wrote about evangelicalism’s cringe problem and Matthew Loftus responds: ‘Renn is fundamentally correct about the reality of evangelical cringeiness and the matching problem of evangelical elites. The high tolerance for cringe leads to evangelicals accepting mediocrity, which then hinders our ability to produce elites. But Renn is wrong about why this is.’ 

Questions Asked at an Eschatology Conference

This is part 5 of a set of Q&As asked at an eschatology conference. I wasn’t at the conference and I hadn’t seen the other four parts of these Q&A sessions when I listed this one (you can see the others here), but I really appreciated Sam Waldron’s answers to these eschatological questions from an amillennial POV.

Praying for Pastors

‘As a pastor, I sometimes mistakenly think that those most in need of my prayers in the church are those who have the most noticeable spiritual or physical weaknesses. I would imagine that, if we are honest with ourselves, we have all thought or said at some time or another something along the lines of, “So and so is really going to need a lot of prayer.” On the one hand, it is entirely right that we acknowledge that our brothers and sisters who have more noticeable weaknesses have a great need for our prayers; On the other hand, however, those to whom God has given the most gifts and graces are also greatly in need of our prayers. Contrary to what some might suppose, ministers of the Gospel desperately need the prayers of the saints. ‘

From the archive: Prayer worrier

‘I am not very good at praying. I have always found it difficult. I know I should do it, I really do believe God is there and that he hears us when we pray, I really do believe that he answers his children. But I still find it hard not to feel like I’m speaking (or thinking) thoughts in my own mind and little more. I know that is not the case, but because that is how it can feel, I find prayer especially difficult when I find reading and studying the Bible so much easier. I suspect I’m not alone, but there it is. But that terrible tendency in prayer drifts away when I start to worry. When I am worried, I find that I turn to prayer more readily.’