Randal Rauser

Home of progressively evangelical, generously orthodox, rigorously analytic, revolutionary Christian thinking (that's what I'm aiming for anyway)

gospel

The Most Bizarre Rejoinder I Ever Heard From a Christian Fundamentalist

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In 2013 I published my book What on Earth Do We Know About Heaven? in which I presented my core thesis in the following equation: “H=ep.” In other words, “heaven” (in terms of the absolute and final destination for individuals reconciled to God in Christ) is not the otherworldly paradise of the popular Christian (and Platonic) imagination. […]

Thanks to Donald Trump I will no longer call myself an evangelical

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Many people (Republicans mostly) were apparently shocked by the latest debacle to unfold on Donald Trump’s long road to perdition: I speak, of course, of the 2005 Access Hollywood footage. This kind of disgusting glamorization of sexual assault might be expected in the high school locker room. It’s a bit more shocking coming out of the mouth of […]

Sorry, this pew is paid for

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The other day while I was reading up on the historic practice of parishoners renting or buying private pews in churches, I happened upon this fascinating article: “Sacred Mysteries: Renting the Best Seats in Church.” When I lived in England I visited a church which still had some old pews with locked gates that had been […]

A More Christlike God: A (very long and detailed) Review

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Bradley Jersak. A More Christlike God, A More Beautiful Gospel. (Pasadena, CA: CWR Press, 2015). The back cover of Philip Yancey’s book What’s So Amazing About Grace? includes the following epigram: “There is nothing we can do to make God love us more. There is nothing we can do to make God love us less.” […]

69. Danielle Strickland on the Gospel and Kingdom

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Christians are people of the Gospel. But what is the gospel, exactly? Like many evangelicals, I grew up thinking that the gospel was the claim that Jesus died for our sins, full stop. That description is correct in what it affirms but wrong in what it leaves out, for the Gospel is so much more. […]

34. Wes Olmstead on the Sermon on the Mount

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John Stott opens his book The Message of the Sermon on the Mount by observing, “The Sermon on the Mount is probably the best-known part of the teaching of Jesus, though arguably it is the least understood, and certainly it is the least obeyed.” Countless people have found themselves inexorably drawn to this profound teaching, […]

19. Mark Buchanan on becoming an Acts church

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This time on The Tentative Apologist Podcast we sit down with pastor, author, public speaker and professor Mark Buchanan. After pastoring for 17 years at New Life Community Baptist Church in Duncan, BC, Buchanan moved to Calgary, Alberta in September 2013 to become Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Ambrose Seminary. Buchanan is perhaps best known […]

Returning to the social roots of evangelicalism (without becoming liberal)

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Last year I was running a seminar at a K-12 Christian school for some teachers and board members when I noticed this unassuming display. It reflects a project at the school in which they’ve partnered with an African village. I initially wrote that they “adopted” an African village. But that paternalistic language doesn’t convey the fact that […]

“He said he would prefer to go to Hell…”

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Here’s another golden oldie. This little number shot to the top of the charts in the summer of 09′. Now back digitally remastered and better than ever, here is “He said he would prefer to go to Hell…” *** Belief and disbelief are often more complicated than we would like to admit. Consequently, drawing a […]