Recent content by Lanman87

I think it will play some role but not near what it has in the past. Mainly because the medieval and renaissance periods were a "Christian" society, at least publicly. In our post enlightenment age we are in an individualism and secular society. We don't have near as many great artist...

We have two CC's, use them for practically everything and pay them both off every month. The only thing we don't use them on are things that have convenience fees (unless we don't have a choice). I understand things like online ticket purchases but even a few restaurants are now charging...

A Christian is someone who believes/has faith in Christ. Provided the Christ they have faith in is the Christ of historic Christianity and not some sort of "Christ" that they have created for themselves (such as Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness and a few other groups). The Nicene Creed, Apostles...

The only thing we MUST do is believe/have faith. My thoughts on churches who preach believe/faith plus something is that they don't understand the gospel of grace and have created a type of law that must be followed in order to find forgiveness or please God. I say that meaning that faith...

Do you believe being baptized automatically makes someone a Christian? Does it automatically give faith to the one being baptized? Do you believe that someone can have a saving faith apart/before baptism? It seems we have a different definition of "Christian". Yours seems to be one who...

Maybe when the Pastor asked about their faith (before marrying them) they said something that indicated that they didn't actually believe in Christ. Maybe they believed that being Orthodox is the same thing as having a saving faith (it's not). Maybe they said that being baptized and taking...

We should never insult anyone. But we should also be discerning and concerned about the spiritual state of those around us. I'm not saying to hit people over the head with a Bible or scream at them to repent. I'm also not saying that we are the final judge or can't be wrong. But we should...

The only push back I will give against this is that not everyone has a proper definition of "Christian". Some will say, "I'm a Christian" because they were baptized and confirmed. Some will say "I'm a Christian" because they said the sinners prayer at VBS in the third grade. My contention is...

How do you know they are a Christian if you don't ask? What I mean is that just because someone calls themself a Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Lutheran or anything else, doesn't automatically make them a Christian. There are plenty of people who show up to church who haven't actually put...

I believe, for whatever reason, that a consensus developed in the early church about which books are inspired. It took a few hundred years for it to completely shake out but by the 4th century we had our New Testament Canon. Most of the books were agreed upon early but a few that some used...

You have to understand that in a Baptist church (and most evangelical churches) having been baptized and participating in the church doesn't automatically make someone a Christian. Most Baptist hold to conversion/decision theology. The belief is that someone must hear the Gospel and respond...

I disagree, the rest of the paragraph is about evidence of faith. The dilemma was people claiming to have faith but the evidence in their actions did not back up their claim. In my evangelical world this would be people who say "the sinners prayer" and then go right back to living the way...

The key verse in the entire James 2:14-26 discourse is James 2: 18 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works James is differentiating between a true saving faith and simple belief in God...

There may have been a temporary scrubbing while the page was transitioning after the new Secretary of Defense came on board, but if you go to the DOD website today you will find plenty of articles about Sept 11th, the Holocaust, cancer awareness, suicide prevention, and sexual assault. Many of...

30,001, you have to include your own unique theology.