Gospel.com Blog

It’s a big day for significant birthdays. 200 years ago today, two of the most influential men in recent Western history were born: Abraham Lincoln, who presided over the bloodiest moral and civil struggle in U.S. history, and Charles Darwin, who brought the concept of natural selection into the public sphere. It’s interesting to look back at major historical figures and try to sort out their religious beliefs; but as it turns out, the spiritual beliefs of both Lincoln and Darwin are surprisingly difficult to pin down, despite the major moral and religious repercussions of their actions and ideas.

I’ve gathered a few links exploring the ongoing quest to discern Lincoln’s and Darwin’s relationship to Christianity:

• Abraham Lincoln’s religious beliefs remain a puzzle, despite the fact that he consistently cast the Civil War and the struggle against slavery in moral and religious terms. Mark Noll has written an excellent essay about Lincoln’s beliefs, in which he argues that despite his lack of theological training or regular churchgoing, Lincoln articulated a surprisingly nuanced and thoughtful view of how God relates to nations and political structures. Wikipedia has a thorough review of Lincoln’s many, varied, and often vague references to his religious beliefs. One reason it’s hard to get a grasp on Lincoln’s beliefs is the tendency for different generations to interpret Lincoln’s words and deeds in radically different ways.



• Charles Darwin is remembered less fondly by many Christians today due to his theory of evolution, which continues to be a major issue in many Christian churches and denominations today. But was Darwin himself religious, or even Christian? Answers in Genesis, although certainly critical of Darwin’s legacy, has a very thorough look at Darwin’s religious beliefs and influences that challenges us not to be too quick to cast Darwin as a saint or a devil. For more on Darwin’s ongoing influence today, see this essay about Darwin in the New York Times earlier this week.

Given their massive role in shaping Western society, there’s no shortage of information online and in your local library about these two historical giants. (And their shared birthday has inspired others to link the two as fellow culture-shapers.) Whether you think Lincoln was a saintly leader or a conniving politician; whether you consider Darwin a champion of reason or a destroyer of faith, today’s a good day to read up a bit on one or both of these historical—and perhaps religious—icons.

As trivial as it might seem compared to “real” holidays like Christmas and Easter, Valentine’s Day can be alternately exciting and terrifying. Although several years of marriage have given me a new perspective on relationships and this particular holiday, I remember well the weirdness of being single on Valentine’s Day: if you’re in a relationship, it prompts all sorts of deep and difficult questions about love and commitment; and if you’re not in a romantic relationship, Valentine’s Day is at best an annoyance to be skipped past and forgotten as quickly as possible.

But whether you’re enjoying your 40th year of marriage or are planning to stay home and watch the NBA Dunk Contest by yourself this Saturday, it’s still worth taking a few minutes to consider the Bible’s teachings about love and relationships. One of the most thoughtful Christian writers I know on this topic is Blaine Smith of Nehemiah Ministries. Here are two essays that will get you thinking this Valentine’s Day:

• Is God a Matchmaker? Written with singles in mind, this essay tackles an oft-repeated but somewhat dubious claim: that God has picked out one perfect person for you to marry. So are you supposed to sit back and wait for God to bring that person into your life—and how would you even recognize the “right” person? Blaine finds the message behind this idea a bit troubling, and has some good suggestions for singles intimidated by the prospect of finding Mr. or Mrs. Right.
• The Compassion Factor: what does real love look like? It doesn’t always bear much resemblance to the love on display in books, movies, and popular culture. If our expectations about love are unrealistic, we risk failing to recognize it when it appears.

Both of these essays are from Blaine’s book Should I Get Married?, which despite the title is not just for couples considering marriage; it’s a good all-around book about Biblical relationships and romantic love. Enjoy—and have a good Valentine’s Day!

Do you have any Bible passages memorized? If you were brought up in a church community like mine, Scripture memorization was a staple of the Sunday school experience. Every Sunday morning, on the car ride to church, I’d find myself hastily memorizing that week’s Bible (or catechism) passage, knowing that my Sunday school teacher would show no mercy if I mangled Romans 8:28 or stammered my way through Heidelberg Catechism question and answer #1.

Over at the Addenda and Errata blog, Dan Reid admits to living through a similarly demanding Scripture-memorization routine as a child. But as an adult, he’s developed a new perspective toward memorization. Memorizing Scripture needn’t be just an onerous Sunday school routine: it can be a wonderful way to internalize and reflect on passages of the Bible.

