Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09098 Many churches, particularly in the Baptist tradition, ask members to sign a church covenant: a written statement of mutual commitment describing how the members intend to live together, care for one another, and uphold the life of the congregation. The practice is widespread enough that some assume it is biblically mandated. Others view…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 60013 Hinduism is the world’s third-largest religion, with over one billion adherents, the vast majority in India and Nepal. It is also one of the oldest, with roots stretching back thousands of years. For many Western Christians, Hinduism is the most unfamiliar of the major world religions, because its assumptions about reality, the nature…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 60065 The practice of praying to Mary and the saints is one of the most visible differences between Roman Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism. For many Catholics, asking Mary or a canonised saint to intercede on their behalf is as natural and unremarkable as asking a friend to pray for them. For evangelicals, the practice…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 60052 String theory is one of the most ambitious attempts in modern physics to construct a unified description of the fundamental forces of the universe. It proposes that the most basic constituents of reality are not point-like particles but tiny, vibrating strings of energy whose different modes of vibration produce the different particles observed…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 60062 This is a question that requires both honesty and care. Millions of Roman Catholics around the world hold a sincere faith in Jesus Christ, attend Mass, pray, give sacrificially, and seek to live according to their understanding of God’s will. At the same time, the official doctrinal positions of the Roman Catholic Church,…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 60108 Reincarnation is one of the most widely held beliefs in the world, central to Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism, and increasingly popular in Western culture, where surveys consistently show that a significant minority of people who identify as Christian also say they believe in some form of rebirth. The question of whether it…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 08055 Stories of haunted houses have been part of human culture for millennia, and they are not confined to superstitious pre-modern societies. Many people, including some Christians, report experiencing unexplained phenomena in certain buildings: strange noises, objects moving, oppressive atmospheres, and the sense of a presence that should not be there. Can a house…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08056 Ghost stories are among the oldest forms of human storytelling, and belief in ghosts remains remarkably persistent even in secular societies. Surveys consistently show that a significant proportion of the population in the Western world believes in ghosts or claims to have experienced a ghostly encounter. For the Christian, the question is not…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08140 The New Testament contains a remarkable statement about the future relationship between believers and angels, one that sits uncomfortably with the instinctive assumption that angelic beings are permanently our superiors. Paul tells the Corinthians that the saints will judge angels, and this claim has significant implications for how Christians understand both their present…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 08141 Few pastoral situations require more care than the moment a church member approaches their pastor and says, “An angel spoke to me.” The claim touches on deeply held convictions about the supernatural, personal experience, and spiritual authority, and handling it badly can damage the person, the congregation, or both. Getting it right requires…