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Category Archives: Index
Pacifism: Whom Does God Defend?
There many passages in the Old Testament where God promises to defend his people without regard to the power of the people. (Judg 7:2) The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into … Continue reading
Pacifism: Additional Material
Over at the Berean Spirit discussion group, a part of Yahoo Groups, several good folks, including Tim Archer and Bobby Valentine, are having a great discussion on pacifism. They even mention this blog now and again. They seem disagree — … Continue reading
Pacifism: Just War and Christian Politics, Part 2
Frankly, I doubt seriously that many national leaders — even US leaders — give a lot of thought to just war theology when deciding whether to go to war. The churches don’t teach this in Sunday school or preach it … Continue reading
Posted in Pacifism, Uncategorized
Tagged All, Christian politics, Church of Christ Links, just war, pacifism
6 Comments
Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan: Don’t Forget Us
Can we identify with our brothers and sisters who suffer for Jesus around the world? RVL takes the group to a church carved 20+ stories underground in Cappadocia. An airshaft is disguised as a well. The church would have sat … Continue reading
Posted in Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan, Uncategorized
Tagged All, Faith Lessons, Ray Vander Laan
4 Comments
Pacifism: Just War and Christian Politics, Part 1
I’m finding myself in the just war camp. I’m not 100% comfortable here, but it makes better sense to me than anything else I’ve heard. The doctrine defining a just war goes back to Augustine. Augustine was a bishop at … Continue reading
Posted in Pacifism, Uncategorized
Tagged All, Arthur F. Holmes, Augustine, Christian politics, just war, pacifism
15 Comments
Pacifism: Mere Discipleship, Dual Loyalties, and the Pledge of Allegiance
Lee Camp, a professor at Lipscomb University, has written a marvelous book called Mere Discipleship. It has a chapter arguing for pacifism. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he’s the first professor at Lipscomb to agree with the founder, … Continue reading
Pacifism: Police and Defensive War, Part 2
Another thought experiment Imagine a world where half the nations are almost entirely all Christians. The Christians all refuse military service, and quite consistently, they refuse to hire mercenaries. What will happen? If the non-Christian minority serves in the military … Continue reading
Overseeing the Moderate Church: Part 3
This brings us to teaching. Moderate churches generally have a very weak educational program, because the doctrines that divide the church are off limits. Either one side dominates the classes and the other side doesn’t listen, or else the tough … Continue reading
Posted in Overseeing the Moderate Church, Uncategorized
Tagged All, church leadership, Church of Christ Links, elders
12 Comments
Pacifism: In Answer to Tim’s and Guy’s Questions
As usual, Tim has posed a number of thoughtful, challenging questions. I post my answers here because he’s pushed me to address some questions I was planning on getting to in future posts. I add my answer to Guy’s post … Continue reading
Overseeing the Moderate Church: Part 2
In Part 1, we considered the difficulties of managing a moderate church, that is, a church that is divided between progressives and conservatives. While it’s not inevitable that such churches divide, they often do. The reason is almost always a … Continue reading
Posted in Overseeing the Moderate Church, Uncategorized
Tagged All, church leadership, Church of Christ Links, elders
3 Comments
