Articles
Articles from Sola 5 Pastors
Bible Texts Prosperity Preachers Wish Did Not Exist
Every so often, when engaged in discussion on the subject of the prosperity gospel, I hear voices sympathetic to this doctrinal poison say, “But surely God does not want us to be poor, does he?” This is viewed as a trump card, as if there is no middle ground between...
Sincerely Amused
It’s a supreme irony, or perhaps a sad blindness, that the present generation is supposedly in love with “authenticity,” “sincerity,” and “keeping it real.” After all, we’ve been doing everything but that for nearly a century. As Neil Postman pointed out in Amusing...
Holy Hatred: One Who Sows Discord Among Brothers
In our ongoing consideration of the seven things that God hates, we have considered “haughty eyes,” “a lying tongue,” “hands that shed innocent blood,” “a heart that devises wicked plans,” “feet that make haste to run to evil” and “a false witness who breathes out...
The Need for Nerds
The title of this article might lead you to think that I am about to provide some autobiographical insights. In a sense, I hope that is true. If I am correct that the world needs a certain kind of nerd, then I want to be one. And I want you to be one. At the risk of...
Holy Hatred: A False Witness Who Breathes Out Lies
The British poet John Dryden once wrote, “Truth is the foundation of all knowledge and the cement of all societies.” The God of the Bible is a God of truth, and in the list of seven things that he hates, we have already considered “a lying tongue.” But Solomon also...
Holy Hatred: Feet that Make Haste to Run to Evil
Four pastors were sitting down to lunch. Having just read James 5, in which James urges his readers to confess their sins to one another (v. 16), one suggested that they practice what they had read. They all agreed, and so the first pastor said, “I have been a little...
Holy Hatred: A Heart that Devises Wicked Plans
Have you ever watched a film or read a book—perhaps a horror, a crime thriller, or even an action title involving some elaborate criminal scheme—and thought, who comes up with this stuff? Have you ever read or heard of some act of real-life wickedness and wondered,...
What is a Pastor?
In my last two blog articles, I asked the question, “Where have all the pastors gone?” I have asked this question from a Namibian context and perspective. Moral failure, personal discouragement, financial problems and the like contribute to a number of pastors leaving...
Holy Hatred: Hands that Shed Innocent Blood
The story is told of a three-year-old girl with a pet tortoise. One day, the tortoise would not emerge from its shell, so the concerned little girl took the reptile to her mother. When her mother could not coax the animal out, she concluded that it must have died....