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(1) I was born and raised in the first Pentecostal church in Canada. I was born with congenital glaucoma in my right eye. My distraught parents were impressed by a famous faith healer named William Branham, who held healing crusades around North America. What set him apart was his clairvoyance...

Please either address these 5 questions from personal observation and experience or at least offer reasons for your perspective. (1) How can we pursue the requisite faith for divine healing? (2) How can we know what it feels like to have authentic faith for divine healing? When we think we...

(1) Many Christians just assume that when they first professed their faith in Christ they automatically received the Holy Spirit and they stare at you blankly if you ask them, "How do you know you EXPERIENCED regeneration from the Spirit? Well, the Holy Spirit doesn't jump just because we crack...

Evangelical apologists tend to play to the choir by debating strawman positions that better informed opponents would view with amused pity. Therefore, apologists should seek out and focus on the best arguments for opposing perspectives to avoid the accusation of a superficial grasp of the...

Do people in your church argue about whether lifting your hands in worship is too demonstrative or too Charismatic? "I desire that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands WITHOUT ARGUMENT (1 Timothy 2:8)." Do you lift up your hands when you pray just as Paul wants you to do...

NT scholars recognize the need to distinguish the Evangelists' purposes in editing and rewording their Gospel sources from the purpose of the original events or sayings of Jesus. You are invited to engage the interpretations offered below for several Matthean alterations and edits of Mark. (1)...

Ain't Zwinglian: "I'll call your bluff. Inconsistencies....Maybe you could come up with a list of 15-20 rock solid inconsistencies of the Resurrection narratives which we here at CF have "no hope of resolving" and at the same time "exposing our inability to resolve them. I can't wait for your...

4 COMMON PROGRESSIVE MISTAKES IN INTERPRETING THE GREAT COMMISSION: (1) They often treat it as a call to serve the needy rather than as a call to proselytize and convert others. It is a call to "make disciples" of Jesus--disciples who embrace His mission and teaching. (2) They often duck its...

A great spiritual awakening is erupting just now at a Kentucky University among college students, an awakening that is attracting pilgrim visitors from across the USA: Christian university in Kentucky draws pilgrims nationwide amid spiritual revival: 'Gives me so much hope'

I am an evangelical Methodist who grew up Pentecostal. But for 12 years I was a Theology Professor at a Catholic university. Readers who have followed my critical posts in the Perpetual Virginity thread may be surprised by my positive perspective on Catholic spirituality. I have even won a...

George Whitefield, John Wesley led the great Methodist awakening in England that soon spread to America. Whitefield later became critical of Wesley, and so, the founder of Methodism was once asked whether he expected to see George Whitefield in Heaven. Wesley replied, "Oh no" and then paused...

Growing up in a large Pentecostal church, I soon came to the reluctant conclusion that most speaking in tongues is of the flesh. So a future post will explain what to do and not do, when one actually begins to pray for the gift of tongues. But my OP focuses on preliminary prayer disciplines...

Evangelical apologists tend to play to the choir by debating strawman positions that better informed opponents would view with amused pity. Therefore, apologists should seek out and focus on the best arguments for opposing perspectives to avoid the accusation of a superficial grasp of the...

(1) In Luke-Acts, Luke never thinks in terms of an initial regenerating work of the Holy Spirit followed by Spirit baptism. This difference from Paul's pneumatology makes Paul's question to the Ephesian disciples particularly significant: "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you first believed...

I'm back after an absence of several years. I grew up in a large Pentecostal church in Canada for my first 21 years. Then after my undergraduate degree, I got my MDiv from Princeton and my doctorate at Harvard in New Testament and Judaism. I was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard in New Testament...

I just joined the site and have not seen a forum on Christianity and the Paranormal. Such a forum could elicit posts on topics like near-death experiences, Out-of-Body experiences, visions, poltergeists, ESP, clairvoyance, clairauidence, supernatural healing, possession, past life recall, and...