Every Thought Captive

The elders at my church have kindly allowed me to occasionally teach on Sunday evenings on the topic of thinking biblically about current topics in our culture. The series title is from 2 Corinthians 10:4-5: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…”

Immigration(audio) (ppt) (evernote) – Examines immigration in the Bible and questions the extent to which American immigration policy coincides with Christianity. Presented Feb 18, 2018.

Race and Racism, Part 1(audio) (ppt) (evernote) – Examines “race” and whether it has any biblical basis and what this implies for defeating racism. Presented Mar 18, 2018.

Race and Racism, Part 2(audio) (ppt) (evernote) – Demonstrates the influence of critical race theory in popular culture and modern evangelicalism and how this conflicts with an authentically Christian approach to defeating racism. Note: Someone pointed out that my comments on the Three-Fifths Compromise were not entirely accurate. I’ll investigate this more for the next iteration of this talk. Presented Mar 25, 2018.

Environmentalism – Get text and audio here. Delivered as a topical sermon on Feb 24, 2019. Themes include: 1) How Paul used common ground with unbelievers to present the gospel, 2) How Christians have common ground with humanists via environmentalism, 3) Implications of humanistic environmentalism: doomsday forecasts, anti-natalism, animals and humans being equally valuable, 4) How Christianity, not humanism, provides the moral foundation for environmentalism.

Why Christians Lost the Culture War – (audio) (ppt) – Discusses the idea of a “culture war”, whether Christians are in a culture war, whether Christians should engage in a culture war, and why Christians lost the culture war (by some standards).

A Christian View of Government, Part 1 – (audio) (ppt) – What is the purpose of government? When is civil disobedience allowed? May Christians overthrow an evil government? What is the ideal form of government?