KIRKSVILLE – When asked if his ministry at Truman State has always focused on reaching international students, Campus Missionary Greg Xander laughs. “Not intentionally,” he says. When he took over as BSU Director 11 years ago, reaching international students was not on his radar. “I grew up in Edina,” he says. “Population: all white.” Neither he nor his wife, Stacey, had overseas experience, nor had they known any international students when they attended Truman Gene Austin, now the … [Read more...]
Reaching the hard-to-reach in the Amazon rainforest
Week of Prayer for International Missions: Day 4 The small group of men boards a single-engine Cessna. After a little more than a two-hour flight, they land on a small airstrip deep in the Amazon rainforest. From there they board a boat and settle in for the ride. Their destination, an isolated village of a tribe called the Akawa*, is still more than seven hours away. If this conjures memories of Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn battling mosquitoes and heat in the 1951 film “The … [Read more...]
Luther’s 500-year-old ‘On Christian Liberty’ lays foundation for modern religious freedom
WITTENBERG, Germany – In 1505, the young man Martin Luther, cowering before a thunderbolt, vowed to become a monk and a devout servant of the Catholic church under the headship of the Roman pontiff. Fifteen years later, in the summer of 1520, Pope Leo X launched his own thunderbolt at Luther in the form of an edict that denounced Luther as a “wild boar” destroying God’s “vineyard,” the Catholic church. The pope warned Luther to recant his errors within 60 days, lest he be condemned as a … [Read more...]
The doctrine of the Incarnation
This is the first in a series of articles on the Incarnation. Lorenzo Snow, fifth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, once claimed the Spirit of God fell upon him and revealed a principle that has become an apt summary of Mormonism: “As man now is, God once was; As God now is, man may be.” In other words, the God of this world once was a mere human who attained deity, showing us the path to our own godhood. This principle of “eternal progression” is a stunningly … [Read more...]
How false religions undermine Scripture
Evangelicals may disagree about many things, but we stand together on the non-negotiables that define the Christian faith: The Trinity, justification by faith, and the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, to name a few. Many false belief systems, from Mormonism to Islam, profess a high regard for the Word of God. But, in fact, they deny its inspiration, inerrancy, or preservation and thus reject the Bible as supremely authoritative. Specifically, false religions employ four … [Read more...]
Three personal questions about God
This is the last in a series of articles contrasting Allah and Yahweh. Muslims and Christians agree that there is one God but understand Him differently. While it is politically correct to say Christians and Muslims worship the same God, no Muslim or Christian who truly understands his faith would agree with that statement. In fact, we can see that Christians and Muslims worship distinctly different Gods by asking three personal questions: (1) Does God know me? (2) Does God love me? (3) … [Read more...]
The Islamic inquisition
Christians and Muslims agree that God is one. Christians believe in a triune God: one being in three persons. But Islam’s understanding of Allah as a monad – monolithic and non-relational – creates two significant challenges to a consistent doctrine of God in Islamic theology. First, how do Muslims reconcile their belief that Allah is eternal and self-existent with their belief that the Qur’an also is eternal? It seems either that the Qur’an came into being, or there are two eternally … [Read more...]
Understanding the Trinity
This is the third in a series of articles contrasting Allah and Yahweh. The doctrine of the Trinity sets Christians and Muslims apart. In fact, to suggest to a follower of Allah that God has a Son, or that God exists in tri-unity, is to commit the unpardonable sin of shirk, which damns a soul to hell. Islam is unwavering in its belief in Allah as a singular being – monolithic, distant, and unknowable. He only relates to people in acts of the will, not out of an eternal nature that is … [Read more...]
Scientology set to launch TV Network
NASHVILLE (BP) -- The Church of Scientology announced Sunday (March 11) they're launching the Scientology Network, which will debut today on several streaming services. "HELLO WORLD, and greetings from Scientology Media Productions in Hollywood, Calif., read a tweet from @ScientologyTV. "It's TIME for us to tell OUR story …" The religion begun by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard has been the focus of investigative projects such as the documentary film "Going Clear: Scientology … [Read more...]
The oneness of God
This is the second in a series of articles contrasting Allah and Yahweh: Muslims and Christians agree that God is one but understand oneness differently. The Islamic doctrine of tawhid, or absolute oneness, is more than strict monotheism. Tawhid celebrates Allah as singular, indivisible, and monolithic. Muslims insist that Allah has no “partners.” To say that Jesus is the Son of God, or that God exists as a Trinity, is to commit the unpardonable sin of shirk. But the Qur’an does not … [Read more...]
Tawhid and the Trinity
This is the first in a series of articles contrasting Allah and Yahweh. Muslims and Christians agree there is one God but disagree as to His name, nature, and attributes. The god of Islam is Allah, meaning “the god” in Arabic. In the days of Islam’s founder, Muhammad, this meant that of all the tribal gods worshiped on the Arabian Peninsula, Allah was the only true deity. Key to the Islamic concept of God is the doctrine of tawhid, or absolute oneness. It’s more than strict monotheism. … [Read more...]
New US citizen says immigrants hungry for gospel
COLUMBIA – Regardless of the politics or legal arguments surrounding immigration, one thing is clear: they need Jesus. One of the United States’ newest citizens knows that first hand. Omar Segovia, the Missouri Baptist Convention’s ethnic church planting catalyst, was born in Chile, but immigrated with his family to Canada when he was six. He grew up there as a Canadian, but more importantly, he grew up around people who cared about his family and shared the gospel with them. They … [Read more...]
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