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After a powerful quake hit the island of Java this week, a network of local Christians raced to help. When Denny Tarigan arrived in the remote village of Gasol, the earthy smell of wet soil assaulted his senses. The sound of ambulance sirens permeated the air. Cars and motorcycles filled the narrow dirt roads. As the Indonesian Christian aid worker looked around, he saw blue makeshift tents lined with mats and blankets that were full of earthquake survivors, including children and the elderly. What he also saw: Smiles on the villagers’ faces. “The people are strong enough to survive this,” said Tarigan, who took a 10-hour car ride from his hometown of Yogyakarta to Cianjur, the regency where Gasol is located, on Wednesday. “Most of them just don’t know what to do after this,” he said. “For now, they think that they need help from the government and other [disaster relief] agencies.” While it is common in the United States for churches to engage in disaster relief, in Indonesia m...

  உங்கள் வாழ்க்கையில் ஒரு நோக்கம் இருக்கிறதா? வாழ்க்கை உங்களுக்கு அர்த்தம் உள்ளதா? அல்லது உங்கள் வாழ்க்கை சிதைந்து போகிறது அனைத்து துண்டுகள் என்பது இன்றைய பெரிய கேள்வி இதன் அர்த்தம் என்ன 50 ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்பு நான் பிரசங்கம் செய்ய ஆரம்பித்தபோது என்ன என்பது தத்துவ கேள்வி உண்மை என்ன பயன் என்பதுதான் இன்றைய கேள்வி ஆண்ட்ரூ மோரிஸ் பிரான்சில் சிறந்த தத்துவவாதி எழுதினார் பிரபஞ்சம் அலட்சியமாக உள்ளது அதை உருவாக்கியவர் நாம் ஏன் இந்த சிறிய மண் குவியலில் இருக்கிறோம் எல்லையற்ற இடத்தில் சுழல்கிறது எனக்கு சிறிதும் யோசனை இல்லை என்றார் மற்றும் பலர் அதை எடுத்துக்கொள்கிறார்கள் அணுகுமுறை ஆல்பர்ட் காமுஸ் யார் இருந்தார் எல்லோரும் என்று பெரிய தத்துவவாதி மேற்கோள் காட்டப்பட்டது சில ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்பு கூறினார் மனிதன் அர்த்தம் இல்லாமல் வாழ முடியாது அர்த்தமில்லாமல் வாழ முயற்சிக்கிறீர்களா? உங்கள் வாழ்க்கையில் இப்போது இங்கே சில விஷயங்கள் உள்ளன மக்கள் என்று தத்துவவாதிகள் கூறினர் அவர்கள் தனியாக இருக்கும்போது சிந்தியுங்கள் நீங்கள் தனியாக இருக்கும் போது ...

Christian leaders from Brazil, Colombia, France, and the Philippines weigh in on mistaken beliefs about the season. For liturgy-loving Christians, Advent is a season of anticipation, marked by a posture of hopeful and expectant waiting . But for many evangelicals, it may pass by almost unnoticed and unobserved, whether due to an unfamiliarity with the church’s liturgical calendar or a cynicism toward Catholic practices. Advent means “arrival” or “appearing” and comes from the Latin word adventus . Each year, the season begins four Sundays before Christmas and lasts until December 25. It is divided into a period that focuses on Christ’s second coming and another that focuses on his birth. (Orthodox Christians observe a similar event, the Nativity Fast, from November 15 to December 24 before the Nativity Feast on December 25.) Advent began in fourth- and fifth-century Gaul and Spain as a season intended to prepare believers’ hearts for Epiphany (January 6), not Christmas. Epiph...

An awareness of the spirit world was a crucial component in missionary efforts to spread the gospel. Protestant missionaries arrived in Korea in the 1880s with a burning desire to share the gospel to the locals. This was the golden age of Protestant missions, and missionary records captured detailed impressions of Korea’s political, social, and spiritual atmosphere. The missionaries were perplexed to find almost no evidence of religious life there. Some even defined Korea as a nonreligious country where Confucianism merely served as a philosophical and moral guide for living. They were wrong. As they settled into their new lives, the missionaries soon realized that shamanism was a core religious belief in Korea. American missionary Homer B. Hulbert used the term “spirit-worship” for the animist, nature-worshiping practices he observed there, while fellow missionary George Heber Jones opined that Korea was rich in religious phenomena that comprised a mix of shamanism, Buddhism, an...

The cross calls us to sacrificial community, especially during a divided age. In the August heat of 1965, widespread violence and bloodshed tore through the Watts area of Los Angeles. There were more than 30 deaths. Most of those were perpetrated by the police. There was fire and looting and vandalism. At the invitation of Black social groups, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. entered Watts. He later described the protests that followed as “disorganized,” though that was a major oversimplification. “However, a mere condemnation of violence is empty without understanding the daily violence that our society inflicts upon many of its members,” he said. “The violence of poverty and humiliation hurts as intensely as the violence of the club.” King wrote about his interaction with a couple of young men in the wake of the weeklong eruption that destroyed many Black businesses that had been the heart of the community. “We won!” King remembers hearing one exclaim. He looked at t...

John Markley says he raised concerns about fraudulent management, enrollment rate misrepresentation, and “compensation schemes.” A former dean at Liberty University has sued the university, alleging he was fired in retaliation for his whistleblower reports to Liberty leadership and law enforcement. The lawsuit , filed in the Lynchburg Circuit Court last Thursday, claims that over the past four years John Markley made “repeated good faith reports of disturbing violations” of state and federal law at Liberty, only to be terminated from his role as administrative dean for academic operations in June. The university says that he was let go as part of a reorganization and that his allegations are without merit. Markley’s suit lists 15 “improper activities” he said he raised concerns about, including potentially fraudulent management of Liberty charitable organizations and corporate subsidies; the intentional misrepresentation of acceptance rates and enrollment numbers for financial gai...

Carol Wimber-Wong and eight former members accuse Dwelling Place pastors of $62 million fraud. The widow of a legendary Vineyard leader is suing the pastors of a Southern California church for fraud and the alleged misappropriation of $62 million. Vineyard Anaheim, the “mother church” of the Vineyard movement since it was planted by John Wimber in 1977, left the charismatic denomination without much explanation in March. The current senior pastor, Alan Scott, told the church that the Holy Spirit just led them to split. There were no big disagreements with the national organization, no disputes about direction, and no personal conflicts. “We don’t really understand why,” Scott said in a recording of a Sunday service obtained by CT. “I wish I really could sit before you today and say, ‘Here are the six reasons,’ ‘Here’s our issues,’ ‘Here are our grievances,’ or whatever. … We don’t always know what’s on the other side of obedience.” But Carol Wimber-Wong, who cofounded the church ...