Parchment & Pen Blog

One of the most discouraging (and blindsiding) things in life is to be one who has followed the Lord for some time, felt to be on the right track, been involved in the His work somehow, and to feel the definite guidance of the Holy Spirit only to find yourself, after much time, becoming a [...]

As most of you know, it is hard for me to write an unbiased review about any superhero movie. Either I go in with too many expectations, get my hopes dashed, and kick dirt all the way home while calling for the coming of Christ…or I see the movie seventeen more times before I even [...]

There used to be a time when your loyalty to the Protestant cause was judged by how much you hated Catholics. But today, with all the ecumenical dialogue, the Manhattan Declarations, the ECT council, and the postmodern virtue of tolerance, people are much more willing to let bygones be bygones. “Maybe we overreacted” is the [...]

Folk theology describes beliefs, generally shared by a large group of people, which said adherents have rarely thought through in a critical way. These beliefs are normally inherited (passed on through rote teaching and tradition). I present to you my list of the top 20 examples of folk theology. There are many more, but I [...]

Someone turned my attention to an article by Bart Ehrman, published in the Huffington Post, titled “Who Wrote the Bible and Why it Matters.” The article is essentialy an argument that the Bible contains lies. Specifically, Ehrman addresses individual books of the Bible which claim to have been written by one person and, in fact, [...]

I remember, many years ago, talking with a friend of mine about another friend. There was something about this guy that we did not like, but we could not put a finger on it. We knew this: He made us uncomfortable. He made things stuffy. We really did not know what to say when he [...]

Without question, one of the most disturbing trends in the world of theology is that, far too often, grace is eclipsed by theological legalism. Twice today I encountered this in its most blatant forms by two very different types of people. Both were very passionate about theology and both, undoubtedly, believe that their attitude toward me [...]

I have been watching the television all night. Though my heart is being torn out and the miserable “Why God?” thoughts run through my mind over and over again, I cannot quit watching. The number of children (twenty-four, at last count) who have lost their lives to something as fearful, tragic, and theologically uncompromising as a [...]