As I write these words, our British cousins have concluded their version of an election campaign. It took six weeks.  A mere breeze of politics.  But everything is bigger in America, so our electoral contests now seem never-ending, with no time to stop from 2016 to 2020.  As those...

PROGRAM AUDIO & RESOURCES

In the not-too-distant past, the transition from child to adult occurred around the onset of puberty, but now the process of what some are calling “emerging adulthood” has been significantly delayed. What role does technology play in this cultural shift, and...

It seems that politics are becoming more and more disorientating, especially for Christians. Our outlook on goodness and justice is dismissed as outdated at best and regressive at worst, and we feel increasingly confused about relating our spiritual principles to our civic life.  Some have...

There was a blizzard over Thanksgiving weekend this year. The snow fell throughout the day and by nightfall two feet of white covered the ground.  Looking out, I saw amid the darkness clean, clear, pure white. The muck was obscured, the dirt invisible. All that I beheld was bright, driven...

PROGRAM AUDIO & RESOURCES

Especially at this time of the year, many people tend to think that the ultimate mission of the little baby Jesus was to inspire warm and sentimental feelings, or some vague ideal of peace on earth and goodwill towards men. But is this really what Christmas is all...

In 1655, Puritan pastor William Gurnall began publishing The Christian in Complete Armour, addressing the “war between the saint and Satan […] so bloody a one, that the cruelest which was ever fought by men will be found but sport and child’s play” by comparison.[1]  Th...

Jerusalem is under attack. Israel, its sister kingdom to the north has already been exiled (722 BC), and now Judah faces the same fate. In 605, the third year of King Jehoiakim (ca. 609-597 BC), the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem and started the first of many deportations to...

PROGRAM AUDIO & RESOURCES

As we’ve seen this year throughout our study of the Gospel of John, Jesus did not claim to be merely a helpful teacher or some kind of spiritual guru. Instead, he actually made very specific claims that identified him as the Yahweh of the Hebrew...

Years ago, when I first began to read Lutheran theologians, I remember friends warning me to watch out. “Lutherans were weak on sanctification,” they said. But by that point it was too late. The work of Martin Luther had already begun to haunt me.  The wild and paradoxical claims...

Isaiah lived with eyes set on God. This is clear from the opening words of his book: “The vision of Isaiah.”  Vision is singular, which tells us that Isaiah is meant to be read as one unified whole.  It is not a fragmentary account of Isaiah’s prophecies and life with a...

PROGRAM AUDIO & RESOURCES

The opening of John’s Gospel declares to us that “the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then later in verse 14 we’re told that this same Word “became flesh and dwelt among us.” So why did John refer to Jesus as “the...

Have Christians forgotten how to live well?  Do we approach life with a different mindset than that of an unbeliever, or do we get caught in the chaos and stress of life?  It is crucial to examine our lives in the light of Scripture and understand who God made us to be and how he made us...

In December 1865, the Rev. Philipps Brooks travelled to the land of Israel. As he stood and overlooked the town of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, Brooks was so moved by what he saw that he penned the words of the celebrated Christmas hymn, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Writing home to his...

PROGRAM AUDIO & RESOURCES

Though most people throughout church history have assumed that the Gospel of John was written by the Apostle John, as we’ve seen throughout our year-long study of this amazing text, this is actually an open question even among conservative scholars. On this...

Sarah Moore Grimké (1792–1873) and Angelina Emily Grimké Weld (1805–1879) were two sisters born into a slaveholding family on a South Carolina plantation. Along with twelve siblings, they were the children of John Faucheraud Grimké, a prominent judge and former...

PROGRAM AUDIO & RESOURCES

In the second half of John chapter 21, Jesus turns to Peter three times and asks him, “Do you love me?” What’s the point he’s making, and how does it relate to events that have already transpired? How has John’s theological emphasis shifted...

Noteworthy social commentator and Senior Research Fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute, Mary Eberstadt, follows her 2013 landmark book How the West Really Lost God: A New Theology of Secularization with her latest imprint, Primal Screams: How the Sexual Revolution Created Identity Politics. Both...

“Identity” is something of a buzz word today. It’s almost impossible to avoid discussions about gender identity, sexual identity, or racial identity in the mainstream media.  So-called “identity politics” are increasingly dominating the decisions on Capitol Hill...

PROGRAM AUDIO & RESOURCES

Some scholars have argued that chapter 20 is the real ending of John’s Gospel and that chapter 21 is a later addition. But is there any evidence for this claim? On this program, the hosts will make the argument that John’s Gospel has both a prologue and an...

I spent three hours waiting in line at the social security office last week. It was first thing in the morning, and the line weaved away from the designated waiting area, out the door, and down the sidewalk.  The waiting area was smaller than I expected for a government building in a largely...

True story: in 1965, Congress held a lengthy hearing to discuss the looming twenty-hour work week.  According to their estimates, the rapidly expanding automation of the day mean that by the year 2000, Americans would have more free time than they’d know what to do with.  Summer...

PROGRAM AUDIO & RESOURCES

In John’s version of the resurrection account, after placing his hands in Christ’s wounds, Thomas says to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” Was this just an exclamation of surprise, or was this a confession of Jesus’ divinity? Also, what did...

In Lovin’ on Jesus: A Concise History of Contemporary Worship, authors Swee Hong Lim and Lester Ruth offer a thorough, honest, and surprisingly non-polemical presentation of the development of contemporary worship practices. Rather than attempting to justify these practices or defend them...

PROGRAM AUDIO & RESOURCES

According to the Apostle Paul, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is of “first importance” (1Cor. 15:3). And yet, if this is such a crucial doctrine, then why are there important differences between John’s version of the story and the Synoptic accounts?...