You Owe Me Three Minutes (Commencement Speech 2017, Blue Ridge Christian School)
You Owe Me Three Minutes Delivered to the 2017 Graduating Class of Blue Ridge Christian School Superintendent Reynolds, school board, faculty and administration, friends, family, and men and women of the graduating class of 2017. It is my honor to be with you...
The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts (Slides, Tyndale Intensive)
Three Ingredients for Higher Education Survival
In his recent well-crafted article, “Higher Education Seeks Answers to Leaner Years,” Jon Marcus of The Hechinger Report has provided a resonant clarion call for higher education leaders. Marcus quotes one administrator who acknowledges that, “We inherited a system...
“The most effective leadership, management, and efficiency models share traits common with each other, and traits that are ultimately traceable to the pages of the Bible. While these models are often not intentionally rooted in Biblical concepts by those that promote the models, the models illustrate how applying Biblical principles can set a trajectory of success in enterprise and in life. Led By a Lion is designed to introduce some of these leadership, management, and efficiency models, but goes a step further in identifying the Biblical genesis of many of the core traits that fuel the success of these models.”
How Did We Get Here? Competing Theories of Origin
“How did we get here?” This is one of the great questions of life, and its answer sets the direction for so many other answers to great questions. If we are descended from animals, then are we not justified in living as animals? If we are generated merely by...
Communicating Biblical Worldview to Millennials and iGens: Taste and See Apologetics
COMMUNICATING BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW TO MILLENNIALS AND IGENS: TASTE AND SEE APOLOGETICS[1] Christopher Cone, Th.D, Ph.D, Ph.D Biblical Models for Communicating Truth to the Unversed Peter provides the only direct apologetic mandate in Scripture,[2] reminding his readers...
Gifted By The Holy Spirit, Gifted With the Holy Spirit (Slides)
At the 2017 IFCA Cultivate Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, Dr. Cone considers the Holy Spirit, how He works in the believer's life, and expectations for the believer's walk. [gview...
“This approach has the advantage of seeking to view all knowledge through the lens of Scripture, and to subject all knowledge to the authority of Scripture. It encourages science and research within the field of psychology. It offers a Biblical balance of description and prescription. Of course, if the Bible is unreliable, then the refractive power of Scripture is distortive rather than corrective, but the epistemological premise of this approach is that God’s word is authoritative and sufficient for our understanding, for our equipping, and for our practice. There are many extra-biblical resources that we can employ, but in seeking out how and when to do that, we mustn’t lose sight of the one reliable constant that God has provided for us – the Bible.” –Chapter 9
The Interconnectedness of Philosophy, Theology, and Worldview
A worldview is the perspective through which one views the world. By definition, a Biblical worldview is derived exegetically from the pages of the Bible. Philosophy and theology have long been perceived as rivals in worldview, but if we define those terms lexically...
The Disappearing Middle Class in Christian Higher Education
According to ABHE’s 2015 statistical report,[1] out of roughly 140 universities and colleges who have any official reported status with ABHE, there are only 5 non-denominational Bible colleges with attendance over 320[2] students (including undergraduate and graduate...
Overview of Ecclesiastes (Slides)
Having been a historic experimenter, Solomon writes the conclusion to his philosophical journey in Ecclesiastes. He describes the advantages and disadvantages of a number of different worldviews "under the sun," and he concludes that the beyond-the-sun perspective...
“The Green Tree is an exceptional work…provides a vital tool for every Bible interpreter…Just as the root system is the foundation of a tree and directly impacts the health of a tree, hermeneutic method is at the root of one’s worldview. This illustration demonstrates that the hermeneutic method that an interpreter of the Bible employs will significantly affect the outcome. The tree will either be healthy, or it will not be healthy…The authors provide a unique examination of Revelation, Genesis, and Job that demonstrates that the LGH hermeneutic is derived from within Scripture, something that other hermeneutical methods fail to demonstrate. This is perhaps the most crucial principle demonstrated in The Green Tree, and it effectively demonstrates that the LGH hermeneutic is also the Biblical hermeneutic.” – Andrew Friend (Amazon Review)
Can We Know With Certainty What God Has Said?
What is Real Success?
Google the phrase “What is success” and you will get 1.13 billion results. I’d like to examine each of those with you today (not really). Much has been said about success. Everybody seems to want it, but it is surprising how few actually can define it. One dictionary...
Worldview and Three Views on Biblical Ethics (Slides)
Ideas have consequences. This presentation considers (1) basics of worldview and (2) three competing views on Biblical ethics: continuity (believers under the Law for their sanctification), semi-continuity (believers under part of the Law for their sanctification),...
New Book Announcement: Life Beyond the Sun: Worldview and Philosophy Through the Lens of Ecclesiastes, 2nd Edition
Opening at #3, and the #1 paperback on Amazon's Hot New Releases in its category, from Exegetica Publishing is a new book by Dr. Christopher Cone – Life Beyond the Sun: Worldview and Philosophy Through the Lens of Ecclesiastes, 2nd Edition. ISBN#: 978-0998280509...
Three Great Questions of Worldview and a Method for Addressing Them
Five tools, three questions, two challenges, one ultimate source of truth… FIVE INITIAL TOOLS AT OUR DISPOSAL As we seek to discover, we observe that we possess basic tools useful for processing information: reason, the senses, emotion, desire/will, and...
Biblical Patterns for Revitalization and Outreach (Slides)
What is the church? Why does it matter? How are people thinking about the relevance of the church in their lives? How should local churches respond? These are core questions not just for pastors, but for all Christians. Biblical Patterns for Revitalization and...
Special Thanks to Southern California Seminary and Calvary Bible College and Seminary
How does one make a choice between amazing and fantastic? That is the challenge with which my family and I have been faced in recent days, as we considered where God would have us serve in higher-education ministry. Nearly two years ago my family and I had the...
Design for a Healthy Church, and the Four Legs of Outreach
The ultimate purpose of the church – as individual members and as a corporate body – is to glorify God (1 Cor 10:31, Eph 1:6, 12, 14; Col 3:17). The recipe for achieving that goal includes four major prescriptions: (1) Bible teaching, (2) fellowship, (3) praise and...
Helpful Bible Study Solution for PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad: e–Sword
e–Sword is outstanding, free Bible study software, that bills itself as, “a fast and effective way to study the Bible…feature rich and user friendly with more capabilities than you would expect in a free Bible app. The fact that e-Sword is free is just one of the...
Gifted makes Amazon’s Hot New Releases list for Kindle (Christian Theology/Pneumatology)
Thank you to all the supportive readers who helped the Kindle version of Gifted: Understanding the Holy Spirit and Unwrapping Spiritual Gifts reach #22 on Amazon's Kindle Best Sellers (for Christian Theology/Pneumatology) yesterday, and put it on Amazon's "Hot New...