N.T. Wright (So Far) For Everyone

I recently had a conversation with N.T. Wright, which you can listen to here.

It lasted roughly one hour. The book is The New Testament in Its World. The authors are N.T. Wright and Michael F Bird. N.T. Wright probably needs no … Read More

Contagious Holiness: The Jesus Model For Engagement In The Marketplace

I only read Dr. Craig Blomberg’s book Contagious Holiness in the past year, but it has been shaping my thinking for well over a decade. That’s because I first saw the title when the book was published almost 15 years ago.

You … Read More

Faith-Based Investing, A Comprehensive Overview

Below, please find a lightly edited transcript of the presentation above.

Hi, this is Jerry Bowyer and we’re talking today about the question, “What is faith based investing?” This is an overview of the topic of faith based investing. … Read More

The Threat That Got Pilate To Kill Jesus

Second of a three-part series. Read the first part here.

Let’s look at the crucifixion, through these eyes. The Gospels clearly teach that Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea who presided over the trial of Jesus, made several attempts to … Read More

Is It Wrong To Talk About The Financial Causes Of The Crucifixion?

First of a three-part series.

Why was Christ crucified? The Christian conversation about that has tended to default to the theological intent of the atonement. In other words, Christ was crucified to save us from our sins, to take our … Read More

Paul On Meat Sacrificed To Demons vs. Mandatory Market Disengagement

There is no controversy in the New Testament which I think better illustrates our broad freedom in Christ when we go into the marketplace than the controversy over meat sacrificed to idols. I daresay that the Christian mindset is such … Read More

Video: Jesus, Lazarus, and Plague

Below is an unedited verbatim transcript of the Sermon.

Even Jesus couldn’t seem to stop a friend from dying from an infectious disease. I mean, that’s the trade-off here. Jesus had work to do from the father and he had that … Read More

Did Paul Say To Boycott Sinful Businesses Or Engage With Them?

I have argued most recently in this series that not only did Jesus freely associate with sinners and receive material support from the regardless of sinful origins of the wealth, but His immediate disciples and the 70 did as well, … Read More

Did Jesus’ Disciples Boycott Sinful Businesses Or Engage With Them?

In this series so far, we have seen that the clearly-discernible pattern in Jesus’ social dealings, including those which offer material gain, is to move freely among sinners, to engage with them in socially intimate settings and manners, to … Read More

Jesus’ Concept Of Holiness vs. Boycott/Shunning Concept

As we’ve seen heretofore in this series (here, here, and here), The Pharisees and the scribes which they employed attacked Jesus repeatedly for violating their understanding of unholiness via social engagement with sinners. They saw someone who benefited economically from a person … Read More

Jesus And Zacchaeus’ Ill-Gotten Gains

In our ongoing series about Jesus’ model for economic engagement during His earthly ministry, we look next at the encounter with Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector. Here’s Luke’s description:

And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; and … Read More

Death Peaked at Good Friday, so Apparently Did the Covid-19 Death Rate

The most influential modeling system puts peak death rate at yesterday. Here’s a link to the CNN story (I’ll put the quote at the bottom of this write-up): https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-04-10-20/h_1f905ee7677f8024ad1670db650ad595

https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america

If this data is right, death peaked on Good Friday. … Read More

Jesus vs. Boycotts, The Prostitute And The Perfume

In the first article of this series we looked at the episode in Luke’s Gospel in which Jesus dined with tax collectors. We saw that Jesus seemed to have no compunction at all about having social dealings with this outcast group, … Read More

Did Jesus Boycott Sinful Businesses Or Engage With Them?

Decades ago, liberal activists began to employ boycotts to counter corporate policies with which they disagreed. More recently, conservative Christians have imitated that approach calling for consumer boycotts, for example of Disney, because of practices like holding or sponsoring gay … Read More

Conspiracy Theories, Sloppy Math, And Other Things To Avoid During A Pandemic

Seems like we need to tune down the emotional heat, overconfidence, ideological thinking, magical thinking, conspiracy theories, and dodgy math.

I’m seeing a lot more f-bombs and ‘raca’ talk, calling people idiots and other names, etc. Every interaction is a … Read More

Premature Ending Of Quarantine = Death Panels

I sense that part of the conservative conversation has shifted towards ‘hey we can’t shut down the economy over this’. A WSJ editorial seemed to call for restarting things after 14 days.

What does that call imply? We learn … Read More

9 Things Christians Investors Need To Know About Handling The Dilemma Of Investing In A World Of Sin

Last time we talked about how to distinguish between different types of faith-based investing, and the importance of getting a good return and doing it with integrity. Most folks do their investing in publicly traded markets, not in the exclusive … Read More

5 Things Christian Financial Advisors & Their Clients Should Know About Faith-Based Investing

If Jesus is really Lord of all, then he is Lord of finance. However, all too often Christians who work in finance fail to think deeply about how to apply their faith to their financial services and the clients can … Read More

How The Left Took Over Corporations, And What We Can Do To Stop Them

With contributions by Charles Bowyer.

We recently sat down for an interview with Justin Danhof, director of the Free Enterprise Project at the National Center for Public Policy Research. Danhof is a leading voice counter-balancing ideological activists in the … Read More

Is There A Spiritual Element To China’s Pig Plague?

If you are not religious, the rest of this article is going to seem very weird to you. Let him who has ears hear.

China has been engaged in escalating persecution of religious minorities, Christians and Muslims. I wrote an … Read More

A Friendly Debate With A Leading Longevity Scientist About Keto

There’s an old Latin saying, ‘nomen est omen’, roughly paraphrased as ‘your name is a sign of your destiny’. I don’t know from omens, but after I read the recent book by Dr. Valter Longo about diet and longevity, I … Read More

Extremely Well Documented Novels Describe The Final Days Of Ancient Jerusalem

Brian Godawa is a screenwriter (who has written, among other films, the powerfully moving To End All Wars), non-fiction author, movie critic, and novelist. I write today about his novels, particularly the fascinating quadriology about the fall of Jerusalem and the rise … Read More

A Biblical Approach To Engaging With Corporations

In his annual letter to corporations in 2018, Larry Fink, CEO of the world’s largest asset management company Blackrock, wrote: “Unnerved by fundamental economic changes and the failure of government to provide lasting solutions, society is increasingly looking to … Read More

Biblical Economics & Finance: The Bible On Money & Saving

This article provides a biblically rooted view of wealth creation and investing.  It originates from a document written for Ronald Blue & Co. (now Ronald Blue Trust) in helping create their Principles-Based Investing philosophy.  The original document’s primary contributors … Read More