my burg

"He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.  For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to  dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross."  (Colossians  1:18-20 ESV)  Christianity is often seen and portrayed as being exclusive rather than inclusive, and culturally narrow rather than ethnically broad.  And yet, it  is precisely because Christianity is universal that it is therefore exclusive.  It is because Christ's work is so complete that all other ways are only  partial at best.  Herman Bavinck explains,    "Christianity is therefore the absolute religion, the only essential, true religion.  It does not grant that other religions are of almost equal worth  alongside of it.  It is, according to its nature, intolerant, even as the truth at all times is and must be oppos...

I've always enjoyed these helpful drawings from Credo House.  So true.

"...concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord... (Romans 1:3-4 ESV) "The first point which we have to make is that the gospel is concerning God's Son.  That is the nerve, the heart and the very centre of the gospel.  There is no such thing as the Christian gospel, and there is no such thing as Christianity, apart from Him.  Christianity, by definition, is Christ Himself.  Now this is something, it seems to me, as one sees so clearly in the New Testament, about which there can be no discussion or argument whatsoever.  There is no such thing as Christianity apart from the Person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  That does not mean that the Lord Jesus Christ is a 'bearer' of good news from God.  No!  It means that He Himself is the good news.  It is the Person and what...

John Piper, in a 2009 ETS meeting at Yale, responded to the view that because religious communities (in this case Christianity and Islam) share common language about God we therefore share a common love and worship for God. But words in common do not mean that we mean the same thing by those words.  The Jesus presented by other world religions is a different Jesus than how he is presented in the New Testament.  To the very religious people of his day (who sincerely and fervently worshiped God), Jesus made some strong distinctions...  Jesus said, “I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive  me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him” (John 5:42–43). When Jesus says, “receive him,” he means receive  him for who he really is: the divine, eternal Son of God who lays down his life for the sheep and takes it up again in three  days. If a person does not receive him in t...