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Randal Rauser

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

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What's So Confusing About Grace?

Finding the Devil in Rock and Roll … Backwards

November 18, 2020 by Randal

The single most infamous song of the backward masking craze of the 1980s was surely Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” A message from the devil or a trick of the imagination? I’ll say the latter. But when we were kids, playing “Stairway to Heaven” backward on the record player was still a memorable way to […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: devil, fundamentalism, Rock and roll, What's So Confusing About Grace?

Five Signs that You Were Raised Fundagelical

August 10, 2020 by Randal

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: evangelicalism, fundagelicalism, fundamentalism, What's So Confusing About Grace?

A Special Promotional Sale for What’s So Confusing About Grace?

August 3, 2020 by Randal

Good news for my American readers. My awesome 2017 book What’s So Confusing About Grace?, a three-hundred-page semi-autobiographical exploration of the meaning of the Gospel, is currently available in Kindle for a mere $1.99 until Wednesday morning. Think about that: for less than the price of an Americano, you are invited to a transformative journey into […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Kindle, promotion, What's So Confusing About Grace?

Do All Children Go to Heaven? On the age of accountability

October 18, 2019 by Randal

This article is based on chapter 30 of my book What’s So Confusing About Grace? Parenthood opens you to new questions you never thought to ask before. For me, it initiated a new stage in my wrestling with salvation and the Gospel: what did it mean for my daughter to be saved? Did I agree that […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: age of accountability, salvation, soteriology, theology, What's So Confusing About Grace?

Formulating an Argument Against Christianity Based on Confusion About Salvation?

February 5, 2019 by Randal

About a year ago, I posted an article at Strange Notions titled “Answering the ‘Confusing Revelation’ Objection to Christianity.” In the article, I formulate an argument against Christianity based on the putatively confusing nature of Christian revelation. I then offer a rebuttal to the argument. (At a broader level, my entire book What’s So Confusing About […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Christianity, revelation, soteriology, What's So Confusing About Grace?

How I wore evangelistic T-shirts in high school to try and save … myself

January 11, 2019 by Randal

In my book What’s So Confusing About Grace? I journey through several different ways of thinking about salvation that I held growing up (and into adulthood). Along the way, I summarize several “laws” that I came to believe were essential to salvation, including that which I call “Law 5”: Law 5: If you are ashamed of Jesus, […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: evangelism, fundamentalism, salvation, What's So Confusing About Grace?

Do bad children go to hell?

November 26, 2018 by Randal

When I first became a father, I found myself facing a question that most Christian parents must confront at one time or another: when is my child responsible to make her own decision to follow Jesus? Were thirteen-year-olds in danger of going to hell? And what about a three-year-old? What was the point at which […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: damnation, hell, soteriology, theology, What's So Confusing About Grace?

What does it mean to be evangelical? And is it worth defending?

September 18, 2018 by Randal

I grew up viewing the term “evangelical” as a guarantee of quality. I believed that evangelicals were the most faithful and orthodox followers of Christ and that they offered the closest approximation of the New Testament church. But while I regularly used the term “evangelical” to identify “good” Christianity, I would have been hard pressed to give […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: evangelicalism, What's So Confusing About Grace?

Why doesn’t God give everyone a miracle?

August 7, 2018 by Randal

Some years ago, a friend of mine told me how, after losing his wife to cancer, he encouraged his embittered young adult children to return to church. On their first visit to a small group, several people shared their recent answers to prayer — miracles, they said — while the two young visitors sat quietly. When they […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, problem of evil, providence, suffering, What's So Confusing About Grace?

If God wants to save us, why isn’t salvation simple?

May 12, 2018 by Randal

I know what you’re thinking: salvation is simple! After all, just look at John 3:16: God loved the world so much he sent his Son so that whoever believes in him will be saved. Surely that is simple, right? It might seem so, but the closer you look, the more that initial veneer of simplicity […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: salvation, soteriology, What's So Confusing About Grace?

Hymns vs. Choruses: Are the Worship Wars Worth Fighting?

April 20, 2018 by Randal

This article is based on a section from my book What’s So Confusing About Grace? In a 1960 interview on Meet the Press, Martin Luther King, Jr. famously observed, “It is one of the tragedies of our nation, one of the shameful tragedies, that 11 o’clock on Sunday morning is one of the most segregated hours […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: church, consumerism, corporate worship, ecclesiology, What's So Confusing About Grace?, worship wars

Have you committed the Unforgivable Sin? A Devotional Reflection

March 6, 2018 by Randal Rauser

I recently wrote a few devotionals for a forthcoming publication and I decided to publish them at my blog as well. This second devotional is based on a section of my most recent book, What’s So Confusing About Grace? Mark 3:29: “But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: grace, unforgivable sin, What's So Confusing About Grace?

How the Ebola Virus Taught Me About the Gospel

February 26, 2018 by Randal

This article is an excerpt from my book What’s So Confusing About Grace? And as a bonus, the Kindle version of the book is available for two bucks (that’s 75% off) until 8 am (Pacific Time) on Wednesday morning (Feb 28). What does it look like when people set aside their quest for personal health, happiness, […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: discipleship, Ebola, What's So Confusing About Grace?

Making Sense of Gospel and Grace (10 Minute Interview)

December 6, 2017 by Randal

I posted this ten minute interview with the Wednesday Bookmark on my book What’s So Confusing About Grace? a couple weeks ago. But I have since turned the interview into a video.

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: interview, What's So Confusing About Grace?

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