Gospel.com Blog

With over 700 missionaries in 50 different countries, BCM international is working each day to “reach children and develop churches worldwide.”

BCM is a global Bible-Centered Ministry dedicated to making disciples of all age groups for the Lord Jesus Christ through evangelism, teaching and training so that churches are established and The Church strengthened.

We minister through evangelism, church planting, discipleship, leadership training and publishing Bible curriculum and teaching materials. We also provide Bible Clubs, camping, counseling, and compassionate care. BCM strives to make an impact in the world through Reaching Children and Developing Churches Worldwide.

If you’re interested in getting to know their ministry, you might read the article titled The Faces of BCM International in their May newsletter.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

In India last June, a BCM India missionary/pastor was beaten, head shaved (a gesture of contempt in the culture), then dumped in the river for dead. Miraculously rescued, he was evacuated to the BCM Hyderabad Center where he and his family were offered sanctuary as he recovered from his injuries. When I visited with him a month later, he was already preparing to go back to continue sharing the gospel.

Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.

Let’s just get it out of the way. The one real clinker in wide release today is the new Will Ferrell comedy Step Brothers. Ferrell’s private parts… Need we say more? Jeff Walls doesn’t… much. “It’s just plain disturbing,” he says.

Greg Wright gives The X-Files: I Want To Believe a fairly cool review… but it’s not bad, he says. (more…)

Stumbled across this story via the Christian Persecution Blog about how the Chinese government is going to allow Luis Palau to distribute his book, A Friendly Dialogue Between an Atheist and a Christian, for free to athletes and coaches at the Olympics.

From the Christianpost.com article:

The Chinese government has granted an American evangelist permission to distribute a Christian-Atheist book to athletes and coaches during the Beijing Summer Olympics, the ministry announced Wednesday.

Evangelist Luis Palau will be giving a copy of his book, A Friendly Dialogue Between an Atheist and a Christian, to athletes attending the Games.

The book records a conversation between atheist Chinese diplomat Zhao Qizheng – a high-ranking Chinese government official – and the Christian evangelist. It offers both the basic beliefs of Christianity and a unique perspective on Christianity and philosophy of religion as seen from Chinese culture and beliefs.

Palau’s distribution approval comes just one month after China announced that it will print and distribute 50,000 Gospel booklets in Chinese and English for the Olympics. China said it will also print 30,000 Chinese-English New Testaments and 10,000 Chinese-English complete Bibles especially for the Games.

News of China’s seeming respect for Christianity follows contrasting reports of increase persecution of house church leaders. A report last week informed that the chairman of the Federation House Church and his wife were forced this month to live on the streets after Chinese authorities repeatedly forced them out of shelters.

Luis Palau has written close to 50 books and has shared his message about Christ to over 1 billion people. Check out his website for more on his ministry.

Is it possible that a 2000-year-old book could be relevant to people today? Christians hold up the Bible as the ultimate source of truth… but why would anyone believe that a collection of stories and parables from ancient Mesopotamia would be a reliable source of information about God and the human condition?

On the surface, it sounds like a shaky claim—and when critics of Christianity lay out their cases against the faith, it’s often the reliability and accuracy of the Bible that they take special aim at. But there are solid reasons to believe that the Bible is more than just another piece of literature. Listed below are essays from around the Gospel.com alliance that tackle the question “How can we know that the Bible is true?”

• Is the Bible true? And if so, how could I possibly know for sure? from International Bible Society, who know an awful lot about the Bible.
• Why do Christians believe the Bible? There must be something more than just the Bible’s own claims to truth, right? What reasons do we have to believe in it?
• Why should I care about the Bible? What makes it different from the countless other books throughout history that have claimed to contain the ultimate truth?
• “And God Said” Thoughts about the Bible’s accuracy at Answers in Genesis.
• How can I be sure of the Bible’s moral and spiritual reliability? Another take on the question, from RBC Ministries.
• Isn’t the Bible just a bunch of fables? How do Christians respond to common criticisms of the Bible?

The question of the Bible’s accuracy and reliability have occupied theologians and everyday Christians for centuries—but these essays are a good starting place to think through the question for yourself.

We’re happy to announce that today we added the Macedonian New Testament to the Bible Gateway!

There are approximately 2 million people who speak Macedonian as their native tongue throughout the world, and we’re thrilled that now they can read God’s Word online. This Bible version joins about 80 other translations online at the Bible Gateway.

Here’s what John 3:16 looks like in Macedonian:

You can read more about the translation on the Version Information page.

Also, you might be interested in the Macedonian language page on Wikipedia.

Each week, Past the Popcorn offers a thorough look at the latest round of films opening on big screens.

The big story about The Dark Knight, says Greg Wright, is not Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker: it’s that the film may well prove a bellwether for the outcome of the Presidential election this fall. “At the core of The Dark Knight,” he says “is Harvey Dent’s observation that you ‘either die a hero or you live long enough to become a villain.’” (more…)

Yesterday we looked at the old and important question of the existence of God. But there’s one other question that everyone inevitably asks in the course of their spiritual exploration: if God is good, why is there so much evil and suffering in the world? How can we reconcile the existence of a loving God and the presence of violence, disease, and suffering? Are we supposed to believe that God just sit back and lets all these awful things happen, without lifting a finger to prevent it?

