I already supplied a list of my favorite modern novels for your Coronavirus-quarantined enjoyment, so now I’ll elevate the genre by providing a list of 25 of my favorite Christian books that (in my view) are either excessively obscure or simply less popular than they should be. 1. Christianity and Classical Culture, by Charles Norris Continue reading

I’m hearing folks will spending lots of time indoors the next few days (weeks?), so I thought I’d compile a couple of genre reading lists. Here’s the first: 1. The Straw Men, Michael Marshall 2. The Snowman, Joe Nesbø 3. The Charm School, Nelson DeMille 4. The Secret History, Donna Tartt 5. The Leopard, Joe Continue reading

Christian parents guilt-ridden (wrongly) over wayward adult children, believing (wrongly) that proper rearing is the exclusive condition of children’s faith might be comforted by the knowledge that the first Father’s children ruined the human race, despite living in a sinless environment, and that the same Father grieved in his heart: “Hear, O heavens, and give Continue reading

Critical theory (CT) is getting press today among conservatives chiefly because of its inroads in the Southern Baptist Convention and similar groups. This belated recognition is unfortunate, because had conservatives been culturally attune they would not now be fighting with their backs to the church walls. But because so many have been influenced by ecclesiastical Continue reading

The goal of the gospel is not to rescue people out of the created world. It is to gradually purify the created world of sin and restore human furnishing — not just human furnishing, in fact, but furnishing for all of creation. The creation itself, Paul writes, is groaning for redemption (Rom. 8:22). When the Continue reading

The church is indispensable in God’s kingdom. The church alone is his local, gathered community washed in the blood of his Son under the oversight of earthly shepherds.[1] (There is no such thing as the “invisible” church in the Bible.) The church alone preserves structured theological belief (orthodoxy). The church alone is the pillar and Continue reading

The U. S. Founders believed in religious liberty and as Christians (or Christian-influenced), they knew that “Christianity Is the Mother of Political Liberty.” In fact, political liberty grew out of religious liberty in Europe. Therefore, we need to know what religious liberty means. It doesn’t mean that the state is neutral toward religion. The “Establishment Continue reading

God has chosen not to annihilate Satan and his forces, but to get the victory for his people through great conflict over sin. He decides to defeat it, not abolish it. Think about that fact for a moment, because it’ll help you understand many things about Christianity and the Christian life. God allows Satan and Continue reading

What our children and grandchildren consider normal will be shaped not only by what they hear and see in family and church but also in the surrounding culture. Continue reading

This new year, I’ve noticed (and benefited from) a number of 2018 books-read lists, but here I want to address younger bibliophiles, and from a different angle. Recently I estimated the number of books that I’ll read over the rest of my life, if God grants a full life, and given my pattern of reading, Continue reading

An important but overlooked essay on Christianity and culture is Massey H. Shepherd’s “Before and After Constantine.”[1] In reaction to assertions by historians like Arnold Toynbee that Christianity has been becoming gradually obsolete or, at least, losing its influence, he suggests that the real predicament for Christianity is in another area. The actual problem, asserts Continue reading

Dear Andrew, What is your view of the New Perspective on Paul and its origins? How would you define it essence? I don’t mean just N. T. Wright, but the whole thing. My verdict on the New Perspective on Paul (NPP) is a big question to which I can give only a small answer. There’s Continue reading

The president’s successful campaign slogan Make America Great Again (MAGA) is entirely legitimate, but I’m not sure that most Americans know what made our country great in the first place. It wasn’t our natural resources or two massive oceans that separated us from Europe and Asia. Nor was it even our military might or system Continue reading

When the angels announced the birth of our Lord to the shepherds, they noted that this incarnation of God would bring “peace on earth, goodwill toward men” (Lk. 2:14). This oft-repeated Christmastime pledge warms the hearts of Christians and even many non-Christians who bemoan the obvious and ubiquitous conflict in our world. There is hope Continue reading

In the current dispute ( = battle) over homosexuality and same-sex “marriage” and “-attraction” ( = temptation) in the church, biblical conservatives are often confronted by this argument: “Yes, homosexuality and its related desires are sinful, but they are no worse than their heterosexual counterparts.” (The terms homosexual and  heterosexual are 19th century secular, humanistic Continue reading

We’ve all heard about postmodernism.[1] This popularity is probably a result of the fact that it’s the dominant pop worldview in the West. Our culture hosts several worldviews, but it’s postmodernism that’s widely pervasive on the popular level. One of the most memorable, brief descriptions of postmodernism is also the title of Walter Truett Anderson’s Continue reading