Follow-up on My Exchange with Randal Rauser
Last week I got involved in what I would have hoped to be a dialogue with Randal Rauser regarding a handful of tweets he’d put up on Twitter. It turned out to be pseudo-dialogue, with him refusing or abstaining from answering my questions, yet insisting that I answer his,...
How Not to Do Apologetics: Dark Example from the ‘Tentative Apologist’ Randal Rauser
A video from the self-styled “Tentative Apologist” Randal Rauser has roused me to wake up this website again. I think he thinks he’s defending progressive Christianity. I’m no progressive Christian myself, but if I were, I would ask him to quit. It isn’t just that I disagree with Rauser’s...
Ministry Update, November 2022
Greetings! Some missionary newsletters might start with “Greetings from the other side of the world.” I was thinking of starting this one with, “Greetings from the other side of … ,” but I wasn’t sure quite what to enter in the blank. I have definitely come through what seems...
God Heals — Amazing Good News! (Tom Gilson Ministry Newsletter, May 2022)
I have good news. Lots of it. I’ve been holding out on you too long, and I need to pass it along. It’s about bad news getting better — amazingly better. It happened slowly, and gradually, but in retrospect it was an amazing answer to prayer. The Bad News...
Ministry Progress, April 2022
It’s happening — at last!
Step by step, this past year or two, I've been building toward an equipping ministry for pastors. Now it's moving into its next phase, and I’m excited to see it coming to fruition. It's still not easy — see the prayer requests below — but...
The Very Alien Question of Marriage (from The Stream’s Pastors’ Corner)
(Also published at The Stream.) What is marriage? What is it for? Why does marriage matter? Ten years ago, those were the hottest questions on the planet. Now they’re … nothing. No one even asks anymore, at least not in public. That’s okay to a certain point: I don’t...
Find Your Authentic Self, or Find an Authentic View of God?
Everyone’s in a rush to find their “authentic self.” We’re going about it the wrong way, though. We find our true selves by giving up false gods and finding the true God. We’ve missed his reality, however. Even Christians have, in my view. That’s why I say in this...
2021 in Review: God Shows Up in Spite of All
I’m writing this during the winter storm of February 3, 2022. So far it’s turning out less disruptive than what we’d prepped for, when earlier forecasts had said we could get nearly half an inch of freezing rain. That would have caused power outages everywhere. Another disruption would almost...
Pastors’ Equipping Series: Sample Sermon on Christian Exclusivism vs. Pluralism — Christmas Themed!
Christians aren’t supposed to say we have the one truth, right? So goes the opinion around our culture, anyway. We’re supposed to be “humble” about our beliefs; to give equal worth and respect to all other beliefs. That’s what culture tells us, but what does God say? Clearly Jesus...