Are churches looking for the wrong kind of leaders? The last decade has witnessed a rising number of churches wrecked by spiritual abuse–harsh, heavy-handed, domineering behavior from those in a position of spiritual authority. And high-profile cases are only a small portion of this widespread problem. Behind the scenes are many more cases of spiritual abuse that we will never hear about. Victims suffer in silence, not knowing where to turn.

Of course, most pastors and leaders are godly, wonderful people who don’t abuse their sheep. They shepherd their flocks gently and patiently. But we can’t ignore the growing number who do not. We have tolerated and even celebrated the kind of leaders Jesus warned us against.

We need gentle shepherds now more than ever, and in Bully Pulpit, seminary president and biblical scholar Michael J. Kruger offers a unique perspective for both church leaders and church members on the problem of spiritual abuse, how to spot it, and how to handle it in the church.

“Every Christian from pulpit to pew needs to read this wise and timely work.”
– Karen Swallow Prior

“Both urgent and timely.”
– Sam Storms

“Thoughtful, wise, and biblical.”
– Mark Vroegop

Did the New Testament canon arise naturally from within the early Christian faith? Were the books written as Scripture, or did they become Scripture? Why did early Christians have a canon at all?
These are the types of questions that led Michael J. Kruger to pick apart modern scholarship’s dominant view that the New Testament is a late creation of the church imposed on books originally written for another purpose. Calling into question this commonly held “extrinsic” view, Kruger tackles the five most prevalent objections to the classic understanding of a collection of authoritative scriptures.
Kruger addresses foundational and paradigmatic assumptions of the extrinsic model as he provides powerful rebuttals and further support for the classic, “intrinsic” view.
Unlike many books written on the emergence of the New Testament canon that ask “when?” or “how?” Kruger focuses this work on the “why?”-exposing weaknesses in the five major tenets of the extrinsic model as he goes. While The Question of Canon scrutinizes today’s popular scholastic view, it also offers an alternative concept to lay a better empirical foundation for biblical canon studies.

Not long ago, I came across a list of ten principles set forth by proponents of progressive Christianity. They are, in effect, a new Ten Commandments. What’s striking is that they are far less about God revealing his desires and far more about man expressing his own–less Moses, more Oprah.

Yet each of these commandments is partially true. Indeed, that is what makes this list, and progressive Christianity as a whole, so challenging. Half-truths can sound quite appealing until you recognize their foundations and implications. In this guide, I diagnose and critique each of these tenets and offer a brief biblical and theological response.

Liberal Christianity never really goes away. If the church is going to hold fast to “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), we must, in every era, be able to distinguish true faith from the false.