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Issue 030 <previous< Issue 031 December
2000 Volume 6 Number 6 >next>
Issue 32 |
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How Far Is It To
Bethlehem? By Joe E. Trull This question is the title and first line of a Christmas poem written for children by Frances Chesterton, wife of the English poet G. K. Chesterton. For her young audience she then replies, "Not very far." If you live in Jerusalem the tiny village isn't
very far—only about five miles down a winding road south of the city. To this
day Bethlehem remains a small town, a tourist center.| Letters From Our Readers The Most Influential Christian Ethics Book I Have Read A Symposium
Note: Readers are invited to submit their own
paragraph statement of "The Most Influential Christian Ethics Book I Have
Read." Let us hear from you. By Hal Haralson My father was a “horse trader.” That means he made his living buying and selling cows, sheep, horses and other “live stock” (generic West-Texas term for domestic animals). Since he felt strongly about spending time
with his children, my brother Dale (2 years younger) and I were taken in
the pickup as he bought animals, and to the stock sale in Colorado City
... The Problem of Ethics Editor’s Note: A
decade ago Chuck Colson wrote in an article that it might be impossible to teach
ethics in Harvard’s Business School because Harvard had abandoned a belief
system based on a foundational understanding of right and wrong. Soon after the
school invited Colson to expand his views as part of their Distinguished
Lecturer series. On April 4, 1991, in a lecture hall filled to capacity, Colson
delivered the speech printed here, a compelling case that to do what is right,
people need not only the intellect, but also the will---which can be transformed
only through Jesus Christ. Colson also argued that a society without a
foundation of moral absolutes cannot long survive. by Darold H. Morgan
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A Time for Gathering and a
Time for Scattering My text today comes from Matthew 12:30:
“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me
scatters.” Unlike most would-be, wannabe, failed preachers-since I am one of
those folks whom nobody’s ever been willing to lay hands on-I have only two
points rather than three. And they are gathered under my general theme “A Time
for Gathering and a Time for Scattering.” The first is that Jesus’
declaration about those who are for and against him has to do with the
all-important Baptist doctrine of God’s own sovereign decision to choose and
elect us as his people. The second is that Jesus’ prophecy about gathering and
scattering has to do a phenomenon happening in our own time: Christianity and
Cultures: Exactly fifty years ago, in 1949, H. Richard Niebuhr delivered the lectures at Austin Seminary that became the book, Christ and Culture. I have long been an admirer of Niebuhr and, even though our theologies are rather different, throughout my career I have been influenced by his work, especially by Christ and Culture. I have often used his typology as a tool in teaching. Also, throughout my adult life, the question it poses--of how Christians should relate to their surrounding culture--has been a central one to me, both intellectually and spiritually. Despite its enormous influence in the past fifty
years, I think Niebuhr’s analysis in its present form could be near the end of
its ... Christmas: Magic and
Miracle
Like a treasured gold coin, Christmas has two
sides.
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