The Rhythm of the Christian Life
How Life Alone and Christian Community Go Together
In a sentence, the rhythm of the Christian life is a biblically-based, centuries-old belief that time alone with God and time together with others are intimately connected and work in tandem to glorify God. What is the rhythm? The moment we hear the word “rhythm” related to our spiritual life, we probably think about... Continue Reading
Three Reasons Why Jesus Did Not Go to Hell When He Died
A popular heresy that circulates from heretic to heretic is that Jesus’ death on the cross was insufficient.
What does the Bible say about Jesus’ death? Was it really insufficient? Was it necessary for Jesus to go to hell and suffer more under God’s wrath? According to Romans 3:25, Jesus’ blood served as the propitiation and satisfied the Father. That same truth is taught in 1 John 2:1-2. The most powerful verse that... Continue Reading
If God Already Knows Everything We Need, Why Pray?
The short answer is that God commands us to pray.
Of course, God knows what we need even before we ask for it. Yet it delights God when we humble ourselves and pray to him. It demonstrates that we need him, it stirs us to love and worship him and know him as our true source of life. Our affections and zeal for the Lord... Continue Reading
Common Christian Myths About Happiness
Happiness is a good desire when we seek it in Christ.
To be holy is to see God as he is and to become like him, covered in Christ’s righteousness. And since God’s nature is to be happy (Psalm 115:3; 1 Timothy 1:11), the more like him we become in our sanctification, the happier we will be. Forcing a choice between happiness and holiness is utterly... Continue Reading
Hxrstory, Cisheteropatriarchy, and the Remaking of America: A New Curriculum Emerges in California
A new state-mandated ethnic studies curriculum for high schools.
The worldview implications from this curriculum proposal are astounding. This proposal asserts an ideological agenda from the far-left fringes of liberals, now peddled as mainstream educational policy. Here is official state policy perpetrating and advancing a massive moral and sexual revolution—and children are their target. As millions of American students prepare to return to... Continue Reading
Garden of Grief
Why here, at the Olive Press, for Jesus to struggle with the prospect of draining Calvary's woe-filled, fuming, cup?
After His last meal, He tiptoed down the slope, crossed Kidron’s weeping Brook, ascended the craggy incline, to do combat with God’s wrath, away from crowds…secluded from the world. A Provocative Question “Are those olive groves?” That was the question that my wife asked me this morning. We were on our way back to... Continue Reading
Struggle, Progress, and Beauty
Our lives can be beautiful and point, however imperfectly, to Christ.
By God’s grace, we can adorn the gospel and so win people to it. People may not ask the questions we want them to ask: Who is Jesus? How can I overcome the problem of guilt?” But they do ask legitimate questions: Who am I? Does life have meaning? How can I find the joy,... Continue Reading
The Practical Importance of Systematic Theology
The truths concerning God and his relations are, above all comparison, in themselves the most worthy of all truths of study and examination.
The contemplation and exhibition of Christianity as truth, is far from the end of the matter. This truth is specially communicated by God for a purpose, for which it is admirably adapted. That purpose is to save and sanctify the soul. And the discovery, study, and systematization of the truth is in order that, firmly... Continue Reading
Can We Still Trust Evangelical Theology?
The dogmas of divine simplicity, eternality, infinity, immutability, impassibility, and triune relations of origin have been widely redefined and even rejected.
This change confronts us with the question: can we trust our theology? Is it correct? Why are we biblical now but not then? What makes us right and them wrong? What confidence can we have in unshakeable revealed truth if we cannot agree on the central topic of Christianity anymore, namely, God? A number of recent evangelical... Continue Reading
Invisible Providence
What are we to make of the fact that God is “missing in action” from Esther?
The author portrays God’s presence by not mentioning the presence of God at all.1 In other words, it’s the silence that proves His presence; the lack of theology is in fact the theology. In this way, the book of Esther teaches an important lesson for Christians today. In fact, rather than being a neglected book, Esther... Continue Reading