There’s no easy answer to this question, although theologians have grappled with it for thousands of years. Yet Christianity and the Bible do have something to say about this—while it’s not likely that we’ll ever completely understand the “problem of evil,” the Bible does help us put evil and suffering into perspective. It also gives us reason to hope that there is meaning to be found behind it all; that suffering isn’t meaningless, nor will it last forever. Here are some short essays from around the Gospel.com community that provide some insight into the seeming paradox of a good God and a suffering world:

• How can a good God permit evil in the world? at Delve into Jesus.
• Suffering and the Hope of Healing (PDF) by Dale Fincher—a look at sickness and the hope that Jesus offers to those who suffer. See part 2 of the same essay.
• Is there a purpose behind my problems? Or is all our suffering random and meaningless?
• War, Genocide, Trauma… Gospel? How can we believe in a loving God or his Gospel when there’s so much evil in the world?
• How can a good God allow evil and suffering? Faith Facts’ take on the question.
• The Secret of Suffering—can suffering ever be a good thing? Perhaps the way we respond to pain in our lives is more important than the pain itself. An interview with a woman who lives with constant suffering, but who has a very unexpected take on it.

You won’t find a pat answer to the question of evil in the above essays, but you will be challenged to look at suffering and evil from a different perspective.

Does God exist? Is there scientific evidence for the existence of a Creator? What reasons, if any, are there to believe that the God of the Bible is real?

The question of the existence of God is perhaps the most basic challenge that any Christian must face, and even believers can find it difficult to respond when asked to offer objective, scientific evidence for God’s existence. It’s such a common and important question that many of the apologetics ministries in the Gospel.com community have published material addressing it. Here’s how several community members answer the question of God’s existence:

• Is there rational evidence for the existence of God? from FaithFacts.
• Why believe in God’s existence if it can’t be proven scientifically? from RBC Ministries.
• Is there any evidence that God exists? from the Scibel science ministry.
• If God exists, why doesn’t he reveal himself? from Delve Into Jesus.
• Is there really a God? from Answers in Genesis.

The question of God’s existence has challenged theologians and philosophers for thousands of years, and there’s no quick and easy answer—but if it’s a question that’s bothered you (and who hasn’t wondered about this?), these essays can help you find the answer.

Are the teachings of Jesus and Krishna compatible? The teachings of Krishna and Hinduism are often said to be extremely similar to those of Jesus Christ—is that true?

These are among the questions tackled by apologist Ravi Zacharias in an interview about Christianity and Hinduism today on the Iron Sharpens Iron program (link goes to MP3; the interview starts about 4 minutes in. See also an introduction to Ravi on the Iron Sharpens Iron website). The interview is a great exploration of the topic, discussing the differences between Christian and Hindu ideas about sin, reincarnation, the afterlife, and much else. If you’ve ever had questions about how the two religions agree and disagree on the big questions, the hour-long interview is well worth a listen.

If you want to learn more about Ravi’s apologetics ministry, be sure to check out Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, where you can learn more about what he’s doing. The Slice of Infinity daily devotional and the Just Thinking broadcast are good places to start. If the question of Hinduism in particular interests you, you might also want to take a look at Ravi’s new book, New Birth or Rebirth: Jesus Talks with Krishna.

Jonalyn Grace Fincher’s blog is consistently deep. She’s not one to write light and fluffy pieces about her day, but rather in-depth analysis of issues or extensive glimpses into her thought process.

She recently had some great insight into the often vitriolic debate about the roles of women in ministry and the household. Her thoughts jump off of two articles from Christianity Today last month titled Wounds of a Friend: Egalitarian and Wounds of a Friend: Complementarian:

While I do not believe Adam’s first sin was his silence (God never judges or rebukes him for this) I do believe men are guilty of silencing their God-given partner. Koessler warns complementarians from using Scripture to push a certain social construct and control over women, one of which is manifest in calling stay-at-home mother’s as those who are accepting “God’s highest calling.” As one woman friend tells him, “My children are grown and out of the house. So when I hear people say that a woman’s ‘highest calling’ is to be a wife and mother, I find myself wondering if there isn’t anything else for me to do for Christ.”

This is precisely what some complementarians have done to women, in their eagerness to uphold the excellent work of mothering, they’ve allowed all other valuable, excellent jobs, vocations, ministries to pale in comparison. This is not what Christ teaches, which Koessler points out in detail in his article. I mention this here because of a recent post and long, dedicated discussion many of you contributed to the topic of stay-at-home mothering.

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In a follow-up article, Dr. Sarah Sumner warns egalitarians (those who believe women and men should serve in any capacity in which they are gifted be it elder, deacon, pastor, teacher) in her article “Wounds from a Friend: Egalitarian” that egalitarians need to be careful to use carefully exegeted passages to defend their belief in women’s public ministry, not political ideologies (and I’d add gut feelings like, “I feel very strongly that women should be permitted to preach.”) Egalitarians must be careful about taking Scripture out of context, not slapping just one definition of “head” on I Cor 11, to be wary of a marriage where there is no mutuality, but only independent individuals operating without the other’s input or love and to guard against a genderless church.

There’s more to the post on Jonalyn’s blog. And if you’re interested in more of her thoughts, check out her book, Ruby Slippers.