Mike Wittmer

What I think. What I know. What I think I know.

  • disrespecting Scripture

    One of the most perplexing traits of Love Wins is its cavalier attitude toward texts. Whether it was contradicting Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins, mistranslating the Greek term for eternal, omitting Revelation 20:11-15 from its chapter on hell, or wrenching one line from Martin Luther until it meant the opposite of what Luther clearly…

  • eblogharmony.com

    Can your blog do this? Three years ago a student of mine, Adam Forrest, was commenting on a post I made about David Letterman’s affair with his staffer. His comments caught the attention of Rachel Watson, who emailed him to discuss what he had said. They continued the conversation on her blog, two weeks later…

  • proud moment

    Sometimes I wonder if my kids are internalizing enough sound doctrine, but what happened tonight leads me to think it’s getting through. My fourth grade daughter had a speaking part in our church’s kids musical, “In a Galilee Far, Far Away.” The musical was cute and carried a good message, but I wonder how God…

  • my santa

    I’ve never liked Santa, in part because you can’t spell his name without using the same letters found in Satan. But I would have liked the original St. Nicholas, who went Dick Cheney on the heretic Arius at the Council of Nicea. Apparently Nick grew weary of listening to Arius’ slippery words, and he walked…

  • what’s the difference?

    The blowback from last week’s controversial column, “The War on Men,” got me thinking. I cover the complementarian/egalitarian issue every semester, and it’s been a long time since anyone switched sides because of their understanding of Scripture. Both sides seem dug in at this point—there may be less undecided voters on this issue than there…

  • they get us

    Coming on the heels of The New Yorker’s essay on Rob Bell, Newsweek has an insightful article on the fading bloom of Rick Warren. Now if only someone would write a feature piece on Joel Osteen, most of my theological nemeses will be covered. I’m looking at you, Gary Meadors.

  • trinity and simplicity

    I woke up this morning with last night’s class discussion still on my mind, so I thought I’d share it with you and see if anyone has a special insight. Here’s the problem:  I believe that the Trinity is fully one and fully three, and following the lead of the Athanasian Creed, I tell students…

  • right with God

    My assignment this month for Our Daily Journey was to write a devotional from Ephesians, and it occurred to me that this might be a good time to mention the controversy around justification. I don’t know if anyone has ever written a devotional on the New Perspective on Paul (one of the Sprouls might have),…

  • more bloopers!

    I am in the middle of grading term papers, and thought I might share my five most recent student bloopers (I’m now up to 57!). 53) “God allows evil to exist although He can easily defeat goodness.” (Sure, but why would he want to?)   54) “The contrast view originated from felix culpa.” (This student…

  • what a waste

    I’m feeling a little sad about my paper at ETS yesterday. Someone had the bright idea to schedule a Friday afternoon full of papers, even though the conference effectively ended before noon. I walked past room after room of speakers gamely lecturing to empty chairs until I find my room, tucked away in the back…