Parchment & Pen Blog

Does God Instigate Evil? [ 36:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Join Michael Patton, Tim Kimberley and Sam Storms as they discuss whether or not God instigates evil.

From an outsider’s perspective, I am much different than I used to be. When I moved back to Oklahoma in 2008 I was scared. It was not a place I wanted to be. The memories of who I was were haunting. I left for seminary late in 1998. I lived in the Dallas area until 2007. It was just two years before I moved that I was finishing my stint at all the bars in town and tapering off my sleeping around. I married Kristie in 1997 and had finally made the turn that was such a struggle to make. I was a new man, but I was happy to “get out of Dodge” and start my new life in a new place.

There has been so much shame associated with those days. It is difficult for me to live them down, even nearly 20 years later. Living in Texas was great. No one knew me. Well, no one knew who I used to be. WELL, no one knew it from experience. To them, it was some hypothetical Michael that used to exist in theory. I often tell the story of how I used to come home at 3 or 4 in the morning and fall on my face in my still-altered state of consciousness and pray to God that he would help me overcome these sins. I was a Christian. I knew better. I wanted better. Why wouldn’t the Lord change me? I had no strength to do it myself. Every time I would muster up the resolve, rise up with wings like eagles, and proclaim to all my friends the new me, I would find this resolve strangely absent each Friday night. This cycle went on for at least five years. Five years! I would get angry with the Lord . . . often very angry. Why? Because I wanted to do good. Somewhere deep down inside I really wanted to change. But there were so many mes. I was two different people from one day to the next. The “good” me could not strangle out the “bad” me, even with the help of the Lord. I was mad at the Lord for not giving me the strength to change, even though I really wanted to. And then, on top of that, I was accountable to him for not undergoing the change I was not even able to make (and I was not even a Calvinist at this point!).

Yes, I did change. I don’t really know how or why it finally “took,” but it did. I was able to leave that life behind. But the Lord took so long. So much carnage was left in Oklahoma. To come back to it has been hard. To see the faces and people that I hurt has been an adjustment. I would have rather just stayed in Texas and kept the Oklahoma Michael hypothetical. Continue Reading »

“Why would twenty-first century evangelicals—who can read the Bible for themselves and attend Bible-believing churches—need to study Church History?”

I’ve heard this kind of question phrased a number of ways over the years. Sometimes people ask it with a tone of sincere curiosity, genuinely wanting an answer: Isn’t the Bible sufficient for all matters of faith and practice? Are those people from church history even relevant to our modern world? What can they tell us that isn’t already in the Bible for anybody with eyes to see and ears to hear? Other times people ask with a tone of incredulity—even hostility: Won’t dwelling in the past keep us from looking to the future? Isn’t it dangerous to read all those Roman Catholics? Didn’t the church fall away from the Bible soon after the apostles? Don’t we believe in Scripture ALONE as the source of our theology?

As a professor of theology who has consciously injected a large dose of historical reflection into my biblical, doctrinal, and practical instruction, I’ve found it necessary to ready myself with a number of important reasons for looking into our rearview mirrors as we seek to drive forward into the future. I’d like to share with you ten reasons why every Bible-believing Christian should not merely give church history an occasional nod of respect, but embrace church history as an essential component of a wise, balanced Christian life and ministry:

1. It will cure our ignorance of the past.
2. It will curb the arrogance of our present.
3. It will conserve the faith for the future.
4. It will connect us to a rich legacy.
5. It will counter the claims of critics.
6. It will capture the interest of outsiders.
7. It will complete a balanced faith.
8. It will cultivate Christian growth.
9. It will clarify our interpretation of Scripture.
10. It will correct our doctrinal and practical errors. Continue Reading »

I am very excited to introduce to you Michael Svigel, Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary (B.S., Philadelphia Biblical University, 1996; Th.M., Dallas Theological Seminary, 2001; Ph.D., 2008). I have known Michael for over a decade (we graduated the same year) and we have become better acquainted over the last couple of years. He is just the kind of thinker that the church needs today. He is serious and lighthearted. Balanced and focused. Academic and pastoral. And ancient and future. He shares the same love and hope that I do for Evangelicalism. He is one of those rare people who can sympathize with the ethos of all things “post-”, but offer solutions for the Evangelical church with gentleness and love, without looking for an opt-out.

I can’t recommend enough his new book from Crossway Retro Christianity: Reclaiming the Forgotten Faith. Evangelicals need to read this book.  Get this book and consume.

I have twisted Michael’s arm for long enough. He read my last blog about fighting and got scared. So he decided to send in his first series of blog posts. I hope you enjoy these over the next couple of weeks.

