Since 1973, more than 60 million babies have been aborted. And surely those numbers do not include the pregnancies terminated by women ingesting a pill that takes the life of their child. Indeed, for all the ways that advocates for life celebrated the end of Roe, the sad truth remains: abortions have not gone down in America since 2022. Instead, they continue to be celebrated by radical activists, defended by elderly women in pink hats, and protected by some pro-life advocates who cannot bring themselves to prosecute a woman for seeking an abortion.

When it comes to the debate around abortion there are fault lines between political parties and advocates and opponents of abortion. Yet, at the same time, there are fault lines between those who would seek to end abortion, too. Most prominently, there is a divide between abolitionists and incrementalists. Abolitionists are driven by both the Word of God and equal protection under the law to end abortion immediately and totally. Incrementalists also long for abortion to be ended, but they strategize ways to limit abortion legislatively, even if those measures may not call for the total abolition of abortion. So in general, an incrementalist would support a legislative ban on abortions after the ten weeks of gestation, while an abolitionist would not support this kind of ban—because why allow babies to be murdered before they are ten weeks old?

In between is a world of nuance. There are abolitionists who rejected Donald Trump for the way the Republican party softened their stance on abortion, and there are others who continued to support our forty-seventh president. There are smash-mouth incrementalists who are committed to equal protection under the law and the ultimate goal of abolition, but who are also willing to concede various incremental strategies on the way to that end. And there are other pro-life advocates and organizations, some who are not even Christian, who work against abortion, but who will not hold the woman accountable for their role in killing their own child. Throw in a host of strong personalities, media skills, organizational commitments, and regional differences, and you have a hornets’ nest of issues to work through in bringing the unchanging law of God to the laws of our land.

Scripture is undeniable: Thou shalt not kill. And all parties who shed blood are responsible to God for the blood they shed. Equally, every image of God, from the moment of fertilization, deserves protection. Legal protection is not something that should be granted when the child is delivered, or at the moment they can feel pain, or the moment their heart beats. Rather, if our affections are shaped by the Word of God, we should strive for the protection of life no matter the size, age, or location of the child. The child in the womb deserves the same protection as the woman on the street. Yet, many of our states do not have laws that protect the unborn in this way.

At the same time, how do we pass laws when the hearts of the lawmakers are so battle-hardened against the calls for life? How do pro-life politicians convince women and men who are religiously committed to radical feminism to protect the child instead of a woman’s “right to choose”? And if some partial-measure is passed that saves some children—a heartbeat bill, for instance—on the way to writing laws that protect all children, then shouldn’t we celebrate such legislation—even as we fight for more? And we also might consider that every state has a different representative make-up, which will result in different legislative strategies. And so, if there is an organization with a national platform, shouldn’t that organization refuse to stand in the way of an outright abolition of abortion in one state for fear of what that might do in another state?

These questions and others stand at the heart of the debate today, and this month, we intend to talk about them all. Without taking a side that says abolitionists are right and incrementalists are wrong, or vice versa, we hope to widen the conversation this month to let all parties speak. And so, in the weeks ahead we will hear from abolitionists and incrementalists, authors and advocates, politicians and political commentators, on the best strategies to end abortion. And in facilitating a debate among brothers and sisters in Christ, we hope to further the conversation in such a way that we can understand the arguments on both sides and how and where we can work together to bring an end to abortion.

To that end, we enter the new year seeking to abolish abortion and to advocate for life.

One last thing: we would value your feedback as we go through this month. As you look at the upcoming articles we have planned and you see an area, angle, or argument that we have missed, send us an email (located at the bottom footer of our website) and let us know soon. If there’s an essay you’d like to contribute, reach out to us and let’s talk.

Christmas Buffet: Assorted Articles for an Edifying Advent

Before running into the new year, don’t miss all the healthy portions from December. In these essays we have a mix of Christmas devotions, Christian doctrine, and a host of other considerations. So take a look and share with others anything good you find (our longforms are in bold below).

