Top 10 articles of 2018

The top ten posts of 2018 show that Reformed folk have had wide-ranging interests this past year... #10. Movie Review: “I survived ‘I Kissed Dating Goodbye’” I Kissed Dating Goodbye was huge in Christian circles, selling more than a million copies. This year a documentarian, along with the author himself, critiqued the impact the book has had over the last two decades. It's a very good documentary, if an overly critical one, and if you read to the bottom of the review there's a link there to where you can watch it for free. #9. Why do we suffer? Buddhism vs. Christianity The readership for this article keeps growing. It didn't make it to the Top 10 back in 2017 when it was first published, but every month hundreds more would track it down, giving it a place on the list in 2018. #8. Is recreational marijuana sinful? This is another 2017 article. It returned to the Top 10 when Canada legalized marijuana and this question became a pressing one for the Church. #7. War through the eyes of a child: Alice Kuik shares her memories of World War II Little Alice didn’t know her parents were hiding Jews in their home. But she did understand the Nazis were watching their whole family. #6. When we have to parent our parents Sharon Bratcher offers some help and encouragement for caregivers. #5. What’s next? The growth of Statism in Canada ARPA Canada’s André Schutten on the government requiring citizens to comply with its State ideology. #4. Should we baptize our infants? Resources that make the case On the evening of Sept. 27, 2018, two Reformed pastors debated "Should we baptize infants as well as adults?" Reformed Perspective holds to a paedobaptism position, and in preparation for the debate, we shared a list of some of the very best resources available in defense of infant baptism. #3. Ronald Reagan's challenge to his dying atheist father-in-law Thirty-six years after Reagan wrote this private letter to his father-in-law, God used it to challenge hundreds of thousands of others. #2. Chick-fil-A is always closed on Sunday...except when an ox falls in a pit This was an encouraging story about how a restaurant chain in the US recognizes that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27). **** And the number one post of 2018 was... #1. Is Jordan Peterson the champion we've been looking for? Jordan Peterson was all over the Internet in 2018, and in many of the interviews and appearances, he sounded quite like a Christian, talking with respect about Jesus, or speaking of "the Word become divine." He also emphasized personal responsibility, telling his 20-something-year-old followers that if they really want to change the world, it starts with self-discipline – you can't refashion society if you can't even manage to put your socks in the laundry. It was old-fashioned common sense that's becoming increasingly uncommon outside of the Church. To top it off, he'd continue talking, even when he was getting attacked for what he believed. His courage was admirable and unusual, and it made many in his audience hope all the more that he was Christian – here, finally, was someone displaying the courage of a David before Goliath, or a Daniel in the lions' den. But as Joel McDurmon explains in his article, Peterson isn't a Christian at all. The reason he sounds like one is because he is a Jungian and he believes that the world's myths tell us something important about Man. In his view, the tales of Thor, the 12 labors of Hercules, the voyage of Odysseus, and yes, also the life of Jesus, have stayed with us because they all capture something important about who we are. Peterson respects the Bible more than other myths, because of its greater impact on the world. But he doesn't believe it to be God's very words. Peterson doesn't believe that Jesus died for his sins; despite how he often sounds, he is not Christian. And instead of pointing people to Christ, he is telling them to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps....