Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 1129. Biblical literalism gets blamed for a great deal it never actually claimed, and nowhere is the confusion thicker than in the running argument between Scripture and science. People assume that if I hold to biblical literalism I must also believe the sun is a lamp fixed to a solid dome, because that is…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 1120. Does literal interpretation require a young earth position? I hold both a literal-grammatical-historical hermeneutic and a young earth reading of Genesis, and I think the two are connected far more closely than many Christians today assume. This is not a fringe or novel combination. It was the standard reading of Genesis across nearly…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 1083. Scientific errors are what critics claim to find scattered through the Bible, arguing that Scripture reflects the primitive cosmology of ancient peoples and cannot be trusted as God’s Word on anything else either. They point to passages about the sun standing still, a solid dome over the earth, or the earth resting on…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 2115. The oaks of Mamre witnessed one of the most remarkable afternoons in the Old Testament: the day God came to lunch. Genesis 18 opens without any drumroll – “And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 2114. The figure who wrestled with Jacob at Peniel is introduced with deliberate mystery: “And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day” (Genesis 32:24). A man – that is all the narrator will say at first. Yet by sunrise Jacob is limping away from the…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 04032. When I open the Bible at its first page I find that the Spirit in creation is already there, before light, before land, before a single living thing. We are used to speaking of the Father who decrees and the Son through whom all things were made, and that is right and good….
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 12015 The Bible does not mention contraception directly. There is no verse that says “thou shalt not use contraception” and no verse that says “family planning is commended.” This means the question must be approached through broader biblical principles rather than proof texts. Christians who hold strong convictions on both sides of this question…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 12016 In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a deeply personal and often painful subject. Many couples who pursue it have experienced years of heartbreak through infertility, and the desire for a child is one of the most natural and God-given longings a human being can have. The Bible does not address IVF directly, since the…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 12017 This is a question the church cannot avoid, and one that must be answered with both clarity and compassion. The Bible speaks directly and consistently on the subject of homosexuality, and it does so within a broader framework of God’s design for human sexuality that is positive, purposeful, and good. The contemporary debate…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 12019 The question of transgenderism is one of the most pressing cultural and pastoral challenges facing the church today. It touches on some of the deepest questions human beings can ask: Who am I? What does it mean to be male or female? Is my body part of who I am, or is it…