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Showing posts from July, 2023

A modern disciple's doubts

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  The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them.   17  When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted. (Matthew 28:16-17) I try to be faithful to the Scriptures when I write or preach. I aim to draw out the lessons I can and apply them to today’s daily walk of faith without saying more than the biblical witness. I want to get everything I can from the diligent study of the Bible and share that with others without putting words in God’s mouth. I can’t help but wonder, though; I don’t recall that I’ve heard anyone focus—I mean really focus—on that doubt. That’s what I hope to do in this essay, and I hope what follows does not stretch the biblical sense far beyond what Matthew ever intended. “But some doubted.” The disciples were moved to worship in the presence of the risen Christ. Yet, even in this profound moment, some still wrestled with doubt.  We hear it said that “seeing is believing.” Yet even as the disciples saw Jesus on th
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Some Thoughts on Empowering Emerging Leaders in Church Revitalization

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By Bart L. Denny, Ph.D., Th.M. You may have read that church revitalization pastors must focus on developing and empowering next-generation leaders if their churches are to see successful revitalization. My doctoral dissertation research bore that out—not that I was at all surprised. I had already heard successful church revitalization pastors talk about it. But more than that, long before I became a “doctor,” years of experience in the military and ministry had already proven to me the necessity of developing leaders. I write here specifically to church revitalization pastors. However, given that, to the best of my knowledge, all good leadership is biblical—regardless of who is doing it—this advice could fit most leadership contexts. The best leadership development advice ever: “Train your replacement.” In the Navy—at least in the units where I most enjoyed serving—the motto was “train your replacement.” It made sense. If something happened to you in a battle (or even an accident, giv
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Should Christians Oppose the Death Penalty? Restoring the Divine Nature of Retribution

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 by   Bart L. Denny May 6, 2013 (revised July 25, 2023)   Introduction This paper critically evaluates the ethical reasons for eliminating capital punishment, demonstrating that Christian ethics should reject it. However, such rejection should not be because it involves the state taking human life.  Indeed, the church has long affirmed the state’s right to exercise the death penalty, citing numerous biblical examples not only allowing capital punishment but rather demanding it.  In short, on its face, the basic concept of capital punishment is imminently biblical. However, currently and historically, the death penalty is not ethically administered by any state. This reality seems unlikely to change in any present system of secular rule or, as history shows, in any theocracy. Christian opponents of capital punishment are inclined to relegate the practice to the Old Testament, with no place alongside Christ’s teachings of mercy and forgiveness.  However, the most popular argument
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Is Speaking in Tongues for Today?

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 I wrote This research paper several years ago (sometime in 2012) for a class. Edits are minor, and where my views have changed or evolved, I speak of that in brackets. The topic is one of controversy in evangelicalism. For me, in the years since I first wrote this, the issue has become less about whether speaking in tongues exists today but rather whether what passes for tongues-speaking is, in fact, the speaking in tongues we encounter in the Bible. I don’t wish to break fellowship with people who disagree with me on this particular issue but are passionate about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (as I am) and hold the Bible as God’s inspired Word (as I do). I believe that biblical tongues-speaking still exists and is rare. Moreover, most of what passes for tongues-speaking in churches today is not the phenomenon we see in the New Testament. Is Speaking in Tongues for Today? by Bart L. Denny, 2012 (updated in 2023) Introduction Does tongues-speaking continue today?  This paper will
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