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In the West we tend to have a particularly hard time saying “no” to any new technology that comes along. This is rather unfortunate on our part. New technologies carry with them fundamental changes or shifts in our culture. And not every shift or change is well thought out, anticipated, or even beneficial. In 2006 the Prime Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, decided to ban the use of camera phones after his wife inadvertently received pornographic pictures on her new phone. ...

From a friend of mine on Facebook: could God have made morality different? If the answer is yes, then it shows morality is subjective because it could have been different. If no, then why not? The best way to answer this question is to define morality properly. This is a variation on the question “is something good because God declares it to be good or is something good because it is good in itself.” ...

I received the following question from a friend of mine on Facebook during the course of a conversation regarding salvation and whether or not all men are given the opportunity to be saved. If unbelief is a sin and Christ died for the sins of all then wouldn’t all be saved? The question of unbelief being a sin is a rather common one so I decided to address it here for the benefit of all. I imagine like several of my posts, I’ll end up referencing it a lot. ...

From “the sage of Mac-O-Chee", Donn Piatt: When [civil] war broke upon us the brave men went to the front to fight and the thieves to the rear to plunder. …The war ended and the thieves held Washington. They were contractors, carpetbaggers, railroad plunderers and monopolists of all sorts and they sought to use the government to further their greed. Elections no longer turn on a diversity of opinions or a difference of policy as to how the government may be controlled, but upon the fraudulent use of money at the polls. Of course the capitalists thus investing in politics, seek to recoup themselves through a use of the government they control as official agents. ...

Parenting is a time-intensive activity. And in today’s fast-paced world where we are always plugged-in and always on the go, many parents are tempted to abdicate their responsibility to train their children up properly to someone else. Whether it is the school system, a group of peers, or a piece of technology like the TV or game console; Contracting out our parental responsibilities is wrong.

What is the goal of parenthood? Before we explore what it is, let’s dispel some myths of what it is not. The goal of parenthood is not to… make kids feel good about themselves relive our childhood fix parents mistakes keep them from pain While some of these things are otherwise good goals, they are accidental to the true goal of parenting. Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. ...

Alan Knox recently posed the question on his blog: I wonder, what do you see as being requirements for being an elder? By this, I mean, what absolutely must someone be, do, think, believe, etc. in order for you to recognize that person as an elder (pastor, if you prefer)? Here’s my answer: I suppose my simplified response would be this; There has to be something in that person that I recognize I could stand to learn. That would include spiritual disciplines such as prayer, giving, graciousness, hospitality, etc. And also intellectually in terms of mastery of various subjects. ...

People act differently online than they do in person. I’m sure we all know this intuitively. And while some people, such as Marshall McLuhan have dared to pontificate on why this may be, what psychological work has been done to understand this phenomenon? Here are a few excrips from a portion of a book, The Psychology of Cyberspace, by notable psychologist John Suler. The section these excripts come from is titled “The Basic Psychological Features of Cyberspace” and is worth reading in full. ...

Here is Voddie Baucham Jr.’s treatment of the question of evil: A couple of things need to be observed here: Voddie completely dodges the question. Voddie turns the question around to be about the questioner. Voddie derides the questioner by assaulting their intelligence (his preamble regarding first year philosophy students is not only uncalled for but a clear appeal to authority, namely his own) Man does not put God under a standard by asking the question. The problem with Voddie’s approach, which seems typical for most Calvinists, is that it attempts to avoid the real and serious question by attempting to turn it around to be all about the questioner. This attempt at trivializing a weighty subject is the paramount of both arrogance and ignorance in my estimation. ...

I’m not sure how prevalent it is elsewhere in the world, but in the southern parts of the united states, particularly in the Bible belt, we sometimes run into people who like to claim that the King James Version of the Bible is the only “true” version and that all others are an aberration. Well here are a couple of resources that will help you put that myth to bed fairly quickly (and also help you with others who question the accurate transmission of the English Bible). ...