• Law is King: How the Bible Shapes Our View of Law & Civil Government by Levi Secord • Longform Essay • Deuteronomy 17 shows that kings stand under God’s law. This article explores how rulers rise to power, why they must obey the law, and whether these truths apply beyond Israel.
• City of God: A Primer by Daniel Strand • Concise Article • Augustine’s City of God has withstood the test of time, exerting influence on political thought for nearly 1,600 years. In this article, scholar Daniel Strand provides an overview of Augustine’s magnum opus, discussing its background, literary genre, structure, and key themes.
• 4.55 “Law is King: How the Bible Shapes Our View of Law & Civil Government” by Levi Secord • Podcast Reading • Deuteronomy 17 shows that kings stand under God’s law. This article explores how rulers rise to power, why they must obey the law, and whether these truths apply beyond Israel.
• Vocation Politics: The Discourses of Pierre de La Place by Timon Cline • Concise Article • Martyred Huguenot Pierre de La Place saw politics as the harmony of all vocations. This essay uncovers his rich vision for public life, calling, and the common good.
• A Brief Theology of Leisure for an Over-Worked and Anxious People by Benjamin Nguyen • Concise Article • Life is busy and work is hard whether you are a Christian or not. But the Bible helps us think rightly about both our labors and our rest. Read on as Benjamin Nguyen outlines the theme of rest, or leisure, in the Bible and applies it to believers today.
• A Primer on Kuyper’s Politics by Jordan J. Ballor • Concise Article • A practical introduction to Abraham Kuyper’s political theology—common grace, sphere sovereignty, and a vision of Christ’s lordship over all life.
• Stop and See the Stars: Medieval Mysteries and Contemporary Christians by Michael Longerbeam • Concise Article • A call for Christians to resist a mechanized view of the universe by recovering the medieval sense of mystery, order, and humility—learning from C.S. Lewis and Jason Baxter to slow down, look up, and remember the God who made the stars.
• Was Jesus a Refugee? And Why It Matters for the Immigration Issue by Alex Kocman • Longform Essay • In an effort to steer well-meaning Christians’ sympathies, some leaders in the church have cited the life of our Lord as evidence for their progressive political agenda. But are they getting their facts straight? Read as Alex Kocman dispels the emotional trump-card, “Jesus was a refugee.”
• 4.56 “Was Jesus a Refugee? And Why It Matters for Immigration” by Alex Kocman • Podcast Reading • In an effort to steer well-meaning Christians’ sympathies, some leaders in the church have cited the life of our Lord as evidence for their progressive political agenda. But are they getting their facts straight? Read as Alex Kocman dispels the emotional trump-card, “Jesus was a refugee.”
• Christmas Poetry: “Emmanuel Revealed: A Catechism on Hope” by Dan Haase • Concise Article • A poetic catechism meditating on hope, its nature, and its consummation in love through the advent of Emmanuel.
• The Christmas Gift of Un-Clouded Spirituality by Andrew Ballard • Concise Article • Many see their spiritual life like Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness: always chasing an elusive, tangible God. But Andrew Ballard shows how in Christ, we have received a greater, more substantial experience of God. So, let us leave behind a “cloudy spirituality,” and instead embrace Christ in all his glory.
• Should Pastors Be Political?: Alcohol Prohibition as Test Case in Dallas, TX by Marc Minter • Concise Article • Should religious leaders hold sway over their congregation’s ballots? Does a pastor speaking to political issues violate the separation of church and state? Read on as Marc Minter illuminates the issue via the test case of George Truett’s support for prohibition in 1917.
• Christmas Hope and the Stockdale Paradox: Christmas in Light of Our Liberation from Sin by Josh Wootton • Concise Article • Many of our carols speak of the joy of Christmas. One source of that joy is the liberation from sin which we receive a foretaste of in this life. Read as Josh Wootton offers a brief explanation of how the freedom from sin inaugurated in Christ gives us hope this Christmas.
• 4.57 “Law is King: How the Bible Shapes Our View of Law & Civil Government” by Levi Secord, David Schrock, & Stephen Wellum • Podcast Interview • Listen in as David Schrock and Stephen Wellum interview Levi Secord on his COA Longform Essay: “Law is King: How the Bible Shapes Our View of Law & Civil Government.”
• Christmas Among Curses by Brandon D. Myers • Concise Article • Christmas is meant to be a joyous time when we remember the wonderful advent of our Lord Jesus. But this joy can only be rightly received when the curse is felt.
• Christmas is for Kids by Garrett Wishall • Concise Article • Obviously, Christmas is for kids! But what if I told you that it’s ONLY for kids—that unless you become a kid yourself, Christmas isn’t for you? That’s what Jesus said, and Garrett Wishall is here to remind us how to do it.
• Matthew’s Genealogy Isn’t Missing a Name—It’s Making a Claim by Jeremy Sexton • Concise Article • While many of us may skip the opening genealogy in Matthew’s gospel, Jeremy Sexton argues that Matthew’s first chapter is rich with gospel truth. Read on and see how the generations from Abraham to Jesus bring us to the heart of Nicene theology, glorifying our great savior!
• A Wide Road to Hell: Pluralism, the Incarnation, and the Exclusivity of Christ by Chris Prosser • Concise Article • Why do non-Christians like the Christmas story? Because everyone loves a Jesus who is merely one manifestation of God’s love among many. But such a Jesus cannot save you. The whole narrative of Scripture and the reality of the incarnation both demand that Jesus be exclusive: apart from him there is no salvation.
• 4.58 “Was Jesus a Refugee? And Why It Matters for Immigration” by Alex Kocman, David Schrock, & Stephen Wellum • Podcast Interview • Listen in as David Schrock & Stephen Wellum interview Alex Kocman on his COA Longform Essay “Was Jesus a Refugee? And Why It Matters for Immigration.”
• A Heart for Christmas or for Christ? by David Schrock • Concise Article • Introducing the very first short story in Christ Over All’s history! This won’t be the last—next December, we’ll hold a short story competition all month long!
• Attention as Worship by Jeff Beaupre • Concise Article • What if what you pay attention to most reveals what you worship?
• In Defense of Religion: Why “Jesus vs. Religion” Falls Apart by Tyler Cox • Concise Article • Should we ditch “religion” for Jesus because the term has negative connotations? Or is embracing the concept of religion fundamental to what it means to be a Christian?
• 4.59 “Christ Over All Editor Roundtable & A Preview of 2026” by David Schrock, Trent Hunter, Ardel Caneday, & Stephen Wellum • Podcast Interview • Listen in as the Editorial Board for Christ Over All reviews the year of 2025 and looks forward to what’s coming in 2026.
• Hope of the Prophets: The Divine Missions and the Literal Sense of the Old Testament by Michael Pereira • Concise Article • How do we reconcile the Old Testament authors genuinely foretelling New Testament realities, but then only the Son can reveal the saving knowledge of these realities? The answer lies in divine missions.

News and Notes

First, thank you for giving!

In the Lord’s kindness, Christ Over All received a $25,000 matching gift, and in the month of December we raised more than $40,000, with a few receipts still being totaled. So, thank you for giving and praying and supporting this work. It is only as the Lord provides through your generous gifts that we can continue to bring these resources online.

Second, this month we will begin selling our PDFs—half off!

As Steve Wellum noted on our last podcast for 2025, each month Christ Over All is compiling a book’s worth of material on given subjects. And for those who are avid readers, you know that the volume is more than you can often read in one month. Yet, in our attempts to produce evergreen material, we often want to cover an issue from multiple angles—biblical, theological, historical, cultural, and practical.

What that means in a month, however, is that often it is too much. Yet, we believe it is just right when you want to dive deep into a subject or use the materials for a class or discipleship group. And to help facilitate that, we will begin selling our PDFs for $15. The cost goes to help cover the expenses of the ministry and in time, we hope to find a way to print our months. But for now, each PDF will be a well-formatted, paginated journal that you can download and share with those you are ministering to. And for starters, every theme will be half-off. So keep your eyes out for these PDFs.

Third, be aware of our upcoming months.

We receive submissions from faithful Christians who have thought deeply about our topics. If you have interest in one of the following topics in bold and are interested in writing for us (in line with our doctrinal distinctives), feel free to shoot us an e-mail to tell us what you are thinking. We are still taking submissions for the months in bold below:

January: Abolishing Abortion, Advocating for Life

February: God Is . . . Engaging the Doctrine of God

March: Can the Center Hold? The SBC in the Twenty First Century

April: The Resurrection in the Old Testament

May: Critiquing Eastern Orthodoxy

June: Opposing Islam

July: Celebrating America’s 250^th Anniversary

August: A Sabbath Rest: A Collection of COA’s Best Essays . . . So Far

September: The Ten Commandments

October: Pastor, Be Political: A Guide Glorifying God in the Midterms

November: Economics 101

December: Christmas Carols to the Glory of God

Fourth, we’d love to see you face to face in the next few months.

In 2026, we will be visiting Southwest Florida to join the Founders National Conference in Fort Myers on January 22–24. That week David Schrock will be one of the speakers, and we will have a booth. Sign up here to join us.

Join Trent Hunter, David Helm, and Ryan Kelly in Greenville, SC, from January 28–30, 2026, for a Simeon Trust Workshop on Leviticus. If you are a pastor, preacher, or aspiring minister of the gospel, this hands-on workshop is well worth the time.

That’s all for this month. Until next time, let’s remember that because Christ is Lord over all, we ought exalt Christ in all things.

“This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”
—Jesus

The Christmas music played in the background as Jack wrapped packages. While the music brought back many happy memories, recent events took his mind in another direction.