Find out more at www.retrochristianity.com or at http://svigel.blogspot.com/

When I was young, I loved to talk about fight stories. I was really scared of fighting, but I knew I needed a few under my belt in order to have some cred among my friends. I have always worked out quite a bit, could normally lift more than anyone I knew, and had a boxing bag in my garage that I often pummeled to submission in front of my gawking friends. The first fight I got into was in sixth grade. It was an accident, but it did the trick. One fellow, who had a history of bullying, decided to bully me. He instigated a confrontation and the tension grew. As we were at a standoff, he flinched like he was about to hit me. My reflexes kicked in and I accidentally slugged him in the jaw. I felt for him as tears welled up in his eyes before he ran off.

In high school I got into a rather serious fight. I was driving to a party with four of my buddies. We were all drunk and out of our minds. Driving down the road, someone had the gall to pass us and honk their horn (yeah, I know…can you believe the nerve?). Well, we would have none of that. We chased them down to a stop light. While waiting at the light, I jumped out of the car to chase them down (note: when drunk, for some reason you think you can chase someone better on foot than in a car). By the time I got to their window, they took off. My friends, still in the car, chased after them, leaving me behind at the corner, so I decided to walk to the convenience store fifty feet away. As I walked through the parking lot, a group of six gangster-looking guys surrounded me. I stopped. They said, “Give us your money.” I don’t remember much, but I do remember my idiotic response: “No. You give me your money.” The next thing I felt was a hard slug in my jaw. Now, being a “boxer” (if having a punching bag in my garage qualifies me as such!), I decided to start dancing around and trading punches with six guys. And you know what? I held my own. After a few minutes, my friends came back to pick me up. All of them tell the story of pulling up to me dancing in a parking lot with six hooded guys surrounding me. They jumped out of the car to come to my aid and eventually all the guys ran. I later came to find out that this group of guys were members of one of the most feared gangs around. When word about what happened got out, I was revered and honored among men. There were not too many people who would mess with me after that. Over the next few years, there were many more bar fights. I took a guy down just for talking to my girlfriend. Another time I fought for my sister’s honor. One time I had to step in as some random girl was getting hurt by her boyfriend. I was not necessarily a fighter, but I was always ready for a fight. I am just lucky no one ever had a gun or knife.

I often look back on those days and laugh. Who did I think I was? Though it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell, I still work out and I still have my bag in my garage. But it would be a rare circumstance today in which I would ever fight anyone. Don’t get me wrong. I am not a pacifist. If I am truly threatened (like I was about two years ago – another really weird story), I will protect myself and my family. But I am never looking for confrontation like I did twenty years ago. Who did I think I was?

(One more story.) One of the fights I remember most vividly happened when I was downtown leaving a bar with my buds. Some guys bumped into my friend. You just don’t do that. We all turned around. We stood there and stared at each other for about ten seconds. Then, without warning, I looked at one of the guys and clocked him as hard as I could in the face. It was the hardest and cleanest hit I ever had. The guy fell to the ground and did not move. Who in the world did I think I was? Who am I to hit someone? Continue Reading »

By Carrie Hunter

We Evangelicals have a reputation to uphold. We cannot, under any circumstance, be confused with Them. Them of course being those crazy, unsophisticated, hard-line, uncharitable, literalistic, mean-spirited, dogmatic, absolute-certainty-possessing, Fundamentalists.

So in order to avoid being even remotely confused with Them, here is a helpful checklist you should keep on hand at all times. Seriously, print it out, fold it up and store it safely away in your purse or wallet. Reference it whenever you begin to discuss theology, or the Bible with a fellow believer, or even with the lost.

Using these 12 helpful hints should prevent you from being thought a Fundy.
Continue Reading »

Here is the sermon I just preached at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco Texas a couple of weeks ago.

Basic thesis: John, not Thomas, should be called the doubter. However, the man who expressed the greatest doubt that I see in the New Testament was also call the greatest man who has ever been born. You do the math and enjoy.

Doubting John [ 42:16 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

An old adage: “You are not who you think you are. You are who you think other people think you are.”

Who do we want to be? As Christians, what is our goal? How do we want others to view us? Chuck Swindoll used to say (and I quote loosely from an impaired memory), “If you really knew me, you would not listen to me. But don’t worry. If I really knew you, I would not let you in this church.”

Who are we really? No, really?

Martin Luther once made a controversial statement: “Be a sinner. Sin boldly.” I love Luther. He did not hold his hair back when vomiting. He let the vomit shine for all to see. Luther was keenly aware of his sin, and of grace. Luther’s comment was meant to provocatively communicate something much deeper. “Sin boldly . . .” the statement begins; it continues, “. . . but believe more boldly.” Luther did not care much for self-righteousness. He did not like masks. He did not like trying to impress people. He was continually attempting to make those who were satisfied with their own works recognize their own utter depravity. “Look in the mirror,” he might have said. “You are a wretch. Let your wretchedness be seen. If you clean yourself up, you may fool yourself into thinking that you don’t need grace.” What a terrible place to be: Self-fooled and graceless. Continue Reading »