Resources from 2025
At eighteen years old, I left home and, with it, the church for a time. I called myself a Christian, but in my heart, I regarded Jesus as not much more than an eternal insurance plan. Like many passing through Vanity Fair, I was captivated by its wares: grades, reputation, romance, amusements, and even [...]
One of the more surprising and far-reaching changes in American life over the past fifty years has been the rapid and widespread approval of homosexuality and same-sex relationships. In the 1970s, public support for same-sex relationships was minimal—only 12% of Americans in 1973 said [...]
Jonathan Landry Cruse’s "Paradox People: Learning to Live the Beatitudes" is a fitting title that aims to enhance our understanding of the often-quoted but little-understood opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount. These passages have become so famous that they are known in part even by many [...]
For Christians who really care about theology and apologetics, one of the biggest issues that regularly comes up in personal conversation or online is atheism. If we want to effectively engage atheists with the sure hope we have in Jesus, we need to understand what atheism is all about and where atheists are coming from. [...]
Although it would be silly to rank the books of the Bible by their perceived importance or relevance, in many ways, the Book of Exodus looms large over much of both testaments. No other book is cited throughout the Old Testament as much as Exodus is, and only the Psalms and Isaiah’s prophecy are quoted more [...]
Death and taxes. These two constants of life come for everyone. Neither of these things are generally viewed as positive. However, if you are wise, you will learn to prepare for both. At least with taxes you have a permanently fixed calendar date in April to look forward to. Death seems to be the most difficult to prepare for [...]
In a recent issue of First Things, theologian Brad East provocatively declared that confessional Protestantism was on its last statistical legs, writing that “the original Protestant vision, articulated and enacted by the first generations of Reformers, is on life support. It barely registers in surveys.” He invited readers to imagine [...]
If you've only seen The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy but not read the books, you might not know that the story of the Hobbits doesn't move straight from the final defeat of Sauron to their immediate return to a peaceful Shire happily ever after. There's a second-to-last chapter left out of the films [...]
While the problems of the evangelical Purity Movement have been well documented, one of its biggest errors was promoting a non-theological account of modesty focused almost exclusively on behaviors. With few exceptions, modesty was largely cast as the responsibility of women to avoid certain dress code [...]
On the morning of October 7, 2023, waves of Hamas fighters stormed the border of Israel from neighboring Gaza in a bloody surprise attack. The assault was borne out of a religious, political, and geographical dispute that has raged between the two groups for generations. [...]
Last Things: A Review Series of Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology (Part 7)
All good things must come to an end, or at least so they say. With the release of their fourth volume, Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley have brought their mammoth project of Reformed Systematic Theology to completion. This final installment now brings this [...]
Luke 15 is one of the most compelling and memorable texts in Scripture. The images it conveys are certainly among the most timeless in church history, serving as ample sermon fodder for countless preachers and teachers for centuries. Who is the God of the Bible if he is not the shepherd who searches [...]
It was 1,700 years ago this summer that the first ecumenical council of the Christian church was called to the city of Nicaea in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) to confer about a Christological crisis that had arisen around the area of Alexandria in Egypt, due to the teachings of a presbyter by the name Arius. [...]
Church: A Review Series of Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology (Part 6)
Theology must affect our lives if it has been rightly understood. Still, we easily think of doctrine as ideas locked away in the pages of books or hanging in the air of lecture halls. Where does theology come to bear upon us as we live before the Lord? What is the intersection of doctrine and life? [...]
Always Reforming: Why Extraordinary Results in the Church Have Always Depended on Ordinary Means
Semper reformanda was the clarion call of the Protestant Reformation—a rallying cry for the church to continually reform herself according to the sole magisterial authority: Scripture. Latin for “always reforming,” the phrase came to express the conviction that the church [...]
