In this sermon I provide an introduction to the means by which Christians form doctrine by way of an overview of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral
sermon
I Preached a Hellfire and Brimstone Sermon … and I Was on Fire
This year my church invited me to preach on January 2. So of course I preached on the under-reported doctrine of hell. ?
Does Being a Christian Mean Giving Up on Evidence?
This is a sermon I recorded for a local church in our time of coronavirus home-church. In the sermon, I argue that Jesus was centrally concerned with evidence to support his claims and this bequeathed to the church a strong emphasis on faith that is grounded on evidence as exemplified in the Apostle Paul and […]
Answering the biggest questions about apologetics and Christianity
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of speaking in the morning service at West Meadows Baptist Church in Edmonton, AB. In the service, Pastor Mark presented me with four questions from the congregation on topics in apologetics (though he had let me know earlier in the week what those questions would be). As you can guess, […]
Exercises in Missing the Point: A Response to Counter Apologist’s Scorched Earth Review
I recently preached a sermon on faith and evidence and while it received a warm reception in the comments section of my blog, apparently the feelings were not universal: an absolutely scathing review was posted just today by the generally amiable Counter Apologist (henceforth CA). How scathing? Consider his opening (f-bomb and all). CA says of my sermon: “It […]
Does Faith Make Sense? A Sermon on Christianity and Evidence
This is a sermon I preached yesterday at McKernan Baptist Church in Edmonton as part of their “Questions from the Neighborhood?” series. At the beginning I note that the most common objection I’ve encountered toward Christianity concerns the problem of evil. But the second most common objection is that Christianity demands faith at the expense […]
How to Hate Your Enemies: A Sermon
I’ve preached and spoken on the imprecatory psalms on several occasions. This past Sunday I preached my latest sermon on the topic, and it represents a further development in my thinking on the curses in the psalms and how best to appropriate them. The recording misses the first couple minutes of the sermon.
Cursing the Killer: On Praying the Imprecatory Psalms
Over the years I’ve preached my sermon on the imprecatory psalms on several occasions. Not surprisingly, when you return to an issue on multiple occasions, your position is liable to develop in particular ways. And so it is here. Initially my assessment followed that of C.S. Lewis: the imprecatory psalms represent a wicked desire for […]
Confession: A Sermon
In this sermon, delivered at Greenfield Community Church in Edmonton, AB in May 2016, I speak on the topic of confession for sin.
Patience: A Sermon
In this sermon (preached at Greenfield Community Church on July 26th), I explore the spiritual fruit of patience. It is a virtue with which I have little first hand acquaintance, so I had to do some research first. As with all my sermons, there are several additional points that I would like to have discussed, […]
Is the Bible Reliable? The Sermon
This summer I was asked to preach on the following question at Steele Heights Baptist Church in Edmonton: “Is the Bible reliable?” This is a HUGE topic. It also could quickly go sideways if handled improperly. Growing up, were I asked about the reliability of the Bible, I would have interpreted the question as follows: […]
65. Ten Things a Seminarian Can Learn from St. Patrick
Today on the Tentative Apologist Podcast I am featuring a rerecording of a talk I gave at the Taylor Seminary chapel on March 17th, 2015 on St. Patrick. In the talk I feature ten things the seminarian can learn from St. Patrick. The ten points are as follows: (1) Behind every saint is an ordinary human […]
Maternal God, Godly Mothers
On Sunday May 11th I preached a Mother’s Day sermon at Greenfield Baptist Church on the maternal aspects of God and the divine aspects of motherhood. Unfortunately, Christianity has often downplayed the maternal aspects of God and in turn has failed to appreciate the transcendent call of motherhood. This sermon offers a tribute to mothers […]
How do you preach killing babies? A sermon on the Imprecatory Psalms
This past weekend I spoke on divine violence at Mountainside Baptist Church in Fernie, BC. My first talk was a sermon on the imprecatory (or cursing) psalms. These psalms express hatred of one’s personal enemies (which the psalmist assumes are God’s enemies as well), they describe God as hating the evil doers as well and as […]