The Greek philosopher Socrates was known as the gadfly of the state because he attempted to “sting” his Athenian contemporaries into consideration of the justice and rightness of their actions. In his book Socrates Meets Jesus: History's Greatest Questioner Confronts the Claims of Christ, Peter Kreeft addresses the gadfly phenomenon by exploring Je
How do we learn how to follow Jesus, and persuade others to do likewise? This is not as easy a question to answer as we might suppose. Let’s look at the story of the brothers Charles and John Wesley, as told by Ellen White, to see why. White observed that “[Charles] Wesley and his associates were led to see that true religion is seated in the heart
I’ve been an Adventist all my life, but I don’t recall ever attending a seminar or hearing a sermon on this topic. I’ve read a few articles about it, and it was addressed in a college ethics class, but it’s not something I hear Adventists talking about individually or publicly. Yet it has been one of the hottest topics in American Christianity for
Zeitgeist: A typically compound German word that conveys something that is more cumbersomely articulated in English—“the spirit of the time.” All of us are, to some extent at least, influenced by the thinking patterns of the times in which we live—either by being unconsciously swept up into them, or by reacting against them. It is always striking t
It was the evening of the Resurrection Sunday. The apostles, fearing the Jews, had locked themselves up in a room (John 20:19a). They had good reasons to be afraid. Not only had their leader been crucified a couple days before; earlier that Sunday His body had gone missing and they were accused of stealing it (Matthew 28:11-15). So the disciples st
The English word “meditate” comes from the Latin meditari, which connotes deep, continued reflection. It involves the narrowing of consciousness to a single theme, symbol, or doctrine, as well as thinking deeply about a particular religious subject.1 Some Distinctions Meditation as practiced in eastern traditions is distinct from the biblical notio
The discussion in the Adventist Church regarding worship styles continues to be a controversial subject. The prevailing opinion among some is that this is a subject that has nothing to do with the gospel and even less to do with theology. Many regard the relationship between worship styles and theology in the same way that they regard a gift that
Seventh-day Adventists, above all people, should share a concern for what is happening in the world today. Moreover, we believe we have a general insight into not only what will happen (though certainly not most specific events), but also why many things happen. Below I want to reflect on the significance of the biblical concept of the “cup of in
