EPIC Australia/New Zealand: EPIC Vlog 03

I spent last week traveling through Australia and New Zealand exploring, meeting lots of people, and learning about the history of Christianity in those two great lands. Here’s just some of what I experienced along the way. This video was made possible with special thanks to Sam Chan and his new book Evangelism in a Skeptical World.  

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Jerusalem – EPIC Vlog 01

I recently spent a few days in Jerusalem, looking through museums, churches, and other sites for objects related to the history of the Christian faith. This was, of course, all part of my EPIC church history project which will be continuing all through 2018 (Ireland, I’ll see you in January!). This time around I’ve got something neat to share with you at the end of it all: a vlog that relates some of my experiences. I hope you enjoy it! …

Heroes, Hagiography, and Villainy

There was a time, and it was not so very long ago, that we wanted heroes who were flawless. We would look to the past to find people who had an outsized impact on our world and prepare biographies tipped well in the direction of hagiography. We might read a thousand or two thousand pages on a great statesman or theologian and never encounter more than a cursory examination of their shortcomings. Even if we did, those flaws might be …

EPIC: Switzerland (Day 0)

A little while ago I announced a new project I’ve titled EPIC. In a series of journeys unfolding over the next 12 or 18 months, I’ll be traveling all over the globe searching for church history. I’ll be looking especially for key historical objects through which I’ll be able to tell the story of the Christian church (in a forthcoming book). After spending a week in Germany last month, I’m traveling this month to Switzerland. As with my last trip, …

One Very Good Reason to Study Church History

A friend of mine recently became a citizen of the United States of America. Until that point, he had been a mere resident, a visitor, a sojourner, a citizen of some other place. But he followed the process, he fulfilled his obligations, and he at last received the decision of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services—he would be granted the privilege of citizenship. So he stood before a judge and took the Oath of Allegiance, and in that moment became …

What Tolkien Did So Well, What We Do So Poorly

Over the past few weeks I have been reading through The Lord of the Rings, slowly meandering my way through Middle Earth for the umpteenth time. Every time I read the books, I find myself drawn to something different, some new demonstration of Tolkien’s brilliance. One of the strengths that distinguishes his work from other fantasy is its depth. Tolkien did not simply write a story, he created a world. Before he wrote characters and narrative, he created mythology, planets, …

Sexual Morality in a Christless World

The times are changing. Sexual morality is undergoing nothing less than a revolution as traditional morality gives way to something radically different. The former morality, based on the Christian scriptures, is being shoved aside by a new one that not only departs from the Bible, but outright rejects it. Meanwhile, Christians who abide by those traditional sexual morals are increasingly seen as outcasts, backward people dangerously hung up on ancient, oppressive principles. It is all very disconcerting. Into the fray …

Take a Course with R.C. and Me

This fall I am going to be taking a course taught by R.C. Sproul—a brand new course based on his most recent teaching series, “Justified by Faith Alone.” Even better, I’ll be moderating the course so you can take it with me, for free! With the 500th anniversary of the Reformation fast approaching, there is no better time to ensure you have a solid understanding of this key doctrine. And, at least as far as I’m concerned, there is no …

The Apostle

Human history contains few lives more interesting, more unusual, more significant, than that of the Apostle Paul. The words he wrote transformed the ancient world and, when rediscovered at the time of the Reformation, shaped the modern world as well. It is impossible to construct an accurate picture of the world today without considering Paul and the letters he wrote so many years ago—letters that became the core of our New Testament. I was recently considering my love of biographies …