A pastor once told me that God’s people are simply pawns in his ultimate plan to glorify himself. Seriously. He said “pawns.” That would be a great metaphor if chess players actually loved their pawns, but they don’t. The world’s greatest chess player never loved his pawns, much less...

Was Jesus always nice? OK, so it’s not the deepest theological question we’ve ever tackled here at The Two Cities. But it’s an important one. Because, above all, the world expects Christians to be nice. Forget about holiness, evangelism and social justice. Just be nice. But if Christians...

“You know, I think every pastor should study sociology,” suggested Daniel[1], “that’s what I studied in college: if you really knew about communities and how people work, you could… well, pastors are  leading groups of people- they need to know this stuff!” Such was the opinion of...

If “aw shucks” inclusivistic sincerity were enough to commend a soul to heaven, hell would starve. Unfortunately, Joel Osteen’s “gospel” is enough to populate hell. Recently, the pastor of the nation’s largest church, Lakewood Church (Houston, TX) was interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on...

This Labor Day, under the touching glow of a setting pacific sundown, invest some time reading a little primer entrusted to be by a dear friend- A Biblical Case for Natural Law, by Westminster Professor of Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics David Van Drunen. You’re probably thinking...

Without knowing it, I grew up believing in a quasi-Wesleyan form of Arminianism. When I went to college, and was exposed to Calvinism for the first time, I was very hostile. I was undoubtedly the most obnoxious Arminian on campus my freshman year. Eventually I came to a point where I decided...

Whether you know it or not you’re an idol. Many people have role models and they call these people idols. At the moment the world is watching the greatest athletes competing in the Olympics. Many of these athletes are ‘idolized’ in their home countries. This year American...

Last week I watched a few episodes of “Beyond Scared Straight,” the reality show that follows a group of rebellious teens to prison, where they get a taste of life behind bars. Aside from being thoroughly entertained, I learned a lot about false hopes and society’s view of...

My wife took her first philosophy class at her southern California high school.  Along with many other historical figures in philosophy, her teacher lectured on Kant.  Unfortunately, the only thing that she can remember about Kant is the phrase, “Kant was a real pisant.”   To be...

This year on the 24th of April, Armenia remembers the 97th anniversary of the displacing of 250 influential Armenian citizens from the Ottoman capital city in 1915. This event was the pivotal beginnings of what would be later called the Armenian Genocide. During the Genocide, which took place...