by | Mar 11, 2024 | Uncategorized
I asked ChatGPT to illustrate passages from the Old Testament prophet, and the results raise important questions for the church.
Children have an uncanny ability to ask deep questions about things we adults have come to take for granted. One of the earliest such questions I remember asking my father was about language: Why do some people speak different languages than us?
He answered by telling me about the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1–9): about how, when everyone spoke the same language, they cooperated to build a tower so high it would reach into heaven. He told me that God, frowning on their arrogance, made them speak differently, then scattered them throughout the earth. And that’s why, my father concluded, so many languages are spoken throughout the world.
Of course, this only raised many more questions for me—some of which I’m still pondering today. It occurs to me that every significant advancement in technology and society comes on the back of an advancement in communication. The Protestant Reformation rode on the back of the Gutenberg printing press. When electricity let language move almost instantaneously over great distances, significant changes followed. And the advent of the internet heralded an era of unprecedented technological growth and social change.
In a way, it seems to me we are still trying to build that tower, every technological advancement another brick in the wall. Now, we have a new technology literally built of our words: generative AI models like ChatGPT. To many technophobes and technophiles alike, these programs feel like the tower’s tallest height. Some predict a new era of prosperity; many others portend doom. Will God confound our tongues and scatter us again?
The child in me wants an answer to that question. But it is too big a question for our purposes here. Instead of telling you what to …
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by | Mar 11, 2024 | Uncategorized
A proposed ban on “magical healing” is the latest government initiative targeting Christian practice and evangelism in Assam.
State lawmakers in India are seeking to curtail evangelism with a ban on “magical healing” that could penalize Christians who offer prayer or any “non-scientific” practices to comfort people who are sick.
Last month, the northeastern state of Assam introduced the bill, which Christian leaders say unfairly targets their community’s custom of praying for the sick. Though church healing meetings in India have drawn people to Christ, local Christians insist that prayer is a legitimate, universal spiritual practice and not an unethical tool for conversion, as Hindu nationalists claimed.
The proposed ban, which passed the 126-member state assembly on February 26, states that:
No person shall take any part in healing practices and magical healing propagation for treatment of any diseases, any disorder or any condition relating to the health of a person (relating to human body) directly or indirectly giving a false impression of treatment to cure diseases, pain or trouble to the human health.
Any first-time offender can face one to three years in prison, a fine of 50,000 rupees (about $600 USD), or both. A subsequent conviction may result in up to five years’ imprisonment and/or a fine of 100,000 rupees (about $1,200 USD).
The bill must be ratified by the president of India to become an act. Assembly leaders in Assam say that the healing ban does not target any particular religion, but they were clear about their aims to restrict evangelism and conversion.
“We want to curb evangelism in Assam, so in that direction, the banning of healing … will be a very, very important milestone,” said Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam. The state is governed by the Hindu nationalist …
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by | Mar 8, 2024 | Uncategorized
The prominent pastor’s claim that Martin Luther King Jr. was “not a Christian” is not only ahistorical. It misses God’s heart for justice.
When my grandfather died, a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. was hanging over his deathbed. His name was Bishop Thomas Lee Cooper, and he was part of the Black church’s now-fading civil rights generation, which King defined.
It’s no great mystery why he and millions of other Americans held King in such high regard. This confessing Christian leader literally sacrificed his life to exemplify love of neighbor. His prophetic dream was a clear application of the gospel, which gave his people reason to “keep on keeping on” while suffering under the sword of oppression. He modeled a tenacity and grace that challenged America’s wicked racial caste system without reciprocating the hatred or belligerence of those lynching his people. And King always pointed Black Americans’ hope toward Jesus Christ, not himself. It’s impossible to honestly honor him without acknowledging the role his Christian faith played in his social action.
Contrarily, in February comments more widely circulated this month, California pastor and theologian John MacArthur called King “not a Christian at all,” “a nonbeliever who misrepresented everything about Christ and the gospel.” He also called The Gospel Coalition (TGC) “woke” for honoring King in its MLK50 conference in 2018, implying this signaled the end of TGC’s faithfulness and orthodoxy.
MacArthur cast these condemnations casually, with an apparent air of self-righteousness that suggests his theological expertise is paired with an infantile understanding of neighborly love (Heb. 5:11–13). Deep knowledge of systematic theology, unfortunately, can exist alongside a desperate need for remedial …
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by | Mar 8, 2024 | Uncategorized
While many young people feel helpless over the news of the conscription law, believers see an opening for ministry.
When Kyaw Sone, a 27-year-old seminary student in Yangon, Myanmar, heard the news last month that the government was conscripting young men and women amid the country’s civil war, he felt “very, very sad.”
“These are our oppressors and now we have to fight for them,” he said of the military junta that overthrew the elected government in a coup three years ago. Since then, civilians—including many of Kyaw Sone’s Christian friends—have fled to the jungles to join resistance groups fighting the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s military. “In my flesh, I [also] want to fight them,” Kyaw Sone added. (CT has agreed to pseudonyms for the Christians in Myanmar interviewed, for security.)
Kyaw Sone, who is part of the small Christian community in Rakhine State, has witnessed the brutality of the Tatmadaw firsthand. In 2017, the junta forcibly evicted the Muslim Rohingya people in Rakhine, killing thousands and forcing 700,000 to flee to Bangladesh. Since the coup, fighting between the well-funded military and an alliance of ethnic armed groups and pro-democracy forces has intensified, with the military bombing churches and destroying entire villages. The junta also cut off aid to Rakhine after Cyclone Mocha last year, leading to an unknown number of deaths.
Over and over Kyaw Sone prayed, “God, what should I do?” until he felt God touch his heart. “He has chosen me for ministry and the church,” he said. “While I am angry and I want to fight, through prayer I see God is using me for his kingdom, so I will stay and serve.”
News of the conscription law—which affects men ages 18 to 35 and women ages 18 to 27—has sent shock waves through the …
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by | Mar 7, 2024 | Uncategorized
How the Muslim month of Ramadan transformed my understanding of fasting, prayer, and Lent.
The sun was setting on a sweltering late Friday afternoon in Amman, Jordan. Sun filtered through the dust in the air, glazing the buildings and streets below, as the smell of petrol wafted through my open window.
I had just returned from a lengthy day of study and prayer at the Qasid Arabic Institute and was preparing to host my Muslim friends for dinner. The previous night, they had shown me overwhelming hospitality while serving dinner in their own home, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to match their level of love and sincerity—or meet the culinary standards instilled in me by my Mexican mother. More than anything, I wanted whatever meal I cooked to convey the fullness of my mutual affection for and genuine fraternity with them.
After all, this was the month of Ramadan—a holy month for Muslims, where they fast from dawn to dusk to engender hospitality, prayer, and spiritual purification. How could I infuse my deep appreciation for what I had learned about fasting and prayer from my Muslim friends with the fragrant love of Christ? “God, please bless these chicken fajitas after a day of fasting and enliven good conversation after a time of prayer,” I prayed silently.
By the grace of God, my homemade chicken fajitas were well-received, and our group sat around the table to enjoy hours of good conversation—about the gospel, prayer, and what it is like to have sincere faith in a world that seems to be careening into secularism.
The short three months I spent in Jordan fundamentally transformed my understanding of God in numerous ways. And in this holy season of Lent, I have begun to rethink what it means to fast and pray as a Christian in light of my experience reading the Gospels in a Muslim-majority …
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