Canon Fodder

Exploring the origins of the New Testament canon and other biblical and theological issues

My Tribute to Tim Keller

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By now, you have heard the sad news. Tim Keller has just passed away.

I still remember the first time I heard a Tim Keller sermon. It was the mid-90’s, and I happened to be in New York City. Having just graduated from seminary, I had heard all the buzz about this new pastor in Manhattan who had (incredibly) built a thriving, growing church in the midst of one of the world’s most liberal cities. Since it was a Sunday, I figured I would go have a listen.

The church was meeting in an auditorium (part of a local college, if I remember). The stage was very plain, with a number of musicians leading through some hymns and praise songs. Then Tim stood up to preach.

I learned a lot of things about Tim, and his ministry, in that single sermon. Here are five words that describe what I saw (and have seen ever since). These are five words that define his legacy—a legacy for which I am deeply grateful. [Read more…]

6 Ways Christian Students Can Prepare for College: #5 Doubting Your Faith Does Not Make You a Bad Christian

I am in the middle of a 6-part series helping Christian students think through how to prepare for life at a big university. This topic is particularly relevant, I hope, given the number of high school seniors who are in the middle of deciding where they will go to college in the fall.

This little series is based on a recent lecture I gave to the Regents School in Austin, Texas, where I laid out 6 principles designed to help rising college students think more clearly about what’s ahead. It’s also based on my book, Surviving Religion 101. You can read the prior installments here, here, here, and here.

We now come to a fifth thing that rising Christian college students need to know: “Doubting your faith does not make you a bad Christian.”

The great nineteenth century Baptist preacher, C.H. Spurgeon, once confessed: “On a sudden, the thought crossed my mind—which I abhorred but could not conquer—that there was no God, no Christ, no heaven, no hell, and that all my prayers were but a farce, and that I might as well have whistled to the winds or spoken to the howling waves.”

The above quote reminds us that nearly all Christians, even those who seem strong and confident, face periods of doubt about what they believe. Indeed, sometimes those doubts can swell up into a crisis of sorts. Even Spurgeon admitted his doubts were difficult to conquer.

So, how do we handle these doubts when they come? Or, how do we help others who admit they are struggling with what they believe?  Here are a number of things to consider. [Read more…]

When Were Christians First Regarded as Intolerant “Haters”?

In the midst of the high octane culture wars of the last ten years, Christians have been labelled all sorts of things: intolerant, bigoted, arrogant, narrow, dogmatic, just to name a few.

But, one noteworthy word stands out. Christians have been labelled haters.  Despite the fact that Christians are to be known by their love (John 13:35), it seems the world often associates us with hate.

A couple observations are worth noting about this phenomenon. First, this sort of accusation against Christians is, at its core, a moral objection. Rather than the standard historical or logical objections often leveled against the faith, this one is fundamentally about ethics. It is claiming that Christian behavior violates some moral standard that all should follow.

In other words, the claim isn’t merely that Christianity is false, but that Christianity is bad.

Of course, such an objection raises a number of intellectual challenges for the one making it. After all, one can’t accuse Christians of violating moral norms if there are no such things as moral norms! So the one making this claim must explain where moral absolutes come from, and how they know what they are.

Needless to say, that’s not an easy task for the average postmodern thinker who decries all absolutes, and is typically agnostic or atheistic when it comes to the existence of God. In order for the accusation to stick, such a person would have to actually become the very thing they are against, namely a person who is dogmatic about the truth of their own beliefs.

Perhaps there’s no greater irony than a person complaining about moral dogmatism by making claims that are morally dogmatic.

But there is a second observation to be made, namely that such accusations are far from new. It’s easy in the heat of the current cultural moment to think that our situation is unique. No Christians have ever faced what we face, we might think.

But, that’s simply not the case.  Christians in the early centuries faced precisely the same accusations, and often much worse. Let me offer just two examples: Pliny the Younger and Emperor Nero. [Read more…]

“Bully Pulpit” Wins Book of the Year

The Gospel Coalition released it’s annual Book of the Year Awards today, and I was so pleased to see that my new book, Bully Pulpit, won Book of the Year for the ministry category.

The reviewers wrote: “Michael Kruger’s Bully Pulpit confronts this widespread problem with the beauty and transforming power of the gospel . . . He succeeds in creating a work that will be a change agent in our time and should live well beyond it.”

[UPDATE: I recently learned that Bully Pulpit was also one of the winners for the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Book of the Year Awards, and a runner-up for the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Book of the Year Awards.]