Work at the courthouse was increasingly difficult. Last year they removed the Ten Commandments. This year county employees received a memo requesting everyone to tone down “Christmas” rhetoric. They didn’t outright censor “Merry Christmas,” but they might as well have.

Closer to home Jerrod received his yearly Christmas list: Put up the tree. Buy non-perishables for the church’s homeless offering. Put up the crèche. Have some holiday cheer.

“Very funny,” Jerrod thought to himself. “My wife thinks of everything: Have holiday cheer!”

And she did. She knew the pressures of work and the added stress of church had made Jerrod more than just a “grouchy bear,” as she liked to call him. Only two weeks remained until Christmas, and he was overwhelmed with Christmas events at church. And as a result his Joy to the Lord was out of tune. So to spark his Christmas spirit, Jerrod’s wife put him to work on the crèche he loved. It worked marvelously.

*****

The crèche was Jerrod’s pride and joy. When his kids moved out of the house, he took a whole year to make a life-size nativity. He loved to tell people he crafted it by hand. Their astonishment (and compliments) always pleased him. His no-nonsense reputation as Washington County’s District Attorney had earned him the nickname, “the hammer.” But now with an artisan’s touch, he showed another side.

It always surprised people that he was so passionate about Christmas. After all it was during this time of the year that he was most on edge. But he put that thought aside as he pulled out all the pieces. He liked to think of himself like Joseph, that great carpenter of old, who had so wonderfully taught Jesus all he knew about woodworking.

He went to work on the manger. It took hours to unload half the garage, but when he was through, he stepped back and cited one of his favorite verses, “It is finished.” He couldn’t remember where that verse came from, but he liked to say it to himself whenever he won a case—or finished such a magnificent project.

*****

Two thousand years ago another Jerrod—Herod to be exact—was renowned for his artistic feats too. Among his many projects, he rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. And like Jerrod, he became deeply interested in Jesus’s birth. Matthew 2 tells his story.

When wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, Herod heard they sought the Jewish messiah. Being deeply concerned for the peace and prosperity of the nation, he too inquired into the birth of this child.

He learned the wise men had traveled from afar to worship him, and a star had led them to Jerusalem. Such exciting news stirred the whole city; everyone was talking about what this child meant to them—peace, joy, and national restoration.

Herod too was excited, but for other reasons. He knew such a child would need to be protected. After all, if the most powerful and wise men from the nations came to worship him, there is no telling who else would seek his court.

A student of history, Herod took interest in the ancient prophecies. He had heard about a coming messiah, and so he invited his favorite teachers to come and instruct him in the ancient words. He was troubled that he might miss the birth of such a king.

The chief priests and scribes who attended Herod had served him for years. They knew his anger and severity, but put up with him for the many things he had done for Israel—not least of which was building the most glorious temple in Israel’s history. Though they were uncomfortable with his violence, as priests they reasoned that a little bloodshed was better than a lot of bloodshed.

From the priests Herod learned the Jewish king would come from Bethlehem. In turn, he called the wise men and sent them on a covert mission to find the child. Deeply concerned with the birth of Jesus, he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.”

Some of the chief priests and scribes found his desire to worship bizarre, sort of like the way Jerrod’s co-workers puzzled over Jerrod’s obsession with Christmas. But others surmised Herod was changing, perhaps even on account of their working relationship. All in all, it looked like the making of a very good Christmas: the Christ-child would be worshiped by wise men and Herod alike.

*****

Jerrod got ready for church. He groomed his beard and looked out the window. What started as a warm gaze at his crèche soon turned into an intense squint. A light dusting of snow covered the earth, but his yard wasn’t white.

He noticed footprints encircling the nativity. And what he saw was a great obscenity. All the characters had been rearranged. The holy family was stationed outside the stable. The animals were gathered around the manger. In the arms of Mary was a sheep. And baby Jesus was put underneath the cow’s udder.

Horrible thoughts raced through Jerrod’s mind. Those stupid kids! And Scripture: “What God has joined together, let no man separate.” He thought that verse had to do with something else, but it sure seemed to fit.

Jerrod raced to finish his shave and then jumped down the stairs to rescue Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. “It’s children like this who grow up to be in my court,” he muttered.

Fifteen minutes later, the crèche was safe, and he was on his way to church—worried sick about what might happen next.

*****

In the ensuing weeks, Herod learned he’d been tricked by the wise men. Impelled by betrayal and worship, Herod desperately sought to find the child. So great was his desire to find this baby, he sent an envoy on horseback.

His army was to find every child born in the region and return with good news. But tidings of Christmas cheer would not find the man who wanted to worship the baby in the manger. While his lips feigned worship to Jesus, his heart worshiped something else—the work of his own hands.

When his soldiers returned, they told him the gruesome news. All the children had been killed, just as Herod had ordered when he said, “Kill them all.”

*****

Two thousand years later, in a snow-covered cul-de-sac sits Jerrod’s crèche. This year, despite the threat of vandalism, his crèche had more visitors than ever. The newspaper story about “The Hammer’s Holy Habit” spotlighted his artistic side and drew in many new admirers. He even had a few church groups stop by.

Jerrod was increasingly proud of his crèche. But he was also anxious about all the last-minute details for the Christmas event. When Christmas Eve arrived, he was flustered but not fuming. All the hard work he had put into the performance paid off, and the annual event was the best it had been in years. At church, Jerrod thanked everyone for making this the best Christmas he could remember. His holiday cheer had returned. And right on time.

*****

Jerrod joked with his wife in the parking lot that he had just checked off the last item on his Christmas list. She laughed and they drove home in the snow.

As Jerrod and his wife returned home, they basked in the success of the night. They were deeply thankful for Christ’s birth and for the season he had given them. Joy to the world had returned . . . until the lights of their Lexus illumined the crèche—which had been overrun in the last hour by a storm of children in the year’s first snowball fight.

Jerrod’s wife braced his arm, but Jerrod was out the door in a flash. He ran to the scene of the carnage. Broken was Joseph’s leg. Severed was Mary’s arm. Overturned was the manger. And trampled was baby Jesus.

Aghast, Jerrod looked into the streets with rage in his eyes. He muttered something under his breath, and then in a voice reminiscent of Ramah, he roared: “Those kids! Those stupid kids! They ruined Christmas! I’m going to kill them! Kill ’em all.”

*****

“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
—Jesus

This Christmas, may Christ’s light shine on our hearts.
May it expose sin and our great need for salvation.
Jesus came into the world to save sinners and
to save those who love Christmas more than Christ.
This Christmas may our hearts love Christ more
than any other thing our hands have made.

With great nostalgia, I can think back to the meals enjoyed next to the steaming trays of food delivered by Sysco Systems. And I can remember seeing the workers on the food line, who three minutes earlier, were smoking by the front door. Just ask your closest Boomer and Gen Xer, and it is likely they know exactly what I’m talking about.

