Faith: August 2023 Archives
Eternity 1950-1989 : Free Texts : Free Download, Borrow and Streaming : Internet Archive
The Internet Archive has borrowable grayscale scans of the full 1950-1989 run of Eternity, a monthly Christian magazine founded by Donald Barnhouse, pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Christian philosopher Douglas Groothuis writes: "I am taken by the earnestness of the topics addressed and the quality of the writers, such as John Stott, Bernard Ramm, Billy Graham, G. Elton Ladd, and others. It was a magazine of serious evangelical commentary. I found articles on the God is dead theory, race relations, various political issues, LSD, youth culture, television (note the cover I posted from 1976), and other issues of moment.... I wrote a few articles for them [in the mid '80s], one rather long piece on New Age politics. By combing through these old issues, I see that Eternity gave us solid evangelical commentary and Bible study back in the day and for many years. For this, I am grateful and look forward to working my way through the years of their magazine." Because the magazines are still under copyright, you must have an Internet Archive account to check out a copy for viewing one hour at a time. The final issue dated January 1989 has cover stories by Brian Frickle regarding the moral content of architecture and by Thomas L. Kerns on architecture and creating a place of worship.
How Big is the United Methodist Split So Far? - Juicy Ecumenism
"In reviewing the official list of the 100 top-largest American United Methodist congregations in 2020, based on membership, I note that 26 have left since then. [Four of the top 100 are in Tulsa: Boston Avenue, 7,641; Asbury, 6,926; First Methodist, 5,824; and Christ Church, 5,086.]
"In 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic, Len Wilson produced a list of the 25 fastest-growing large congregations in American United Methodism, measured by worship attendance. Since then, 11 of these 25 have successfully disaffiliated from the UMC.
"So while some 21 percent of American United Methodist congregations have disaffiliated, 26 percent of the largest-membership congregations and 44 percent of the fastest-growing large congregations have disaffiliated."
Ten Reasons Why I Believe the Bible Is the Word of God by R. A. Torrey | Tony Cooke Ministries
"I found myself face to face with the question, Why do you believe the Bible is the Word of God? I had no satisfactory answer. I determined to go to the bottom of this question. If satisfactory proof could not be found that the Bible was God's Word I would give the whole thing up, cost what it might. If satisfactory proof could be found that the Bible was God's Word I would take my stand upon it, cost what it might. I doubtless had many friends who could have answered the question satisfactorily, but I was unwilling to confide to them the struggle that was going on in my own heart; so I sought help from God and from books, and after much painful study and thought came out of the darkness of scepticism into the broad daylight of faith and certainty that the Bible from beginning to end is God's Word. The following pages are largely the outcome of that experience of conflict and final victory. I will give Ten Reasons why I believe the Bible is the Word of God."
MORE: Charles Leach, Our Bible: How We Got It, published in 1898.
