Kevin's Theogrimage

John S. Mbiti, an African Christian scholar coined the phrase that “Africans are religious.” However, the recent news coverage of Atheists, in Kenya nonetheless, left a bad taste in the mouths of many a “religious African.” The fact that there was a group of Africans convening a meeting to educate parents on godless parenting reported by the Standard Newspaper in September 2016, discloses to us the trend that is too obvious, and that simultaneously offers a rebuttal to Mbiti’s claim. The trend that is bemoaned within the global church is that of millennials leaving the church. Typing the phrase on google shows how much interest this trend has attracted. My personal interest in this topic lies in the fact that I was once a personal statistic. My undergraduate years unlocked certain intellectual questions that I had about the Christian faith which I had no one to turn to, without being looked down upon as being “irreligious.” This led me to abandon the Church that had nurtured m...

I had this piece sitting in my laptop since December, and I should have shared much earlier. Nonetheless, there is a time for everything.  This exposition has to do with a biblical view of guilt within the believer’s life. There are times that a truth sips into the soul so profoundly, that one sits bewildered, and amazed. I participated in a conference in December that reminded me of some foundational truths for the Christian life and hope which resulted in a deepening joy and assurance in Christ. One of the issues I have struggled with over the course of my Christian walk is the issue of sin in the believer's life. In my analysis, based on Christian Scripture, two underlying issues are involved: i) a faulty understanding of sin; ii) dealing with the guilt of sin.  For the first issue, I shall offer here a summarized overview. A wrong misconception, I think, among some Christians is the idea that once we trust in Jesus Christ, we become perfect. This idea of "sinlessness...

Friend or Foe? It is often said that the experiences we go through give us a lens with which to view and interpret our reality in the world. In my case, especially after the death of my brother, I have been thinking more frequently about death and life and their mystery. In line with this, I was led to an essay by Esther Acolatse, professor of pastoral theology at Duke Divinity School. Her central idea is that  death strikes both as a familiar friend and a dreaded foe, hence creating ambivalent feelings in us . [1]   In her thinking through this ambivalence, she provides a framework for understanding this mystery of death and to anchor it on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  I have always thought of death, for a long time, to be both a natural process as well as a negative result of man's participation in his choice of separation from His creator God at the genesis of creation. The verse that Acolatse alludes in this thinking is Genesis 2:17 " but you mus...

My day-to-day in the past weeks has been  a series of emotional highs and lows. In this reflection I will focus on the lows : darkness, despair and despond. While reading a blog post from John Piper's Desiring God's website, the post  Worship in the Dark  drew me to the words in Psalm 88. In many ways, this psalm has brought to my heart and mind some of the emotional agony that the loss of my brother has resulted in. The lows of this emotional roller-coaster are different many times but based on the reaffirmed reality of life on earth: That our experiences here on earth will be colored by troubles. This is the same reminder that Jesus gives his disciples in John 16:33 prior to his taking up his greatest obstacle but our greatest pathway to a ransomed life, that is the Cross. The Agony of Loss based on Embodied Reality In such moments as have been the past weeks, these trials have been real. The agony of never seeing one whom you have more than been acquainted with...

The following contains the responses to an atheistic view on the Bible and Jesus Christ. It is part of an interview conducted in June 2014 as part of a paper on my responses to an atheistic worldview. I hope that they are of edification value to the body of Christ; for the believers, to realize that the faith we stand on is the most solid foundation and that in Jesus Christ we have all we need for life and godliness; as well as an inheritance that can never spoil or fade (2 Pet. 1:3 ;1 Pet. 1:3-5). If there may be any errors, I pray that you may extend grace. ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bible Interviewee: A normal book, filled with stories, moral perspectives. Response: The presuppositions in the interviewee’s response are that 1) the Bible is an ordinary book, and 2) the Bible contains stories that are not reliable and only beneficial for morality. In the following sections I shall argue for the unique...