Administrative Note

I've decided to import my old Things Above Us posts onto here for archival. The posts might have some technical issues here and there. This is not my return to active blogging.

Online Christian Discourse in Fall 2021

What we — whether in the secular culture or the church culture — consider to be profanity is a matter of culture. When we speak and write, we do so not only with our own hearts in mind but also the ears of those with whom we communicate.

Talking Back to Purity Culture by Rachel Joy Welcher (book review), part 1

This post contains adult subject matter. Here in 2021, it appears that the concept of "purity culture" has imploded upon itself. Joshua Harris was sort of a punchline even before he announced his apostasy. Every Man's Battle series author Stephen Arterburn is on his third marriage. He divorced his second wife after meeting his third …

Jesus is Alive!: A Children’s Learning Activity for Acts 2

I am quite thankful to be back to teaching children's Sunday school for second graders at my church. This year, we're teaching from the book of Acts, and I recently taught the story of Pentecost out of Acts 2. One resource that was made available to us teachers at my church suggested teaching children how …

On Accusations Against Voddie Baucham and Fault Lines, part 2

In part one concerning accusations against Voddie Baucham and his book Fault Lines, I argued: Baucham’s misquotation and misrepresentation of Delgado and Stefancic is a serious error, not a minor formatting mishap. The controversy online appears to have died down, and while the lack of present controversy may generally be a good thing, the reason appears to …

Do You Feel Called by God? by Michael Bennett (book review)

Less than two months into my time on campus at Dallas Seminary, these words of unapologetic careerism came to us from a guest speaker at chapel: If you're in your fourth year — first, second, third-year students listen up — if you're in your fourth year, and you don't have a job offer yet, you've …

On Accusations Against Voddie Baucham and Fault Lines, part 1

On July 30th, Joel McDurmon posted a blog article titled "Voddie's Fault Lines Worse Than Before: Fake Quotations AND Plagiarism." McDurmon previously posted a series of videos critiquing Voddie Baucham's book, Fault Lines, that had not captured my attention despite my having written a review. However, this particular article appeared far more serious in its magnitude. I've …

Mama Bear Apologetics (book review)

I became aware of Mama Bear Apologetics by means of the Wokeness and the Gospel conference last month. The book somehow became in high demand at the bookseller table and sold out. Luckily enough, the parents of one of the authors were attending the conference, so they went home and grabbed a box of more copies. …

Ethnos is not Ethnicity

I've been hearing an argument from our own side of the critical race theory (CRT) fault line as of late. The argument basically goes, "Use biblical terminology. The biblical term is 'ethnicity' (ethnos in Greek), not race. Race doesn't exist." I see a couple of problems with this line of argumentation. First, CRT advocates are …

Everything Wokeness and Gospel (But Not the Conference)

We had a total of three current and former Things Above Us authors at the Wokeness and the Gospel conference this past weekend. It was truly a joy meeting new people, catching up with old friends, and digging into some solid teaching! I plan to have more later concerning the conference itself. For now, please be in …