His memorization strategy is more ambitious than most Christians’ (he does some of his memorization in the original Greek!), but there’s no reason anyone couldn’t get a lot out of memorizing Bible verses in good old English. Here’s some encouragement from Dan for anyone considering embarking on Scripture memorization:

First, I learned that memorizing doesn’t come as easily at age 59 as it did at age 9 or 20. Though I’m sure there are many other folks my age who can memorize with much less effort than I! But it’s possible. Just don’t set your expectations too high. Don’t beat yourself up when it doesn’t seem to be “taking” fast enough. If you keep at it, the text will work its way into the cranium, laying down its patterns and crystallizing in words, sentences and paragraphs. Keep inching forward and keep reviewing. Nothing is lost and much is gained by taking more time. Think of it as meditation. [...]

And here is another benefit: walk the dog, go on a drive or a run, and lines and paragraphs of the Greek text come to mind unbidden. Not bad.

If you’re looking to dive into the teachings of the Bible in a new way this year, I can think of few better ways to do so. So grab a Bible, pick a passage or two (start with some short and easy ones), and see if you can’t commit some Scripture to memory!

What do you do when life deals you lemons? James Watkins, columnist (and friend of Gospel.com) has a new book out that asks just that: Squeezing Good Out of Bad. The new book focuses on practical strategies for dealing with the trials and setbacks we encounter in everyday life.

James has put a full chapter from the book online; it challenges us to rethink pain—and to consider that God can work through pain and tragedy to bring about good in our lives, even though it’s hard to see that in the midst of our suffering. There’s also a Yahoo group where you can discuss Squeezing Good Out of Bad with James and other readers.

And while you’re taking a look at James’ site, don’t miss his Valentine’s Day resources—lots of articles and essays about love, marriage, relationships, and sex, all of which are probably on your mind as television ads and florists remind us of the approach of Valentine’s Day!

No one would argue that Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies is easy. In fact, it might just be the hardest of his commands. I know from time to time I’ve wondered—did he really mean all of our enemies?

In this article Delve into Jesus discusses what it means to love our enemies:

The love of which Jesus speaks is not a feeling in any sense of the word. It is a decision resulting in action. It is a choice you make that has nothing whatsoever to do with how you feel, and quite often, occurs in spite of a feeling to the contrary. This kind of love judges the needs of a person but never the person themselves, and responds according to the gravity of the need, never the character of the person. [...]

This is the kind of love that Christ demands – not a feeling, but rather a spirit of service, selflessness and humility. It is the ability to give to others with no regard to what they can do to repay you, what they feel for you or what you feel for them.

Jump over to the site to read the rest of the article from Delve into Jesus.

Fireproof Ministries (the people behind xxxchurch.com) announced last week that they’ve officially acquired Pure Online Workshops.

Under their auspices they’ve rebranded Pure Online as x3pure.com and are “pumping more resources into customer support and into creating new products to help people deal with the aftermath of porn.”

From their Who is X3pure.com for? page:

You may be desperate for freedom and real answers to your pornography or sexual addiction. You may be a parent that desires to understand the struggles that your child is going through. You may want to understand the nature of sexual temptation and learn about tools to use in maintaining your purity. Your spouse may be struggling with pornography addiction, sexual addiction or other sexual sin.

X3Pure is designed to assist men and women looking for wisdom, direction and tools to use in keeping themselves sexually pure. At X3Pure, we equip you with a strong knowledge of the issues surrounding pornography and sexual addiction and give you insight into the nature of sexual temptation so that you can maintain your sexual purity and win the battle against sexual temptation.

How would you react if your church closed its doors? What if it your church was the same one that you’re parents had gone to and their parents before them?

It’s a situation that many small rural churches are facing: what to do when there’s just not enough money or interest to stay open?

A recent blog post from Youth Specialties addresses the issue (the comments section is particularly interesting) and today, GetReligion highlighted the exact same sobering story from Minnesota where a 118 year old church shut its doors:

Carol Porter, 63 and no word mincer, sits in her modest kitchen in Euclid, Minn., and recalls the day her 118-year-old church was burned to the ground. “I was baptized, confirmed and married there,” she reports. Her family had moved two lots down from Euclid’s First Presbyterian, so she was able to watch through the kitchen window a few years ago as fellow parishioners knocked down the church, buried its fixtures and then put a match to what remained, sending a thousand Sundays of memories up in smoke.

