The Tulip Driven Life

By: Thomas Fletcher Booher I watched Ray Comfort's new documentary about John Lennon called  Genius . I must admit that I was not aware of John Lennon's backstory, singing in an Anglican choir as a boy, growing up in a cold and calculated Christian culture that prompted him to say "We're more popular than Jesus" after The Beatles hit it big. Whether he meant that as a simple statement of fact from his perspective or because he disliked the Christian faith and religion in general appears to actually be a more debatable question than I realized, but a bit of both is likely true. John Lennon said he wanted happiness, and inquired about what Christianity could offer him to make him happy (perhaps if John Piper had talked to him about Christian Hedonism Lennon would have understood that the only true joy is found in glorifying God).  Most people consider Lennon's song Imagine  to be about the wickedness of religion and the community/brotherhood of

By: Thomas Booher Hello everyone, I am starting a podcast for the blog. This week I talk about the new contributors to the TDL and a bit about the e-Book I am working on. Enjoy! 

By: Sean Rice This post is taken from Bart Ehrman's recently-published book  Did Jesus Exist?  It has to do with an important piece of evidence for the existence and life of Jesus of Nazareth, the central divine figure of the Christian faith. The layout of Ehrman's arguments has been changed to fit SFAC blog format, but all of the words (besides headings) are original to the well-known atheist/agnostic Bible scholar Bart Ehrman. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHO WAS JOSEPHUS AND WHY IS HE IMPORTANT? "Flavius Josephus is one of the truly important figures from ancient Judaism. His abundant historical writings are our primary source of information about the life and history of Palestine in the first century. He himself was personally involved with some of the most important events that he narrates, especially in his eight-volume work,  The Jewish Wars . Josephus was born to an aristocratic family in Palestine

By: Nathan Fox What Spurred This Post A few days ago Ashley (my fiancée) and I were at church, and really we were just talking to people after the service. A man in our church walked up to Ashley and I and saw our Marriage Counseling books that we are working through in preparation for our life together; immediately seeing our books spurred a conversation between the three of us. This man ended up telling us his story of a failed marriage due to his inability to “stay in God’s Word and to communicate with his wife.” He told us of a season of his life that was utterly lost, as he was addicted to drugs and was even arrested for running a meth operation. I knew his story, but had never heard him so purposefully open in telling it. Here was this man who didn’t know Ashley and barely knew me giving us advice on marriage through his testimony, which was a true blessing to hear. The true irony in all of this is that later on that night I was reading through Acts chapter 22. It

After arriving home from my last day of first grade, I announced to my parents how glad I was that school was finally over, and that I did not have to go back ever again. My parents’ expressions waxed blank. It took at least thirty seconds before one of them, my father I think, broke the news that I would have to go back that fall, after the summer was over. My joy had instantly turned to mourning. “For how long?” I asked. “For another year,” he said. As difficult as that sounded, another year might not be too bad. I had made it through one. I could do it again. And then it would be all over. . . . A thought came that nearly knocked the wind out of me. “What about after that? Was there any more school after that?” “Yes,” came the hesitant reply. “Well, how long?” “Twelve years. . . in all.” “TWELVE!” I bellowed. To a six year old (I started when I was five), that was like saying it would be a zillion millennia. As one may correctly guess, when