Gary Shogren's Blog
It is no simple thing to preach the Word of God. Powerful dark forces are arrayed to draw us away from our task. They sometimes succeed in doing so, even without our awareness of it. I bring this up because this week I saw several FB references to “what [famous North American preacher] Rob Bell... Continue Reading →
II. COUNSELORS AND THE LANGUAGE OF HEALING We will now turn our attention to the second question: how do our contemporary counselors use healing nomenclature? The answer is not a simple one, but a survey of two influential “disease” models may help us to find the roots of the therapeutic culture. We begin with the... Continue Reading →
I’m in touch with a lot of people, mostly around North and Latin America. Here’s what I learned from FaceBook and other media this week. It was an eye-opener to read postings from various friends, and to see what we write about. Please, no intended criticism intended for anyone, since my FB postings too are sometimes... Continue Reading →
This article was originally published as “Recovering God in the Age of Therapy” by Gary Steven Shogren, in Journal of Biblical Counseling 12, No. 1 (Fall 1993): 14-19. Note: I wrote this as a lecture in 1992, to comment upon Christian literature of the 80s-90s. I have not attempted to update the examples, since they... Continue Reading →
Addendum from August 2020. In recent weeks (July, August 2020) some churches have decided to disobey the government's ban on large gatherings. In a fraction of these cases, their leaders assert that they are casting off government oppression. One California megachurch has reopened, without mandatory social distancing or face-masks and with congregational singing. They have... Continue Reading →
Have you been told that the "sin" literally means "missing the mark" in the original Greek? In fact, it does not. The verb "hamartano" (αμαρτανω) was sometimes used in pre-Classical and Classical Greek to refer to missing a target. Homer uses it in the Iliad to speak of a man who failed to hit his... Continue Reading →
A friend from Costa Rica writes in: I seem to be everywhere running into people who are debating different aspects of spiritual warfare. I have a friend whom I respect very much; nevertheless he sees Satan even in different foods or in commercial products. It's as if there is a spirit everywhere. If anybody doubts,... Continue Reading →
Kyle Anderson from Logos software just published a fine article on how to use Bible dictionaries. He warns against simply reaching for a commentary when we are studying the Bible. I heartily applaud this basic sentiment. As Christians, we are supposed to be enjoying the Bible, not reading the tale of how some other person... Continue Reading →
Link - How to calculate when Jesus will come - without even being a prophet! My wish is simple, and it would make me so very happy. I'm going to campaign for it until the proper authorities take notice and step in. (1) I want us to identify all preachers who have mistakenly announced that it... Continue Reading →
Don't believe everything you read. When it comes to spams, the rule of thumb is, reject it unless you have credible proof (a second spam is not credible proof). To put in another way, an e-mail that has obviously been circulating for a while with the header THIS IS REALLY COOL is probably not the... Continue Reading →
Open Our Eyes, Lord! 