The Tulip Driven Life

By: Thomas F. Booher Dear Evangelicalism,  I am not sure if you are aware, but people are having a harder and harder time defining you. I suppose I am an evangelical, insofar as I believe that we need to proclaim the gospel to everyone. The first sentence in Wikipedia defines you (us?) as "a world-wide Protestant movement maintaining that the essence of the gospel consists in the doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ's atonement." That definition is a large umbrella housing many different denominations, and gospels. Roman Catholics believe that salvation is by faith in Christ's atonement. A Mormon like Glenn Beck can call himself an evangelical with this definition. Yet Catholics and Mormons both believe that good works are needed for salvation in addition to faith in Christ. So evangelicalism, you are not defined by the true gospel. Absent is the truth that we are saved by faith alone through Christ's atoning work in life, death, and resurrecti...

By: Thomas F. Booher I do hope the final book in The Bright Empires Series takes a step back to what the Bible actually says. (As a side note, I went through this book and highlighted new words or words I hardly ever use, and nearly every page  had something highlighted on account of this alone. That shows you how strong Mr. Lawhead's vocabulary is.) But now back to the main point of this post.  I've found it very interesting that in The Shadow Lamp we have an apparent contradiction over God's sovereignty. Consider: 1. On p. 351 we see a character praising God for His "All-Wise Providence" in sparing his life when he could have easily drowned in the rapids of a flash flood. 2. On p. 358 Gianni expresses a belief in "the supreme sovereignty of God and His ongoing work to bring His creation to its ultimate fruition in unity with Him." However, before this, note also that Gianni said: 1. Human beings are literally stardust that were born ...

By: Thomas Booher 1 Peter 4:12-19 explains the purpose of trials and suffering in the Christian’s life, affirming their certainty as well as the need for perseverance through the persecution when it comes. Many believers throughout history have been surprised when met with resistance to their faith, but Peter reminds his readers that this is the way of Christ (1 Pet 2:21). Suffering for the faith is to live like Christ, who gave His life for His sheep (John 10:11), and those who do suffer should rejoice because the Spirit of glory rests upon them as it does Christ (1 Pet 4:14). Peter indicates that suffering leads to glory and that judgment begins at the household of God then spreads out to the unbelieving (4:13, 17). The questions that must be addressed in this text are, first, how does suffering relate and lead to glory, and second, in what sense can judgment be said to begin with believers since Christ has atoned for their sins? The basic Protestant position will be pr...

By: Thomas Clayton Booher Luther and the Epistle of Straw – Part 1 The rediscovery of justification by faith in Christ alone (without works) was so paramount in Luther’s experience that he began to look at the whole Bible from that single perspective. There was an advantage to that. The principle of justification by faith alone in Christ alone opened up the New Testament to reveal many things that were hidden before. In the very moment of his ‘Tower Experience’, Luther tells us how this insight into God’s justification of the sinner instantly affected his understanding of the rest of scripture. Immediately I saw the whole of Scripture in a different light. I ran through the Scriptures from memory and found that other terms had analogous meanings, e.g., the work of God, that is, what God works in us; the power of God, by which he makes us powerful; the wisdom of God, by which he makes us wise; the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God. ...