America’s rural congregations, thinned by age and a population drain that plagues much of farm country, have gotten too small and too poor to attract pastors. No pastor means no church.

When so many of your religious experiences are intertwined with a building and community, the loss of those can be hard to bear. That’s why ministries devoted to the life of the small town church like Village Missions are important. They reach out to a community that many would like to ignore.

This video from Village Mission shows the importance of churches in these communities during tragic circumstances and asks the question, “What would happen if this church had closed?”

The World Watch List is published annually by Open Doors and is a quick way to gauge religious persecution in around the world. This year’s list (like the previous seven years) is topped by North Korea. The list is compiled from a 50 question survey for each country covering religious freedom issues.

You can see the chart here or read the write-up from Mission Network News, which contains some questions and answers with Carl Moeller, President/CEO of Open Doors:

The oppressive, isolated country of North Korea under the leadership of dictator Kim Jong Il retains its grip as the worst persecutor of Christians in the world.
…
The Wahhabi kingdom of Saudi Arabia is No. 2 and Iran is No. 3. Both countries are ruled by sharia law.

Afghanistan, Somalia and the Maldives take the fourth, fifth and sixth positions, respectively. Afghanistan moved up three spots on the list this year as a result of increased pressure from the Taliban movement during 2008. Yemen is No. 7, Laos No. 8, Eritrea No. 9 and Uzbekistan No. 10.
…
Moeller says this is about more than making a list. “We’re actually formulating agendas for serving those persecuted Christians. We’re actually going into those countries in clandestine ways and providing relief and support so that they might remain a light in a very dark place.”

There’s no telling how severely, or for how long, the current economic downtown will affect giving to churches and ministries. While some experts suggest that church giving may remain stable for the near future, others are suggesting strategies for churches and ministries to adopt in anticipation of a crunch in giving.

It’s interesting to see some novel approaches to ministry fundraising in this climate. While reading through a list of online ministry tips for ministries at UrbanMinistry.org, I noticed an interesting new site that aims to help ministries raise funds by letting its supporters do the talking: MinistryAmbassadors.org.

MinistryAmbassadors lets your ministry set up a fundraising page where people can donate online to your cause, as you might expect—an idea spearheaded by sites like Fundable. But MinistryAmbassadors adds a new twist to the idea of online fundraising: anybody can put together their own fundraising page where they can sing the praises of, and raise money for, the nonprofits they love. It shifts the focus of fundraising to the people who already support your ministry, on the theory that people who are excited by your ministry will make better ambassadors for your cause than yet more fundraising letters or email appeals from the organization itself. (Note that MinistryAmbassadors retains a small portion of donations it processes, to cover the cost of the service.)

It’ll be interesting to see whether or not the concept takes off. Are your ministry’s supporters excited enough about your ministry that they’d become online ambassadors for the cause? Time will tell if the idea is sound, but regardless, it’s an intriguing effort to combine the vast reach of social networking with the age-old challenge of ministry fundraising.

The Christian church may not be the musical trendsetter that it has been in past centuries, but the church’s “cloud of witnesses” includes several of the greatest musicians who have ever lived. Today it’s appropriate to remember one of them in particular: Felix Mendelssohn, who was born 200 years ago.

Mendelssohn was a prolific composer; chances are you’d recognize several of his works today, even if you didn’t know Mendelssohn was the composer. He was an interesting character whose reputation was heavily attacked by anti-Semite critics. Here are a few places to read up on Mendelssohn and his contributions to the field of music:

• An overview of his life at Songs and Hymns, along with an MP3 of the famous hymn “Now Thank We All Our God.”
• The NPR website has a number of excellent features on Mendelssohn and his music.
• The Mendelssohn Project aims to restore Mendelssohn’s reputation and bring many of his lost works back into the public spotlight.
• The Christian History Institute relates Mendelssohn’s efforts to revive the music of Bach, another famous Christian composer.
• And lastly, an essay about the Mendelssohn family’s Jewish heritage, and the anti-Semitic efforts to erase Mendelssohn’s music from the public square during the Nazi era in Germany.