Josh Benner

Category: Commentary

  • Abortion issues play a significant role in several states

    photo-1522681790129-eacac40ff606.jpegAlabama, Oregon, West Virginia.

    All three states had state ballot issues related to abortion. The ballot issue narrowly passed in West Virginia, soundly passed in Alabama and was soundly defeated in Oregon.

    The Alabama and West Virginia amendments  both included the phrase: “Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion.”

    Based on the new state constitutional amendments, if Roe v Wade were overturned by the Supreme Court, there would not be a right within those states to have an abortion. The new law also potentially enables state legislatures more freedom in passing laws that help preserve the life and rights of the unborn.

    These two amendments are based off of another pro life amendment that Tennessee passed in 2014. Writing for the Huffington Post, Marina Fang argues that these laws  “would likely face legal action and would be unenforceable because Roe v. Wade ensures a woman’s right to an abortion.” She goes on to mention that it’s possible that Roe would be overturned.

    But even if it’s not overturned, it’s also not a foregone conclusion that these laws would be judged as unconstitutional. Last month, the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the Tennessee amendment.

    The West Virginia and Alabama laws also are set to eliminate funding for abortions.

    In recent years, several states have been active in proposing legislation and constitutional amendments that protect the rights of the unborn.

    These are big wins for the pro life movement and for the rights of the unborn. Many lives will be saved as a result of these new laws. It is important that other states pick up the baton and keep fighting for the rights of the unborn. When states fill to pass amendments, as was the case with Oregon, people need to keep fighting.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

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  • Election day: politics matter but not as much as we think

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    Another election day.

    A day when millions of Americans will breathe a sigh of relief and think “Ok, maybe it’ll be ok,” and where millions of other Americans will be despondent and thinking “It’s over. This was our last chance.”

    It’s utter nonsense.

    Certainly, this stuff matters.

    But it’s not all that matters.

    Political ads play to our fears, not to our hopes. They try to scare us. The media does the same thing. We hear how this is the most important election in history. (more…)

  • In Memoriam: Grant Osborne

    grantosborne21.jpgOne of my great regrets of seminary was never having Grant Osborne as a professor. Many of my friends did and I’ve heard stories. I’ve heard his lectures compared to drinking through a firehose with all of the information he dispensed.

    Dr. Osborne passed away last night. I had actually just bought one of his books earlier this week. While I never had him as a professor, I’ve benefited greatly from his writings. As someone who spends a lot of time studying the Bible, for New Testament scholars, I consider Osborne to easily be in the top five of the last 50 years. I know that I know the Bible better because of his writing.

    His scholarship was always thorough but also approachable. It was written with conviction but also charitable. In writing about significant and contested theological subjects, there was a gentleness and respect. At the heart of it all was a man who was sincerely dedicated to the word of God and sharing that knowledge with his students and readers.

    Recently, Osborne had finished a commentary series covering the entire New Testament through Lexham Press. An incredible undertaking, but what I found even more astounding is that he had already written commentaries on several books of the New Testament (. He served as the General Editor for the IVP New Testament Commentary Series. And his book on studying the Bible “The Hermeneutical Spiral” is perhaps his best known work. He was an editor for the New Living Translation of the Bible and contributed to the ESV Study Bible. A giant in New Testament Scholarship.

    Personally, I consider his commentaries on Matthew and Revelation to be among the finest scholarly works done on those books.

    I love this quote I read from Dr. Osborne after retiring in a blog post through Logos Academic, “I didn’t just like my job, I loved it and couldn’t get enough of it. I retired only because my body made me do so.”

    Grant Osborne: 1942-2018.

    Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
    -Matthew 25:19-21

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.

    Let’s connect!
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Instagram

  • Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

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    Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.
    Thousands of churches join today in praying for Christians around the world who are suffering for their faith in the gospel.
    According to a 2017 report from Open Doors International, more than 215 million Christians globally high, very high, or extreme persecution.
    Major persecution where people’s lives are endangered. Some cannot publicly live out their faith others are penalized for their faith and kept on the lowest rungs of their respective societies. (more…)

  • The war within: Spirit vs Sin

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    For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
    -Galatians 5:17
    The flesh vs the Spirit.
    For Christians, the Sprit filled life is meant to be a life of growth and maturation.
    But just because Christians have the Holy Spirit in us, it certainly does not mean that everything in life suddenly becomes easy or that we never struggle with sin. (more…)