Reading Time: 7 minutesQuestion 09053. Should Christians attend church? I am aware that a minister answering this question is like a barber telling you that you need a haircut, so let me say at the outset that I am not arguing for the survival of an institution. I am arguing for something the New Testament assumes so completely…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 09033. Whether online church can replace physical attendance is a question almost nobody asked before 2020 and almost every minister has been asked since. Services went to a screen out of necessity, a good many people found the arrangement convenient, and a proportion of them never came back. The question is now a live…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 09029. Deciding whether to leave a church is one of the loneliest decisions a Christian makes, and it is usually made badly. People stay far too long in places that are damaging them, or they walk out over something that would have been settled by one honest conversation. Both mistakes hurt, and both are…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08171. Every October somebody asks whether Christians celebrate Halloween or whether we should have nothing to do with it, and the question usually arrives with a costume already in the hallway and a knock expected at seven. I am going to give you principles rather than a rule, because Scripture gives principles here and…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08111. What actually happens under hypnosis is less mysterious than most people assume, and getting that clear is the first step to answering whether it opens doors to demonic influence. The popular picture, borrowed almost entirely from stage shows and films, is of a person switched off and taken over. That is not what…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08110. Whether martial arts are spiritually dangerous depends almost entirely on which martial arts you mean and who is teaching them, which is why a blanket answer will always be wrong for somebody. The category covers everything from an Olympic combat sport to a discipline that opens with meditation before a shrine. So rather…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08109. Whether yoga practice is spiritually dangerous is a question that divides thoughtful Christians, and I want to handle it in a way that respects both sides rather than declaring one of them unspiritual. I have friends who would not set foot in a class and friends who go every Tuesday, and both can…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08108. The question of whether Eastern meditation can open doors to demons needs a definition before it needs an answer, because the word meditation is now doing duty for at least three unrelated activities and people talking about it are frequently talking past each other. There is biblical meditation, which Scripture commands. There is…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 08102 The question of whether Christians should read occult books needs one distinction made before anything useful can be said. There is an enormous difference between a Christian book about the occult and an actual manual of occult practice, and a great deal of confusion disappears once we separate the two. Nobody sensible thinks…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 08101 Whether horror films can invite demonic activity is a question I get asked more often around the end of October than at any other time of year, and it deserves a better answer than either of the usual ones. Some Christians treat the genre as a spiritual open door. Others treat the whole…