In 1857 The Atlantic Monthly published “Brahma” by Ralph Waldo Emerson which included, “The strong gods pine for my abode, And pine in vain the sacred Seven; But thou, meek lover of the good! Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.”1 In 1893, at the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, Swami Vivekananda […]
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Author: Rick Shrader
Corrupting Good Manners
Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. 1 Corinthians 15:33 I have written at least three previous times about manners1 as many have done who grew up in the turbulent ‘60s when the civilities of society were turned on their head. It was John Silber, past President of Boston University, who […]
The Christian in an Election Year
Election year comes every four years, like it or not. I don’t necessarily, even though I watch more cable news and read online news than in any other year. When we could be anticipating March Madness and the NCAA tournament, we are more embroiled in Super Tuesday and March Sadness. It saddens me because the […]
Cross, Creation and also Prophecy
There are three great mountain peaks of importance in Biblical history. First and foremost is Calvary. The cross is the center of all God’s workings with this world. If the believer could say with Paul, “I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2), he would […]
The State of the Church in 2016
Every year I give a State of the Church address to the church I pastor. This is usually directed toward our small local church and what challenges we may face in the coming year. Of course, we are not alone in the coming year. All local churches will face whatever comes, and God alone knows […]
Balthasar Hubmaier’s View of Baptism
Baptists often debate about their beginnings. Some believe that there is a trail of Baptist ideas all the way back through history to the New Testament. Others believe that the radical Reformation group known as the Anabaptists is the starting point for specifically Baptist beliefs. The majority view is that Baptists have their origins in […]
The Culture In Which We Live
“Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:11-12) Have we […]
Good News & Bad News About Human Identit
There are some things about which the Bible speaks clearly and one of those is the makeup of human beings. Yet it is amazing how far away from the plain language of the Bible our society has moved within one generation. In my youth it was risky enough to refer to homosexuals or lesbians rather […]
Will The Antichrist Be Muslim?
One of the difficulties for Christians in apologetics is that they have to know a lot about many religions and cults, but the religions and cults only have to know about Christianity. The growing threat from Islam reminds the Christian of this very thing. That is why I was glad to receive a book exposing […]
America’s Testing
In his farewell address George Washington said that a nation is “a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.”1 More than two hundred years later America’s greatest animosity is to Christianity, and its greatest affection is to profligacy. On […]