[UPDATE: Bully Pulpit was included on Tim Challies’ “Best Books of 2022” List]

I am grateful for these kind and encouraging words. And I am also appreciative of other recent reviews of the book:

Tim Challies: “I appreciate his handling of a difficult subject, his precise defining of the term, and his care in distinguishing between behaviors that are abusive and behaviors that are not. I appreciate his analysis of why churches are prone to elevate leaders who exhibit abusive characteristics. I appreciate his kind but insistent calls to pastors and church leaders that they ensure they are measuring up to the biblical qualifications for those who would take leadership positions in churches and Christian organizations. Most of all, I appreciate that he took on the topic at all, for only by facing it and admitting it can we address it. It’s my hope and prayer that Bully Pulpit is widely read so it can purify, bless, and strengthen the pulpit and, hence, the church.”

Timothy Paul Jones: “Bully Pulpit provides a concise guide to the tactics that an abusive pastor may employ to evade accountability, as well as a compassionate presentation of the impact of spiritual abuse on victims . . . a deeply biblical vision for the proper function of authority among the people of God . . . an exceptional book that will serve churches well in years to come.”

Wendy Alsup: “In this saturated market, Bully Pulpit offers something unique. Kruger speaks on spiritual abuse as a denominational leader in a conservative context—he’s president and professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary’s campus in Charlotte, North Carolina . . . Kruger offers concrete help for men who want to be pastors and churches seeking a pastor in his chapter on ‘creating a culture that resists spiritual abuse’ (111). He confronts our affinity for a leader who exhibits gifts of the Spirit over one who exhibits fruits of the Spirit.”

Dan Doriani (via Facebook): “Highest commendation for biblical theological and pastoral excellence goes to Michael Kruger’s book, Bully Pulpit: Confronting the Problem of Spiritual Abuse in the Church. It’s short, clear, and features diagnosis, cure, and prevention. It also applies to abuse in other settings. Every church should have copies.”

I also appreciate a number of kind comments from Andrew Wilson, Tom Schreiner, Bob Kellemen, and Brad Hambrick.

Let me also say that I have really enjoyed doing podcasts on the book. I’ve already done quite a few, but I should mention two of the most enjoyable have been with Collin Hansen for his Gospelbound Podcast, and Warren Cole Smith for World Magazine.

If you want to learn more about the book, and why I wrote it, check out my overview article here!

The Deconversion of Saruman: Five Lessons to Learn

There’s been a lot of chatter the last couple years over “de-conversion” stories. Of course, there is the story of well-known pastor and author Joshua Harris, as well as the Youtube comedians Rhett and Link.

I’ve written on this phenomenon myself in a number of places, including my recent book, The 10 Commandments of Progressive Christianity, as well as my my article, “The Power of De-conversion Stories: How Jen Hatmaker is Trying to Change Minds about the Bible.”

So, what exactly is de-conversion? In short, it’s when a person who is deeply committed to the Christian faith ends up leaving the Christian faith and abandoning their prior beliefs. Sometimes this involves a wholesale rejection of Christianity (e.g., Bart Ehrman), but in other cases it involves embracing an altogether different version of the faith (e.g., Rob Bell). So, not all de-conversion scenarios are the same.

The key feature of de-conversion, however, is that the individual was once on the “inside” of the faith, and later ends up on the “outside.”

In theological parlance, this is called apostasy. And the Bible is filled with examples of apostasy, the most famous, of course, being Judas Iscariot. He was the consummate “insider” who abandoned Jesus and effectively left his old life behind.

We can also find examples of apostasy—symbolically and figuratively—in the world of literature and film. Most obvious is the story of Anakin Skywalker, once a Jedi but later wooed to the dark side of the force, becoming Darth Vader. But there are many others (think Cypher in The Matrix).

But, perhaps one of the most remarkable (and often overlooked) examples of apostasy is Saruman in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. In many ways, Saruman has always been an odd part of the plot line. With a bad guy like Sauron to occupy the reader’s attention, why does the story even need a character like Saruman? Besides, as my kids always complain, his name actually sounds a lot like Sauron’s which makes everything very confusing.

My hunch, though, is that the name similarity is intentional. Tolkien’s world is more nuanced than just the good guys and the bad guys. Instead, there are actually good guys that become bad guys—which makes things very complicated. It’s a perfect picture of de-conversion.

As such, we can learn a lot about the way de-conversions work through stories like Saruman’s. So, here are a few quick observations: [Read more…]

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About

I am President and Samuel C. Patterson Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, NC, and husband to Melissa Kruger, Director of Women’s Content at The Gospel Coalition.

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