In America, chain buffets had a certain vibe, and if you can’t tell that vibe included loads of calories, lots of options, and little to no concern about “clean” eating. I will leave up to you to discuss the legacy of chain buffets, but these restaurants have largely become a thing of the past.

As many consumers’ reports attest, the COVID pandemic effectively killed all but a few chain buffets. Golden Corral is still hanging on, but Old Country Buffet, Ryan’s, and others are not. Thin profit margins and other cultural pressures saw to it that chain buffets are not the place to invest your money going forward. And for those self-conscious about seed oils or afflicted by celiac or allergic to processed food, they may feel little sadness for the buffet’s demise.

Still, there is something impressive about being able to eat steak, then salad, followed by spaghetti, seafood, and then seven kinds of pie. As my wife has said, when we dine at such fine establishments—there’s still an Amish buffet we visit every summer—“I just want a taste.” And so, in dedication to those who “just want a taste” of seventeen types of food, we offer this month to you.

As an homage to the glories of chain buffets, Christ Over All is bringing you a month filled with many different delicacies. It will begin with some of the leftovers from November and our inducement to read old books about political theology. But far from just reheating dishes, these opening essays provide fresh introductions to Augustine, Pierre de La Place, and more (Lord willing). Then, after clearing the political plates, we will have essays on leisure, immigration, medieval mysteries, biblical exegesis, and more. This month will even include poetry and one short story that will call for more fiction in 2026. Finally, as we draw near to Christmas, we will finish the month with a handful of advent devotions.

In short, this month is a Christmas buffet. And we hope that you will sit down and eat, regardless of what plate comes next. I can assure you that we have cooked our fries in the purest lard, have removed all GMO starches, and refused any protein that grew up in a lab. In short, we believe the assortment of meats and sweets this month will be wholesome and edifying, and we are excited to spread the table for you.

And more, we are excited to share a few important announcements as 2025 rolls over into 2026. Check those out below.

Do the Reading: Selections in Political Theology

Before making those announcements, be sure to consider the selections of political theology offered here. From Brad Green’s overview to Marc Minter’s retrieval of Baptist political theology, we have wide variety of books you need to know and read. We also have individual essays on important works by Augustine, Calvin, Luther, and Hodge—with a few more promised in the days ahead. These older works have been coupled with more contemporary works on religious liberty, the failure of evangelical leaders, and more.

Of note, you won’t want to miss Timon Cline’s introduction to the life and work of Huguenot martyr, Pierre de La Place. While political theology often focused on the magistrates and the ministers of the state and the church, it really should include the very person in the polis. And importantly, La Place widens our vision to see the way various vocations build up the city and inform our views of politics. So take time to read this essay, as well as all the essays listed below.

• Do the Reading: Selections in Political Theology by Brad Green • Longform Essay • A curated survey of ten seminal works in Christian political theology—from Justin Martyr and Augustine to Calvin, Rutherford, and Oliver O’Donovan—highlighting the development of theological reflection on church, state, and authority across the centuries.
• 4.51 “Do the Reading: Selections in Political Theology” by Brad Green • Longform Reading • A curated survey of ten seminal works in Christian political theology—from Justin Martyr and Augustine to Calvin, Rutherford, and Oliver O’Donovan—highlighting the development of theological reflection on church, state, and authority across the centuries.
• Calvin’s Political Thought by David W. Hall • Concise Article • Explore how John Calvin’s theology shaped modern democracy. This essay by David Hall traces Calvin’s influence on limited government, decentralized authority, and republican liberty—ideas that helped form the foundation of Western political thought.
• Can Christian Politicians Reform the Church? Martin Luther’s Address to the German Nobility (1520) by Nathan Parsons • Concise Article • Martin Luther was a paradigm-shifting theologian, but his thought did not remain in the ivory tower. Instead, he had much to say about how authority in the civil realm was to be used. Read on as Nathan Parsons expounds Luther’s ideas and applies them to our lives today.
• 4.52 “Do the Reading: Selections in Political Theology” by Brad Green, David Schrock & Stephen Wellum • Interview • Listen in as David Schrock and Stephen Wellum interview Brad Green on his Longform Essay “Do the Reading: Selections in Political Theology”
• The Political Thought of Charles Hodge by James Baird • Concise Article • Who today argues for a “masculine piety in the public square,” businesses to be closed on the Sabbath, and distinctly Christian instruction in public schools? Charles Hodge, the great systematic theologian of the nineteenth century.
• The Myth of Neutrality: Carl F.H. Henry’s Case for Prayer in Public School by Caleb Morell • Concise Article • We have been told to keep religion out of schools: the Ten Commandments were taken down and prayer was removed. Read on as Caleb Morell draws from Carl F.H. Henry to show that the school is no neutral ground; it will either recognize the authority of Christ or reject it.
• Liberty, Not Separation: The Historic Development of Baptist Perspectives on Church and State by Marc Minter • Longform Essay • A historical exploration showing that Baptists long affirmed religious liberty without requiring a separation of church and state, tracing the shift in the 20th century.
• 4.53 “Liberty, Not Separation: The Historic Development of Baptist Perspectives on Church and State” by Marc Minter • Podcast Reading • A historical exploration showing that Baptists long affirmed religious liberty without requiring a separation of church and state, tracing the shift in the 20th century.
• Encouragement and Admonition from Tocqueville’s Democracy in America by Chris Brauns • Concise Article • Few books have left their mark on American Political thinking like Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. Not allowing de Tocqueville’s chronicle of his time in the US to be merely descriptive, read as Chris Brauns shows how Democracy in America offers guidance for us to heed today.
• Tim Keller, Andy Stanley, Francis Collins, and Other Christian Leaders: The Sheep Who Made Friends with the Wolves by Joshua Parcha • Concise Article • Have some Christian leaders developed Stockholm Syndrome, identifying with the church’s critics against believers? Read on as Joshua Parcha details how John G. West’s book Stockholm Syndrome Christianity sheds light on some church leaders’ questionable allegiances.
• Machen on Public Education by Douglas Wilson • Concise Article • A concise, compelling exposition of J. Gresham Machen’s vision for Christian education, liberty, and the urgent need for faithful Christian schools.
• 4.54 “Liberty, Not Separation: The Historic Development of Baptist Perspectives on Church and State” by Marc Minter, David Schrock & Stephen Wellum • Interview • Listen in as David Schrock & Stephen Wellum interview Marc Minter on his Longform essay, “Liberty Not Separation: The Historic Development of Baptist Perspectives on Church and State”
• Five Myths Secularism Wants You to Believe About America’s Religious Freedom by Marc Minter • Concise Article • Religious freedom in America is often misunderstood as religion having no bearing on the state. But is that what our founders intended? Read on as pastor Marc Minter reviews Steven Douglas Smith’s The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom, showing how a right understanding of America’s history of religious freedom can help guide her future.
• City of God: A Primer by Daniel Strand • Concise Article • Augustine’s City of God has withstood the test of time, exerting influence on political thought for nearly 1,600-years. In this article, scholar Daniel Strand provides an overview of Augustine’s magnum opus, discussing its background, literary genre, structure, and key themes.
• Vocation Politics: The Discourses of Pierre de La Place by Timon Cline • Concise Article • Martyred Huguenot Pierre de la Place saw politics as the harmony of all vocations. This essay uncovers his rich vision for public life, calling, and the common good.

