Statism as Toleration
Statism is tolerant of any ideas and actions that will guarantee and enhance its own authority, and undermines or dilutes institutions like the family and the church that compete with…
The Fundamentalist Temptation
Fundamentalism, while sincere, sold virile Christianity into 20th century cultural bondage, and wherever it rears its head, it ends up emboldening that cultural depravity. Read the article here.
Vaccine Mandates and Crony Statism
Biblical law relating to protecting human life is preventive, not preemptive. Aside from preventing the reckless, direct threat to human life, civil law may not intrude on human liberty. Read…
Prayer, Fuel of the Kingdom
No single human factor contributes more to the advance of Christ’s kingdom than mighty, faith-drenched, persevering prayer. Listen here.
Apostasy, Perseverance, and Assurance
All of those justified in Jesus Christ are eternally secure, but all who abandon the Faith are without hope and destined to eternal judgment. Listen here.
Reformational Christianity, Now, More Than Ever
“To de-objectify the Faith is to overturn divinely established institutions like the church. To de-subjectivize the Faith is to undercut divinely mandated internal consecration. Both are fatal.” Read the article…
Apostasy and Assurance
“If we’re united to Jesus Christ, we will persevere and cannot apostatize, and we can have rock-solid assurance that we cannot.” Read the rest here.
Save the Date for CCL’s 2021 Symposium on Economics
Saturday, December 4 Center for Cultural Leadership Annual Symposium in San Francisco 9 AM — 3 PM Includes catered lunch in a four-star hotel on the Bay Theme: Un-Virtuous Economics:…
The Outward Turn
“The ‘inward turn’ of modernity has finally transformed every autonomous human into a rebellious reality-manufacturer and reduced muscular public Christianity to a jejune private mystery religion.” Read the rest here.
Let’s Celebrate Christian Pride Millennia
“The worldview that gave us Gay Pride Month could never have given us the free society, and, if unchecked, will decimate it.” Read the rest here.
ATF 2021R-08, “Factoring Criteria for Firearms With Attached ‘Stabilizing Braces,’” by Brian G. Mattson
Brian G. Mattson is a public theologian, Senior Scholar of Public Theology for the Center for Cultural Leadership, and adjunct professor at Westminster Theological Seminary. He holds a Ph.D. from…
The Collision Course of Christian Exclusivity
“What has changed over my lifetime is the self-consciousness of Leftists and secularists. They can no longer peacefully coexist with Christians. As in imperial Rome, Christians must go.” Read the…
Allegiant Baptism
Introduction Few topics generate more theological debate with less productivity than baptism. I observed recently a reignition on social media of the baptist-paedobaptist dispute; and as nearly always, it included…
New Book — Defend the Faith: Christian Warfare for Our Time
The Christian life is a battle, and battles presuppose enemies. The chief enemy of Christians is Satan (and demonic spirits aligned with him [Eph. 6:12]), but a leading strategy in…
Jesus, Jews, and Jerusalem
Hi Dr. Sandlin, I hope all is well with you. I have been struggling through Old testament prophecies and I am having a hard time seeing how Jesus fulfilled the…
Eschatologies Have Consequences
Why is the church weak, emaciated, and defeated? She expects to be weak, emaciated, and defeated. Read the article here.
Spiritual Masochists
A perversely pious gush diabolically inspired to derail God’s aggressive, kingdom-expanding work in the world is the last thing we need. Read the article here.
Knowing Your Cultural Marxism
Cultural Marxism is a complicated ideology and I’ve given a simple explanation, but here I’ll lay out several points by which you can identify this increasingly pervasive intellectual poison. 1.…
Political Insurrection Versus Creational Insurrection
The January 6 Capitol breach by several hundred members at the massive Trump rally was instantly labelled an “insurrection” by the Washington Post and other Leftist mainstream news outlets and…
David L. Bahnsen on Stimulus Bills, Covid Lockdowns, and Interest Rates
David L. Bahnsen is Senior Fellow of Economics and Finance for the Center for Cultural Leadership and Founder, Managing Partner, and Chief Investment Officer of The Bahnsen Group, a bi-coastal…
Easter Eschatology
“When Christ declared on the cross, ‘It is finished!’ he meant the atonement was forever over. But when he rose, he didn’t declare, ‘It is finished!’ Easter isn’t over.” Read…
Brian G. Mattson on Classical Theism, Critical Race Theory, and N. T. Wright
Brian G. Mattson is a public theologian, Senior Scholar of Public Theology for the Center for Cultural Leadership as well as Adjunct Professor of Systematic and Public Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary. He holds…
Jeffery J. Ventrella on the Supreme Court, Christian Worldview, and TransTyranny
Jeffery J. Ventrella, J.D., Ph.D., is Distinguished Fellow of Law and Culture at the Center for Cultural Leadership and Senior Counsel and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs & Training for…
Cultural Orthodoxy, Not Just Ecclesial Orthodoxy
When criteria of right belief are limited to the church, even Christian orthodoxy is jeopardized. Read the rest here.
“Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” Isn’t
Today the CalPers board considered the widely implemented Diversity & Inclusion Report and Framework. CalPers is a massive agency for California employees, retirees and their families and manages the largest pension fund in the…
Realized Religion : Victory Already, Before the “Not Yet”
“One of the most prominent errors in the history of the church is postponing massive blessings of creation and the gospel to the eternal state. If the liberal churches wish…
Gnostic Funerals
“Funerals are a gauge of the impact of Gnosticism in Christianity. Underlying the Gnostic attitude in modern Christian funerals is the most troubling assumption of all: a theology of escape.”…
James White, Postmillennialist
Dr. James White is a Reformed Baptist theologian and apologist and founder and director of Alpha Omega Ministries who, formerly premillennial and amillennial, recently shifted his eschatology to postmillennialism. I…
Ghost Churches
Introduction A new term in ecclesial nomenclature is “ghosting.” It denotes church members’ dropping out of their congregations without informing their church leadership, simply disappearing. In our age that increasingly…
The Creed of Leftism
1. There are no absolute, transcendent standards for this world and, therefore, humanity must create them. 2. The central standard humanity must create is the widest possible human autonomy. There…
Gospel or Salvation?
Many Christians calls themselves “evangelical,” but actually they’re soterians. They’re not Gospel Christians, but soteriological Christians. These two aren’t the same. Read the article here.
The Degeneration into Political Soteriology
“This insurrection is sometimes called ‘conservative counter-revolution,’ but it never is. It claims to be restoring the moral order overturned by Leftists, but it is actually an attempt to reverse…
The Human Types that Make Statism Necessary
Three kinds of individuals are particularly attracted to statism, the ideology that that there is no social problem for which increased political control isn’t the best solution. It is impossible…
Will You Help CCL this Year’s End?
Dear friends and supporters: A number of you have already sent a generous year-end donation. Thank you deeply. Most Christian ministries receive a large proportion of their income at the…
Christmas: Excarnation Versus Incarnation
This Advent and Christmas season we celebrate the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Incarnation literally denotes enfleshment. The eternal Son of God assumed humanity as a babe in Bethlehem…
Let the Right One In
“If we open our heart to the ungodly, we are opening our heart to ungodliness. It is impossible to separate the person from his moral condition, as much as we…
The Un-Toned-Down Gospel
First-century apostate Judaism and the ancient Roman Empire did not feel threatened by a theological interpretation of the death of Jesus Christ, vital though it is to the health of…
We’re All Progressives Now
“One of the leading 20th century Christian philosophers to have outlined the development of progressivism is Augusto Del Noce. He declares that progressivism can be identified by the ‘today it is no…
The Post-Resurrection Gospel Presupposes the Pre-Resurrection Kingdom
The reason that the life and message of Jesus Christ portrayed in the gospel accounts, particularly the Synoptics, seem so far removed from the post-resurrection Gospel of Paul and the…
The 2020 Political Victory
“The 1619 Project and BLM are right — you must get rid of the United States as we’ve known it to produce ‘The Good [i.e., Godless] Society.’” Read the article…
The Arc of Providence Bends Toward Victory
“No, the objection is much more profound: politicians who believe it’s their responsibility to protect citizens from ordinary, adult decisions; who believe that adults shouldn’t be permitted to govern themselves;…
Is Biblical Christianity Republican?
But the decision to be biblically obedient in today’s political context means we don’t have the luxury of standing above partisan commitments, and it obviously means that commitment cannot be…
The Political Pietism of John Piper
Likely no prominent evangelical exemplifies both the assets and liabilities of contemporary pietism more than Piper…. Read the entire post here.
CCL November 7 Symposium
2020 Vision for a Blurry Year Topics: The upsides of a downside year Presidential election as chaos The political ideology of the COVID-19 drama Cultural Marxists in the streets The…
The Church After Covid – Why Bother Going Back?
The COVID-19 crisis, both the real crisis and the manufactured crisis, will subside, though much too quickly for the panic-porn purveyors in our major media outlets. Consequences of the crisis…
