Posts by Don Johnson
Proclaim and Defend — Week 500
[Note: this week marks a milestone for Proclaim & Defend. It is our 500th week of publication. Most weeks we put out an article each weekday, sometimes running just one short or sometime running one extra for the week. Our first week began February 29, 2012, a Wednesday, so our first week had a run…
Read MoreHow Suffering Glorifies God
Just a few weeks ago, my aunt passed away after living many years with physical handicaps. She was a lovely lady. My first memories of her are when she and my uncle returned from India on furlough. They served as missionaries there for several years, then they returned to Canada where my uncle served as…
Read MoreHow Alcohol Can Cause A-Fib and Other Heart Issues – The New York Times
A new study has found that even moderate drinking can increase the risk of A-fib, a heart rhythm abnormality that afflicts some 3 million Americans. … The authors speculated that the findings could have broader implications for healthy adults as well. Although moderate drinking is widely considered beneficial for heart health, the new research suggests that,…
Read MoreWhat Is a “Christian” Family? · Growing Fathers | Helping Christian Dads Grow
What is a Christian family? Is it a family that attends church regularly? Is it a family that prays before each meal and talks about Jesus on occasion? Is it a family that abstains from certain vices or follows a few set principles for life? Is it a family whose children land good jobs and…
Read MoreHistorical Theology for the Church – a review
Duesing, Jason G., and Nathan A. Finn, eds. Historical Theology for the Church. Nashville: B & H Academic, 2021. A review by Don Johnson What is historical theology? “Historical theology is the study of the development of Christian doctrine and tradition from the Bible by the church and for the church.”1 This is the “working…
Read MorePeople of the Book: Which Book?
Bobby Howell’s piece yesterday suggested to me an article I wrote last fall, “Why Are the Politicians I Like So Disappointing?” In that article, I observed (from listening to conservative political podcasts) how dependent conservative politicians are on Natural Law. Natural Law is almost a synonym for General Revelation, that is, God’s revelation of himself…
Read MoreSecularization and the Problem of Passing Faith on to the Next Generation
A recurring topic of conversation among Christians is the loss of young people who grew up in church. Some want to cast this as a particularly “fundamentalist” or “evangelical” or “[insert-name-of-denomination-here]” problem. A recent headline, for example: “Why some younger evangelicals are leaving the faith.” The article is unsurprising as far as it goes, but…
Read MoreBehind the Curve on Current Trends
Do you ever get the feeling that the world is inexplicably speeding past you, just when you thought you had caught up with all the current terms? Only to find out that what you finally understand is so… really “last decade”, not merely “last year”? Some years ago, at pastors’ meetings, we heard presentations on…
Read MoreShould I Hang My Head over My Heritage?
I sometimes take the occasion to write a July 1 post for Proclaim & Defend because, as a Canadian, I have an inner compulsion (no doubt driven by our national angst) to remind the world (i.e. my American friends) that I am different from you all. (See, I can’t even do “y’all” right.) Kidding aside,…
Read MoreWhy We Opposed an Anti-Abortion Resolution at the Southern Baptist Convention – Public Discourse
Southern Baptists have not at all diminished in their resolve to “contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death,” and we have declared that resolve time and time again over the years. That resolve is why Southern Baptists affirmed two anti-abortion resolutions at this year’s convention as well—one defending the…
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