News and Notes

First, please help us match a $25,000 gift.

In the Lord’s kindness, Christ Over All received a $25,000 matching gift, which means that for every dollar you give to our ministry this month, it will be doubled.

As we finish 2025, we at Christ Over All have come to see that this ministry is in need of finding like-minded partners who would be interested and able to support this work. Currently, our monthly operations is around $10,000/ month. This covers the cost of our editing team and all the other publishing work we are doing. And throughout 2025, our monthly support has been consistently below that amount.

For 2026, we are looking to raise $150,000 to account for these needs and the added expenses of advertising, publishing, and beginning new projects. Finishing 2025 with a strong December helps us to do that.

So please consider making a one-time end of year gift. But also, if you know someone who would be interested in supporting this work on a monthly basis, let us know, and please share this need with them. Every dollar given goes toward helping Christians to think with a consistently biblical worldview across all of life. So we appreciate any gift you can make.

Second, the Christ Over All Swag Store is here

If you haven’t seen it yet, you should! Christ Over All now has a Merch store for all who are interested. If you are looking to get Christ Over All shirts, mugs, hoodies, stickers, and hats, our apparel store is up and running.

And for those who have asked for print-friendly versions of our articles, we believe (Lord willing) those might be ready as soon as this month. We are grateful for your patience and your prayers as our editors continue to put final touches on this project.

Third, be aware of our upcoming months.

We receive submissions from faithful Christians who have thought deeply about our topics. If you have interest in one of the following topics in bold and are interested in writing for us (in line with our doctrinal distinctives), feel free to shoot us an e-mail to tell us what you are thinking. We are still taking submissions for the months in bold below:

January: Abolishing Abortion, Advocating for Life

February: God Is . . . Engaging the Doctrine of God

March: Can the Center Hold? The SBC in the Twenty First Century

April: The Resurrection in the Old Testament

May: Critiquing Eastern Orthodoxy

June: Opposing Islam

July: Celebrating America’s 250^th Anniversary

August: A Sabbath Rest

September: The Ten Commandments

Fourth, we’d love to see you face-to-face in the next few months.

In 2026, we will be visiting Southwest Florida to join the Founders National Conference in Fort Myers on January 22–24. That week, David Schrock will be one of the speakers, and we will have a booth. Sign up here to join us.

Join Trent Hunter, David Helm, and Ryan Kelly in Greenville, SC, from January 28–30, 2026, for a Simeon Trust Workshop on Leviticus. If you are a pastor, preacher, or aspiring minister of the gospel, this hands-on workshop is well worth the time.

That’s all for this month. Until next time, let’s remember that because Christ is Lord over all, we ought exalt Christ in all things.

On Tuesday, this is the man my neighbors elected to the highest legal seat in the state. Not encouraging!

At the same time, the state of Virginia also elected Abigail Spanberger to be governor, even as she refused to condemn Jones vile fantasies. Instead, she ran on a commitment, among other things, to increase access for abortion and to “codify Roe v Wade” into law. And third, Virginia also elected as Lieutenant Governor an Indian woman named Ghazala Hashmi who worships Allah and the god of LGBT equality.

In all, Tuesday’s elections in Virginia made me do some thinking, praying, and evaluating about the state of politics in the Old Dominion. It certainly made me grieve the fact that my state decided to give these three the sword to exercise justice—a point I made in my last sermon. In all, I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching, and I suspect you have been doing the same.

After all, what does it mean for America that our premier financial city, New York City, will be led by an avowed Marxist and Muslim? Less than twenty-five years after Muslim terrorists destroyed the Twin Towers, that city will now governed by someone who thanked voters from every country but America. How did that happen? And what does that mean going forward?

As we approach the two-hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our founding next year, are these elections signs of God’s judgment on America? Should we see them as hands writing on the wall, indicating our nation’s downfall? Or might the Lord permit his church to rise up, cry out for mercy, and see his hand of blessing once again? These are questions we need to be asking and prayers we need to be praying.

And for Christ Over All this month, there are books we need to be reading, if we are going to be prepared for what comes next.

Learning in War-Time: Two Thoughts from C. S. Lewis

When Britain entered World War II, C. S. Lewis stayed home. While he had served in the first world war, he was too old for the second. And so, he with his Oxford dons, remained home and taught the students who did not go to the front lines. Understandably, learning during war time needed some explanation. And ever the apologist, Lewis gave a lecture on that very subject.

In 1939, when Britain declared war against Germany, Lewis delivered his lecture “Learning in War-Time.” In it, he commended the labors of men who did not go to war. As a loyal son of England, Lewis supported the war effort to fight Hitler, but he knew that not all men could muster for battle. And more philosophically, he reminded his audience that whoever “surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs God: himself.”^[1]

1. C. S. Lewis, “Learning in War-Time,” in The Weight of Glory (New York: HarperOne, 1980), 53.

In this caution of living entirely for any earthly cause, Lewis reminds us that the wars that go on around us are worth fighting. They are even worth losing our lives. But they cannot be the raison d’être of our living. To apply it today, we cannot give our lives always and only fighting the political foes around us—as wicked as they might be. Instead, we must have wisdom to know where to fight and when, how to engage the battle and why we might need to withdraw.

Taking our cues from Lewis, we also need to learn that running to the front lines is not the only option when war breaks out. Applied to our country, for all those who need to take a stand publicly, there are just as many (if not more) who need to do a bit of learning in war-time.

For in fact, there are many ethical, cultural, and political battles that many eager soldiers are not equipped to engage. And therefore, the first step for many who are willing to speak is to not speak, but do the reading instead. For, unless the voices who speak for Christ in public have spent the time with the great minds and the great books of those who have fought these battles before us, they will likely sound as whiny as Eustace Scrubb, who had only read the wrong books.

To borrow another thought from Lewis, he reminds us that human beings who go to war are still human beings, who must think and read and enjoy the world God made. He writes,

If you attempted, in either case, to suspend your whole intellectual and aesthetic activity, you would only succeed in substituting a worse cultural life for a better. You are not, in fact, going to read nothing, either in the Church or in the line: if you don’t read good books, you will read bad ones. If you don’t go on thinking rationally, you will think irrationally. If you reject aesthetic satisfactions, you will fall into sensual satisfactions.^[2]

2. Lewis, “Learning in War-Time,” 52.

As always, Lewis has the ability to unearth a profound point from a simple truth. Human are made in the image of their Speaking God, the one who wrote a book, and the one who demands his creatures to think in order to act. And thus, in times of warfare when volunteers are needed to step up and act, it is impossible to not read books, articles, or tweets. Yet, it is all too common to spend our time reading or listening to works that have no weight or enduring wisdom.

