Resources by Daniel McCoy:
The Remarkable Power of Preferred Pronouns
I told myself I wouldn’t brag about this publicly. For years, it’s been a bit of a Clark Kent-Superman dilemma: should I tell people about my secret power? Should I keep it under wraps? At the risk of sounding vain, I’m going to go ahead and tell you. I know a lot about pronouns. Like,...
Daniel McCoy
Jesus Turns Water into Wine…And Turns Worry to Faith
The Gospel of John narrates how, to save a wedding feast which has run out of wine, Jesus turns water into wine. As Jesus’ first public miracle, the Gospel of John describes it as “the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory” (John 2:11, NIV). What do we learn about Jesus from...
Daniel McCoy
What Ethics Do We Learn from Generative AI?
First off, what is generative artificial intelligence (GAI)? Artificial intelligence has been around for a while now. It’s your phone deciphering between your fingerprint and someone else’s. It’s the chatbot attempting to answer your online question, hopefully quicker than it takes to connect with a customer service agent. More recently, it’s your car’s dashboard beeping...
Daniel McCoy
Jesus’ Baptism: What It Did and Why It Matters
What was the point of Jesus’ baptism? Of all the baptisms John the Baptist did, the one that most confused him was when the Messiah himself came to be baptized. Jesus’ explanation was that he needed John to baptize him in order to fulfill righteousness. But how would Jesus’ baptism do that? And what significance...
Daniel McCoy
12 Bible Verses about Trusting God
Why take the time to walk through multiple Bible verses about trusting God? Isn’t it enough just to, well, you know, trust God? At first glance, trusting God would seem to be a fairly intuitive thing you can do without needing to study what the Bible says on the topic. And yet, as I’ve looked...
Daniel McCoy
How to Avoid Dancing Off a Cliff
God redeems the seemingly unredeemable. Taking that hope as my cue, I’m going to try to redeem some time I accidentally spent absorbed in a Paw Patrol episode my kids were watching. Spoiled kid-villain Harold Humdinger was driving a special supervillain vehicle and blaring music from his supersonic sound system. It was so loud that it caused...
Daniel McCoy
Op-Ed by Herod the Great
Herod the Great, the villain of the Christmas story, was a master of political survival. His long reign under the Caesars came at the cost of constant paranoia, even having numerous family members killed whom he saw suspiciously. When he heard the news of a baby “born King of the Jews,” it’s unsurprising that he...
Daniel McCoy
Where Did God Come From?
Where did God come from? This is a complex question that assumes that God came from somewhere. By contrast, the Christian view is that God has always existed. But does it make sense to believe in the existence of something that has no beginning? Let’s explore. Have you ever noticed how kids ask the toughest...
Daniel McCoy
Philosophy Questions: Can We Have Knowledge of God?
Can we have knowledge of God? Philosophers have long debated whether we can know what, if anything, exists beyond the physical world (the “metaphysical”). The influential philosopher Immanuel Kant argued that our categories of thought can’t apply beyond the physical world. Yet, if we have good reason to believe that God exists, then there’s no...
Daniel McCoy
God Is No Respecter of Persons? Dispelling the Myth That God Has Favorites
“God is no respecter of persons.” This is what the apostle Peter concluded when God led him to baptize a Gentile (a non-Jew). Samaritans (Jewish relatives) had been baptized before (Acts 8:4-25), and so had proselytes to Judaism, as was likely an Ethiopian official (Acts 8:26-40). But Peter’s baptism of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, marked...
Daniel McCoy
Faith without Works Is Dead?
What does it mean that faith without works is dead? Having faith in Jesus means that we believe what he says, trust in him to save us, and follow him as king. If we don’t trust him enough to follow him, it means our faith isn’t a living faith. It’s dead. “Faith without works is...
Daniel McCoy
The Sin of Greed: Money & the Protestant Reformation
How destructive is the sin of greed? Greed is an attitude that craves more and more and can never find enough. Colossians 3:5 equates greed with idolatry, so that should put to rest the debate whether Christians today can be tempted by idols. People are infinitely more important than things, yet, in the pursuit of...
Daniel McCoy
A Psalm of Thanksgiving: Reflections on Psalm 18 / 2 Samuel 22
A psalm of thanksgiving is a worship song which expresses gratitude for what God has done. In this article, we will reflect on the psalm of thanksgiving we call “Psalm 18.” In addition to being the longest psalm of David, Psalm 18 (also found in 2 Samuel 22) is the longest psalm of thanksgiving. In...
Daniel McCoy
Why the Flood?
Isn’t it a little funny that we often use the walls of church nurseries to paint the most extreme portrait of God’s wrath to date? The Genesis Flood. Of course, the paintings themselves are cheerful. Above the water, you’ve got smiling pairs of animal soul mates and a grandfatherly Noah smiling through his footlong beard,...
Daniel McCoy
Walk by Faith, Not Sight: What It Means, What It Doesn’t
What does it mean to walk by faith, not sight (2 Cor. 5:7)? It’s common to think that, as inspiring as the phrase sounds, walking by faith would make a person unintelligent, sheltered, and aloof. The truth is, walking by faith means being perceptive, resilient, and engaged. In 2 Corinthians 5:7, the apostle Paul says,...
Daniel McCoy
Philosophy Questions: What Is the Definition of Knowledge?
What is the definition of knowledge? The historic definition is that knowledge is “justified true belief.” This means that we know something if 1) it’s true, 2) we believe it, and 3) we have good reason to believe it (i.e., we are “justified” in believing it). Since everybody believes that what they believe is true,...
Daniel McCoy