Mom used to tell the story of a poor farmer extolling the virtues of socialism to his neighbour who was just as poor. The setting was the depression years of the 1930’s. “If everyone who has more than they need would share with those who don't have enough, what a wonderful place this world would … Continue reading My Mom’s take on socialism
Cultural Amnesia
[First posted nine years ago.] One hundred years ago, when the Social Gospel was well on the way to infiltrating and taking control of many of the major Christian denominations of North America, my father was already 24 years old. It has lately dawned on me that because I was born when he was 50 … Continue reading Cultural Amnesia
Strange Gospel
[First posted 10 years ago.] Approximately 300 years ago there arose a line of thought in pietistic Protestantism that God’s reign would progressively manifest itself through human action cooperating with God’s action. The belief that the gospel will gradually Christianize the world, bringing a reign of peace and harmony preceding the return of Christ, is … Continue reading Strange Gospel
Wells Without Water
For the past few days most of the posts on this blog have been articles that will find a place in a book I plan to call Wells Without Water, a title taken from 2 Peter 2:17. The book arises out of a concern that many people who are converted in their youth haven’t taken … Continue reading Wells Without Water
How to read the Bible
I grew up in a home where the Bible was read every day; my father often talked bout things he read in it. We attended the Anglican Church of Canada, where every service had a reading from the Old Testament, another from the New Testament, and several other passages from the Bible were spoken in … Continue reading How to read the Bible
He is not the show-off Spirit
Some years ago my wife and I were in another city and attended a Pentecostal worship service. It was a large church and the congregation was multiethnic, with many black faces scattered throughout. It has been said that the most segregated place in North America is a worship service on a Sunday morning; this congregation … Continue reading He is not the show-off Spirit
Uncharted Seas
[re-posted from five years ago.] Everything is changing and we must change with the times or be left behind. Nothing we knew yesterday will be of any value to us tomorrow. But tomorrow will be better than today and the day after that even better. This is the age of progress. But where is this … Continue reading Uncharted Seas
Baptizing with too much water
I was visiting with a Baptist pastor and somehow the conversation got around to baptism. He felt the church to which I belong did not baptize correctly because we did not immerse. I referred him to two passages in the New Testament. In 1 Peter 3, Peter speaks of the ark as an example of … Continue reading Baptizing with too much water
There is no valid baptism without the new birth
First posted five years ago The beginning of the Church of God in Christ, Mennonite in Western Canada owes much to the spiritual vision of one man. Peter Toews was the Elder of the largest part of the Kleine Gemeinde (Little Church) which had separated from the main body of the Mennonite church on the … Continue reading There is no valid baptism without the new birth
Are you ready for the return of the Lord?
It was back in the mid-1970s and we were visiting with a distant relative of mine and he was expounding on the premillennial teaching. He said, with considerable assurance, “I believe the Lord will return by 1990.” I pondered that for a moment then asked, “And are you ready?“ “No,” he answered. I read in … Continue reading Are you ready for the return of the Lord?
Flatlander Faith 