The Bible is completely reliable (2 Pet 1:19) as its origin is in the will of God and its contents, though written by humans, came from the ministry of the Holy Spirit who delivered the spoken word of God (2 Pet 1:21). Paul therefore declares, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16). Throughout Scripture, we find many other phrases demonstrating that the Bible is the spoken Word of God, e.g. “This is what the Lo...

Jesus confronts wrong thinking in Matt 9:4. In Matt 10:34, he extinguishes incorrect thoughts related to His ministry. He engages Simon with questions to stimulate his thinking (Matt 17:25). In fact, you see Him regularly using questions to stimulate the thoughts of others (Matt 18:12; 21:28; 22:17, 42; 26:53). In Luke 6:8ff, Jesus performs a miracle to counter wrong thinking. He corrects the disciples wrong thinking on who would be greatest in Luke 9:47-48. Consistently, Jesus uses parables to...

In this article, I will be interacting with Mark Miller's Experiential Storytelling. In this work, Miller states, "What if we removed all of the argumentative language, replaced it with beautiful narratives, and let people feel the power of story" (26). Miller certainly understands postmodern culture, and his desire to contextualize the gospel should be appreciated. However, his contextualization appears to move in the direction of syncretization. Let's examine this quote. The...

“The ability to teach and preach and lead is taking a back seat to the pastor’s capacity to create and facilitate open-source faith experiences for the people of the church” (Doug Pagitt, Church in the Inventive Age, 33). Doug Pagitt prefers a dialogical preaching style that invites everyone in the audience to participate in the sermon. All attenders, Pagitt, and even the Bible are participants in the dialogue. What does Pagitt mean when he says “open-source faith?” This is a fancy way of sa...

“The inerrancy debate is based on the belief that the Bible is the word of God, that the Bible is true because God made it and gave it to us as a guide to truth. But that’s not what the Bible says” (Pagitt, A Christianity Worth Believing, 65). If the Bible is not the word of God, how come the phrase “Thus says the Lord” appears 418 times in the Bible. Jesus Himself rebukes the Pharisees for placing their traditions before the word of God (Matt 15:6; Mark 7:13). Jesus equates Scripture w...

The “second naiveté,” first articulated by Paul Ricoeur, is “the literary and theological subject matter in front of the text that potentially can liberate . . . the text’s claims on the reader’s life and thought” (Mark I. Wallace, Second Naiveté, xiii-xiv). Ted Campbell applies Ricoeur’s hermeneutical approach, with McLaren’s approval, to establish ecumenism by avoiding systematic theologies in favor of simply affirming “the most basic common teaching of historic Christian communities, th...

"A story can't be argued with or dismissed like a proposition" (Steve Rabey, In Search of Authentic Faith, 111). In the context, Rabey argues for the use of stories in the place of propositions when telling non-Christians about the Christian faith. Propositions or statements of absolute truth are frowned upon among postmodernists. People today prefer to reject any source that claims absolute authority (hence the rejection of sola scriptura by many within the Emerging Church); instead, t...

“Theological conversations are a privilege granted to those who have encountered a living God. But many have chosen the pursuit of knowledge about the Divine as a substitute for a divine relationship. In other words, rather than humbling themselves before God to receive unconditional affirmation, they seek it through their own smarts. It’s rather silly. The Scriptures are intended to point us toward the Creator, not enable us to understand everything about the Creator and his ways. Early attemp...