Returning to the Doorstep of Christian Nationalism

For the last decade or more, evangelicals have been in a tug of war with one another about politics and political theology. As I have said elsewhere, “Few things have revealed the fault lines in evangelical churches like the presence of Donald Trump.” Like him or not, Trump has been used as an acid test to discover what evangelical leaders are really like. And what the last decade has shown is that many leaders, the ones who have been identified as Big Eva, have been unprepared to engage in public theology.

That is to say, after living off the inheritance of religious liberty that was purchased by Founding Era pastors in America, we who have assumed the right to worship, assemble, and speak freely have often done so with little understanding of where those freedoms came from or, more likely, what it will take to keep them. Among Baptists, we have preached the separation of church and state so much that many have moved that separation to be our first principle. But is it?

Historically, it is better to understand the good and necessary division between church and state to be an appropriate corrective measure within Christendom, but it was never intended to separate God and state, or better Christ and state. Denying Christ his place over the state or in politics is never a Christian option. For in fact, Jesus is ruler of all kings (Rev. 1:5) and the one to whom all nations owe their existence. Thus, a far better first principle begins with Christ’s universal Lordship.

Yet, such a willingness to say “Christ is Lord” in matters of political engagement is where things get dicey. Some will say that Christ’s place is only in the church and that pressing Christ on the state actually works against the personal opportunity to share Christ with unbelievers. Others will say that it is fine for a Christian politician to confess his own faith in public, but that faith should never become the driving force for the policies he makes. And still others will make the claim, as I would, that because Christ is Lord over all, that his Lordship—revealed in nature and Scripture—should inform the way Christians govern.

At this point, it is obvious that this discussion brings us to the doorstep of Christian Nationalism. (For all who weren’t with us in the Fall of 2023, you can find a host of essays and interviews engaging that subject). For today, I simply want to make the point that whatever debates we are having within Evangelicalism on politics and public theology, most who do the talking about political theology need to do the reading. And that is why we come to this month.

Reading Old Books

There are many reasons why evangelicals talk about politics. For starters, every human being is political by nature, and thus to censor this speech is to cut off a part of our humanity. Likewise, in America, the election cycle is a constant cause of conversation and culture, and thus American Christians have always been deeply political. But most of all—at least recently—is that the leadership class of American evangelicals (what Carl Trueman labeled Big Eva) has been complacent or complicit in their politics.

Without imputing any ill intent, the softness that Big Eva pastors showed toward wokeness, the tyrannies of COVID, and the embrace of Third Wayism has led many to assume that they need to find new voices for cultural engagement and political wisdom. And I would not disagree, but I would encourage this nugget from Lewis: Read old books!

In the absence of consistent, conservative voices there have risen countless online personalities and ministries (including our own) to fill in the gap. And this is both good and challenging. While we need to new voices and help making applications to the world today, one wonders if we would not just do better to read the right old books.

As we know, social media (especially X, formerly Twitter) is more than a place for news and views, it is a place where the real world is shaped and amplified. And so, I am not suggesting that one quit the virtual world. But I am saying that wisdom for discerning and debating political theology requires reading older writers whose thought has stood the test of time. And that is the point of this month, where we will be considering the books that have been most formative for doing political theology.

As Protestants, we always affirm the priority of Scripture. It is our norming norm and our standard for all disputations about everything in life. Yet, as we learned recently with the debates about the Trinity, pure biblical scholarship that ignores classical concepts can easily lead us into distortions of the truth—even unintentionally. And I believe the same is true for political theology. For those who aspire to bring the best of biblical theology and natural law into the public square—and we need Christian voices to do that—we must do so in conversation with the past. We must learn from their erudition and their errors; we must incorporate and improve the former and avoid the latter.

So, taking seriously the need to learn from the best of Church history, we want to help you avoid the mindless clichés of our day (e.g., “Jesus does not ride an elephant or a donkey!”) and the temptation to speak dogmatically without historical awareness. Instead, we want to introduce a selection of books that will fill the soul and sharpen the mind to bring the Lordship of Christ into the public square. To that end, we ask you to join us for this month, so that wherever you live and whatever magistrates you have, you will be prepared to speak with boldness if and when the Lord calls you to stand for truth in the public square.

Biblical Theology

While the month ahead promises to help us think about political theology, the last month provided a solid foundation in biblical theology. Indeed, from defining the term and considering some of its tools (like typology), to learning the history of two of its most important purveyors (Geerhardus Vos and Graeme Goldsowrthy), to distinguishing it from other forms of theological interpretation, to affirming its ongoing relevance in the face of theologians calling for its dismissal, this theme offered a helpful introduce to biblical theology and an appraisal of its current status. Below you can find a list of all the longform essays, concise articles, and podcasts too.

