Christianity for Today

As our nation begins the struggle to reopen businesses, houses of worship, beaches, restaurants, and entertainment venues, a lot of questions remain unanswered.  The most challenging question of all is, to paraphrase Shakespeare: To open, or not to open; ah, that is the question.  The long-extended stay at home is being replaced with a flood of people wanting to go, especially as the summer months approach.  As we saw this past weekend, beaches along either coast were packed with people.  Even the nation's highways began to fill as people just wanted to get out of the house for awhile and go somewhere - anywhere.  On Friday, President Trump gave the green-light for houses of worship to reopen stating that those places should be deemed essential.  Our Governor here in Minnesota then followed on Saturday with guidelines for those churches that wanted to reopen.  Yet, as our leadership team here at my church met to discuss reopening, there remained tha...

The Christian world lost a giant yesterday.  Ravi Zacharias entered into glory after a brief bout with an aggressive cancer.  He was just 74 years of age.  Ravi was one of the leading apologists of our era, having written over 30 books helping followers of Jesus Christ understand their faith and then to defend that faith.  He was an intellectual who could debate powerfully, yet gracefully, with college and university professors over matters of faith.  Yet, Ravi also had the ability to communicate to the common person.  When you read his books, his arguments just made sense as he communicated with such clarity.  I remember after reading one of his books exclaiming, "Why didn't I think of that?"  Ravi Zacharias was one of four men who greatly influenced the construction of my biblical worldview.  The first was Dr. Francis Schaeffer, founder of L'Abri Fellowship in Switzerland.  I remember hearing Dr. Schaeffer in the fall of 1965 du...

We continue to live in very interesting and, at times, very disturbing times.  We have been invaded by an invisible enemy as President Trump has proclaimed the COVID-19 virus to be.  And this invisible enemy has found its way not only into our physical bodies but into the very fabric of our society.  Yes, tens of thousands of people have died, while millions of others have been infected.  The toll upon our nation's physical well-being has been difficult.  But, then again, our nation's physical well-being has been attacked almost constantly.  Every year tens of thousands of Americans die from the common flu.  Every year tens of thousands of Americans die of drug overdoses or alcoholism.  Every year tens of thousands of Americans die from heart disease and cancer.  And every year tens of thousands of Americans die violently at the hands of someone else.  Yet, we have become insensitive to cancer, heart disease, automobile crashes and flu....

The ripple effects of the coronavirus continue.  As a pastor of a local church and as someone who has had a pastoral role for 48 years, I have watched with both interest and alarm at the response of the Church to this pandemic.  The interest has centered around observing something that previously was an unknown.  The Church has responded to epidemics and tragedies in various ways in the past.  During the bubonic plague of the Middle Ages, it was Church members who buried the dead, brought the sick into their homes, even at the risk of contracting the disease themselves, and used sanctuaries as havens of hope and help.  During the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, once again the Church responded with open arms and open doors to provide hope and help to people in need.  And, in the past years we have witnessed how the Church has responded to natural disasters - hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes - providing emergency help, and, once again, hope.  I...