Is anger a sin? The standard Christian answer is that there are two types of anger: “good” anger, which is used for positive purposes, and “bad” anger, which is sinful. But in his latest Nehemiah Notes article, Blaine Smith argues that this isn’t necessarily a Biblical way to understand anger:

Scripture, though, never makes this distinction, which ignores the nature of human motivation. Pride and hurt feelings can run as deeply in righteous indignation as in any other type of anger. Anger is the same emotion, whether evoked by a righteous concern or a dishonorable one. I frankly wish we would throw the term righteous indignation out of our Christian vocabulary; far too much self-righteousness is encouraged by it.

So what does the Bible say about anger—is it a sin or not? Read the full article to learn Smith’s perspective.

Over a year ago, Village Schools of the Bible Principal Max Frazier, started blogging his musings on the Gospel of John. He completed a similar project on Revelation a year ago. Here’s the table of contents for the project.

This excerpt is from his June 22-28 entry focusing on the Economy. It’s good food for thought no matter what the economic climate may be:

Is there any good news on the horizon? Absolutely…Jesus is coming! Yet I realize that all of us are affected by a declining economy. Giving in many churches is dramatically lower than in past years. Many of you in business are feeling the ramifications of higher energy prices and a lowered consumer confidence. Those of you who are in nonprofit organizations or in missions already know that support raising has become more difficult. I know in our ministry - Village Schools of the Bible - we are seeing some decline in overall giving. If all we looked at were dollars and cents, then we would all be fearful, not only for the future, but also for the present. Yet our future and our present is not predicated upon what the oil-futures market does, or what the hedge-funds say about corn and soybeans, or what the value of the dollar is against …well, you name the currency of your choice. Our hope and our future is based upon this absolute reality…Jesus is coming! And so we cling dearly to that truth. It is our lifeline in the midst of a world of change…at times chaotic change.

Read the rest.

How should Christians approach the question of Creation and evolution? It’s a controversy that’s been going strong for many years, and the recent flurry of books by prominent atheist thinkers has once again put the spotlight on Christianity’s relationship to science. Is it possible for Christian to embrace evolution and related theories, or does our faith compel us to reject them?

There are (at least) two ministries in the Gospel.com community that tackle this question. Interesting (and perhaps frustratingly, if you were hoping for any easy answer to the “evolution question”) they come to different conclusions. It’s well worth reading through what both have to say as you ponder the question:

• Answers in Genesis is a major creationist ministry that has published many articles about the importance of believing in a literal creation story. There are dozens of essays there you could read, but you might start with What should a Christian think about evolution?, which lays out the case for rejecting evolution.
• On the other side of the fence is Scibel, which believes (as Answers in Genesis does) that science and Christianity are not incompatible, although Scibel comes to different conclusions. They’re dedicated to challenging myths about the faith/science relationship. They argue that it’s a myth that Christians can’t believe in evolution and have other essays on topics like the historicity of Adam and Eve and whether Christians should take the Bible “literally”.

These two ministries have different answers to the question of evolution and Christianity, but they’re both fighting to show that Christianity is not incompatible with serious science. And whatever side of the issue you identify with, it’s never a bad thing to read through different perspectives!