• A Redemptive-Historical, Christocentric Approach by Jason S. DeRouchie • Concise Article • The only Bible Jesus had was what we call the Old Testament, and he believed many of its elements concerned him. Christ’s followers should aim to properly magnify Jesus where he is evident in the Scriptures through a multi-faceted approach that accounts for the central role Jesus plays in redemptive history.
• Biblical Theology and Theological Interpretation of Scripture by Colin Smothers • Longform Essay • Biblical Theology and Theological Interpretation of Scripture (TIS) are two dominant ways of reading the Bible. In this article, Colin Smothers compares and contrasts both exegetical methods, showing how readers should be cautious of TIS.
• 4.45 “Biblical Theology and Theological Interpretation of Scripture by Colin Smothers • Reading • Biblical Theology and Theological Interpretation of Scripture (TIS) are two dominant ways of reading the Bible. In this article, Colin Smothers compares and contrasts both exegetical methods, showing how readers should be cautious of TIS.
• Has Biblical Theology Had Its Day? by Peter Nesbitt • Concise Article • Emergency measures are not good for long-term care. Theologian Michael Allen argued that biblical theology has been a necessary emergency measure but may no longer be helpful. This essay offers an alternative, constructive vision showing that biblical theology can and should play an ongoing role in biblical interpretation.
• Postmoderns Don’t Care About Your Resurrection Evidence: A Call for Biblical-Theological Apologetics by Chris Prosser • Concise Article • A call for biblical-theological apologetics that addresses postmodern concerns by demonstrating how the resurrection fits within Scripture’s overarching redemptive-historical narrative.
• Geerhardus Vos: The Recovery of Biblical Theology from Its Corruptors (Part 1) by Ardel Caneday • Concise Article • Every now and again God raises up a deliverer. Vos was one such man, and he delivered biblical theology from the clutches of those who would have poisoned it.
• 4.46 “Biblical Theology and Theological Interpretation of Scripture” by Colin Smothers, Brad Green, and Trent Hunter • Interview • Listen in as Trent Hunter and Brad Green interview Colin Smothers on his Christ Over All Longform Essay, “Biblical Theology and Theological Interpretation of Scripture”.
• Geerhardus Vos’s Biblical Theology: Four Features, Four Insights, Four Errors (Part 2) by Ardel Caneday • Concise Article • An examination of Geerhardus Vos’s biblical theology, analyzing its distinctive features, valuable insights, and areas where it requires correction or development.
• What is the Relationship Between Systematic Theology and Biblical Theology? by Stephen Wellum • Concise Article • For systematic theology to be biblical, it must draw its conclusions from the entire canon of Scripture “on its own terms,” which is the discipline of biblical theology. Otherwise, our theological conclusions will not be warranted by Scripture, and if they are not warranted by Scripture, they do not command our faith and obedience.
• What is Typology? by David Schrock • Longform Essay • “Typology” comes up frequently in discussions of Biblical Theology, but what does it mean? David Schrock explains that typology is not merely another method of reading, but an organic structure of escalation and progression arising from God’s redemptive work.
• 4.47 “What is Typology?” by David Shrock • Reading • Typology” comes up frequently in discussions of Biblical Theology, but what does it mean? Read how David Schrock explains that typology is not merely another method of reading, but an organic structure of escalation and progression arising from God’s redemptive work.
• 4.48 “The State of Biblical Theology Today” by Brad Green • Reading • Green provides an orientation to the discipline of Biblical Theology, offering a brief historical overview through the most important books and articles that have shaped the field.
• When the Lights Came On: An Appreciation of Graeme Goldsworthy by Scott Polender • Concise Article • We should never neglect to recognize and appreciate our mentors in the faith. Some of them have taught us to read the Bible like never before. Read as Scott Polender recounts how Graeme Goldsworthy impacted his view of the Scriptures.
• 4.49 “The CSB Connecting Scripture Study Bible” by Benjamin Gladd, David Schrock and Stephen Wellum • Interview • An interview discussing the CSB Connecting Scripture Study Bible and how it helps readers trace biblical-theological connections throughout Scripture.
• Major Works in Evangelical Biblical Theology: An Overview by Brad Green • Concise Article • An orientation to the discipline of Biblical Theology through a historical overview of the most important books and articles. The historical trajectory represents the stream that has proven most fruitful and faithful to Scripture for the church.
• Seeing Christ in the Letter: A Review of Kevin J. Vanhoozer’s Mere Christian Hermeneutics by Michael Pereira and Knox Brown • Concise Article • A review examining Kevin Vanhoozer’s Mere Christian Hermeneutics and his argument that all Spirit-illumined readers share a common orientation towards Scripture as the Word of God in which Christ is revealed.
• 4.50 “The State of Biblical Theology Today” by Brad Green, Trent Hunter, & David Shrock • Interview • Brad Green, Trent Hunter, and David Schrock discuss the current state of biblical theology, its development, and its ongoing importance for faithful biblical interpretation.

News and Notes

First, the Christ Over All Swag Store Is Here

If you haven’t seen it yet, you should. Christ Over All now has a Merch store for all who are interested. If you are looking to get Christ Over All shirts, mugs, hoodies, stickers, and hats, our apparel store is up and running.

And for those who have asked for print-friendly versions of our articles, we believe (Lord willing) those might be ready as soon as this month. We are grateful for your patience and your prayers as our editors continue to put the final touches on this project.

Second, Be Aware of Our Upcoming Months.

We receive submissions from faithful Christians who have thought deeply about our topics. If you have interest in one of the following topics in bold and are interested in writing for us (in line with our doctrinal distinctives), feel free to shoot us an e-mail to tell us what you are thinking.

December 2025: Christmas Buffet

January 2026: Abolishing Abortion

February 2026: God Is . . . Engaging the Doctrine of God

March 2026: Can Anything Good Come from Nashville? An Investigation of Denominational Structures and Stewardship

April 2026: The Cross, Resurrection, Ascension

Third, We’d Love To See You Face to Face in the Next Few Months.

From November 18–20, 2025, all the Christ Over All editors will be at the Evangelical Theological Society in Boston. If you are there, please let us know, and keep an eye out for a late night meetup on Tuesday, November 19.

In 2026, we will be visiting Southwest Florida to join the Founders National Conference in Fort Myers on January 22–24. That week David Schrock will be one of the speakers, and we will have a booth. Sign up here to join us.

Join Trent Hunter, David Helm, and Ryan Kelly in Greenville, SC, from January 28–30, 2006, for a Simeon Trust Workshop on Leviticus. If you are a pastor, preacher, or aspiring minister of the gospel, this hands-on workshop is well worth the time.

Fourth, please consider supporting Christ Over All.

The easiest way to support our ministry is to tell others about us: you can forward this intermission, recommend an article, or share our content on social media. But if you or your church has benefited from our ministry, please make a donation so that we can continue to bring these resources to the church.

Every dollar given goes toward helping Christians to think with a consistently Christian worldview across all of life. When you give to our ministry, you allow us to serve more people, and make known more completely the glorious Lordship of Christ. So we appreciate any gift you can make.

That’s all for this month. Until next time, let’s remember that because Christ is Lord over all, we ought to exalt Christ in all things.

Just as it is possible to overindulge on chocolate cake, or to feed a nursing infant prematurely, so it is possible to overload sermons with biblical theology and to overburden Christians with an endless array of canonical connections. I’ve seen it done, and I am guilty of doing it myself. So, for as much as I want to commend the practice of biblical theology in the church, I want to offer a few cautions (along with accompanying encouragements) before the eager biblical theologian opens a can, as they say.

In what follows, I will offer seven practical cautions for bringing biblical theology to church. In all, I hope this essay offers the novice and the seasoned pastor helpful reflections on bringing biblical theology to church, so that everyone might benefit.

Seven Cautions for Biblical Theology

1. Don’t overload your sermons with biblical theology.

As long as I have been preaching, I have loved tracing biblical themes from one side of the Bible to the other. But one thing I have learned over time is that such “road trips” are not easy to follow. And this is especially true for the young Christian who is still using the Table of Contents to find the Psalms. Thus, the wise pastor will know his sheep and where and how much to illustrate preaching with biblical-theological themes.

Biblical theology is like salt. A pinch gives the dish flavor, but too much makes the meal inedible. I would encourage pastors to season their preaching with biblical theology, but not to make biblical theology the main course. As a rule of thumb, I try to limit myself to one main biblical-theological connection per sermon.

Letting the congregation rest in one text is usually more effective than flipping all over the Bible. Practically then, when supporting texts are needed, I will either mention them (and encourage the church to read them later), read them without turning to the passage, or will include the text on the screen. Whenever possible, our church will also read a related text earlier in the service, so that as I preach, I can call to mind a passage that everyone just heard.

