Welcome to the online home of Tim Challies, blogger, author, and book reviewer.
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Over the past couple of years I’ve heard more and more women speaking of how the Risen Motherhood podcast or website (founded by Emily Jensen and Laura Wifler) has been a blessing to them. And these aren’t just women I encounter “out there” in the Christian world but women I know “right here” in my own local church. It’s been a joy to hear how they have benefited from these resources, and I know many of them have been looking …
If you pay attention to Christian publishing, you’ll observe that certain themes come and go, rise and fall. One author will write a book on a subject and that may ignite interest so that several others follow up to challenge that person’s view, to affirm it, or to pursue it from a different angle. A recent theme, at least in one little corner of the Christian world, has been the notion of “home.” And now Ian K. Smith has added …
Have you ever read an “if this is true…” book? An “if this is true…” book is one that challenges you so deeply that you realize that if what it’s saying is true, then you’ve got to make some major changes to your life. R.C. Sproul’s The Holiness of God is one of those books—many who read it suddenly realized they had never actually known God as he is, as the God who is three times holy. Nancy Pearcey’s Total …
It is beyond dispute that the prosperity gospel has swept over the world to such a degree that a significant portion of those who call themselves Christians—whether at home or abroad—hold to a version of Christianity that bears little resemblance to “the faith once for all delivered to the saints.” It is beyond dispute that this gospel promises prosperity to the many while delivering it to only a few. And it is beyond dispute that there is a clear connection …
It can’t be easy to be a teen girl. Though I suppose there has probably never been a context in which coming of age was free from all challenges, there’s no doubt that the twenty-first century offers some new and unique ones. And if it can’t be easy to be a teen girl, it can’t be any easier to be a Christian teen girl who is already following the narrow road that leads toward Christ but which also leads her …
While the gospel remains fixed and unchanging, every generation is different from the one before. While God’s Word is always true and powerful, each generation has its own doubts and questions. This means that each generation needs to be taught about God and his Word in a unique way. Where gen X might have responded well to the clear, straightforward answers of Evidence that Demands a Verdict, today’s millennials are not wrestling with those issues and may not be satisfied …
It’s sometimes amazing to consider how quickly societal mores change, how quickly an idea can go from unthinkable to acceptable, from having great social stigma attached to its acceptance to having even greater social stigma attached to its rejection. There may be no better example of this than transgenderism. Less than a generation ago, few would have dared suggest that there is no necessary link between biological sex and gender identity. Today, though, it is commonly believed that a person …
It’s not like we’re hurting for books about a Christian understanding of work. In fact, the past few years have seen nothing short of an explosion of interest in the subject. So when yet another showed up in my mailbox, I was tempted to set it aside. I was tempted, that is, until I saw D.A. Carson’s commendation: “The last few years have witnessed a flurry of books that treat a Christian view of work. This is the best of …
I’ve seen churches where the pastor has been treated terribly—a slave forced to cede to the congregation’s every whim. I’ve seen churches where the pastor has been treated heroically—a superstar who exists above all critique and accountability. Surely the biblical position avoids both extremes and treats the pastor far better than either a slave or a celebrity. It treats him as a shepherd or, better still, an under-shepherd who serves on behalf of the great Shepherd of the sheep, Jesus …
We’ve all heard the witticisms about death and taxes as the world’s only inevitabilities and about humanity’s mortality rate continuing to stick stubbornly at exactly one hundred percent. We all know we are going to die and that we ought to prepare ourselves accordingly. But what’s equally inevitable and perhaps even more painful, is that people we love are going to die. Harder still, is that we may need to guide them or even make decisions for them in those …