Beware of turning a text into a springboard for biblical theology and chasing down passages from all over the Bible. Biblical theology should season the text you are preaching, but the text should never be a caddie for your typological fancies or biblical theological interests. Don’t overload your sermons with biblical theology; instead, let biblical theology flavor your preaching.

2. Don’t limit biblical exposition to only explaining one verse at a time.

Expositional preaching can easily get stuck in the rut of verse-by-verse-by-verse teaching. While such preaching ensures that every verse is covered, it quickly devolves into mere commentating. Commentaries are good for the shelf, but not for the pulpit. Preaching requires inflaming the affections of our hearers for God, not just giving them information. But preaching that merely explains one verse at a time without consideration of the larger structure or over all thrust of the passage often turns the message into a bare information transfer. And unless preachers can discern the difference, their love for studying the Bible can easily fail to stoke affections in their hearers.

Preaching effectively, therefore, requires the preacher to identify the claim the text makes upon the hearer, and then the preacher should make the same claim in the sermon.^[1] Doing this requires attention to the larger structure of the passage, the role it plays in its context of the book, as well as its placement in the biblical canon. Hence, biblical theology will always play a part in the preparation of a sermon, even if it doesn’t make an appearance in the final manuscript.

1. I am grateful for Mike Bullmore and his recent teaching at our church on this point.

Accordingly, preachers should let the text decide the way a sermon should be preached, more than deciding ahead of time to preach a verse-by-verse exposition. Just the same, while some expositional preaching dives deep into a single verse, it should also tackle whole books. As a preacher, you should look for ways to preach bigger chunks of Scripture, as this will help your church see the whole Bible.

To be sure, you can make mistakes here, too—like when I preached 150 psalms in 5 sermons—but the bigger mistake is not preaching larger sections of Scripture. More positively, when you do preach smaller sections, always help your people see the bigger picture of the book. This means studying books as literary units and helping your people see how the trees fit into the forest.

So, don’t limit biblical exposition to only explaining one verse at a time, but let your growth in biblical theology help you preach larger sections of Scripture to show the goodness and glory of the whole Bible.

3. Don’t decide your preaching calendar only by what your congregation wants.

In most cases, those who go to church in our modern, sound-bite world want sermons that are enjoyable (or entertaining) and quickly applicable. But is this what they need? Preachers, as shepherds who feed their flock, should always prayerfully consider the “dietary” needs of their church. Preaching series and selecting books should be chosen for the purpose of providing a healthy diet, more than placating the wishes of semi-mature sheep.

Every church needs the undiluted word of God—all sixty-six books of the Bible. But sadly, it is possible to be a lifelong expositor and only give the church one testament, or those parts of the Bible that are most familiar. But such a truncated diet leaves out critical nutrients.

Mature disciples of Christ are formed by the whole Bible, which presents the whole character of God in Christ. As the Lord allows, pastors should find a way to preach the whole counsel of God’s Word, even if the congregation is not craving this (yet!). In time, a congregation led by the Spirit of God will desire both testaments, especially when they are preached with clarity.

Thus, when a pastor who is convicted to bring biblical theology to church, he should do so in a way that is palatable to his congregation. Knowing that he is competing against appetites for other forms of preaching, he should labor to make his preaching as compelling as possible, so that the fruits of biblical theology are sweet to the hearer.

In the end, don’t decide your preaching calendar only by what your congregation wants, but with prayer and patience, show them the goodness of the whole Bible.

4. Don’t ignore the condition of your flock.

If preaching the whole counsel of God’s Word is your goal, as it should be, this doesn’t mean you should start with a two-year trek through Exodus or a Martyn Lloyd-Jones-paced exposition of Romans.^[2] Be wise. Just as Scripture speaks of milk and meat for various levels of maturity, so pastors must understand what kind of exposition their people can digest.

2. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, pastor of Westminster Chapel in London, England from 1938–68, preached 366 sermons on Romans over the course of twelve years (1955–68).

To a church that has never had exposition, smaller letters from Paul, a short series in the Psalms, or a selection from a Gospel (like the Sermon on the Mount) may be better than tackling a long book. As churches grow in their delight in God’s Word, they will grow in stamina, too. Equally, young pastors would do well to master smaller books before trekking through longer ones. In short, pastors should know their flock (and themselves) and preach such that their church can follow along—and want to come back for more!

To frame the idea differently, when our church goes through a book of the Bible, I see it as an exodus-like, whole-congregation journey. As a pastor, I don’t want to preach at my people; I want to lead them in God’s Word on a journey towards the Lord. Like a wise trainer knows the pace that he prescribes for his runners, so pastors should equip the saints with God’s Word at a pace that will stretch them, but not sideline them.

So, don’t ignore the condition of your flock, but let the maturity of your church set the pace for preaching with biblical theology.

5. Don’t be satisfied with preaching the whole Bible.

To preach Christ from all corners of the Bible is hard work. It takes time to learn how each book of the Bible fits into a canon that leads to Christ. It also takes time to understand how each part of a book makes up the message of that book and how to move from the ext to Christ and from Christ to us.

In practical terms, Simeon Trust has been most helpful for me here. The principles provided by that ministry have furnished tools that have turned esoteric terms like “textual, epochal, canonical” into a weekly exercise for seeing Christ in all the Bible. For those who preach regularly, Simeon Trust is a helpful resource for improving your ability to read Scripture and preach the gospel from all parts of the Bible. Yet, the most important part of making connections in Scripture is not a program, but a lifetime of saturating yourself with Scripture.

Most of the connections I see in Scripture do not come from commentaries—although they often help. Rather, most connections in the Bible come from years of reading the Bible and looking for the ways in which Scripture presents the gospel through type, shadow, promise, and fulfillment. In short, biblical theology is important for preaching, but it must always lead to Christ, who is the Life and Life-Giver in any sermon.

So, don’t be satisfied with just preaching from the whole Bible, but show how the whole Bible relates to Christ and to those who are looking for him (unbelievers) and to him (believers).

6. Don’t demand that your people get biblical theology quickly.

My wife grew up in a church that loved the Bible, but such love for the Bible did not explain to her how the whole Bible fit together. In short, her church was Bible-rich, but biblical theology-poor. When she came to Bible College, it took her years of sitting under various professors and pastors before she began to see how the whole Bible fit together. In short, appreciating the Bible and understanding biblical theology are not the same. And always, understanding the Bible takes more time.

With that in mind, don’t let your passion for biblical theology overwhelm others. Instead, your passion for biblical theology should stir curiosity and interest. With patience and gentleness, introduce the ways in which the Bible fits together, but don’t be surprised if people don’t see it right away. Equally, don’t get upset if the connections you see are met with suspicion or skepticism. Instead, be humble, patient, and willing to wait on the Spirit to give light. The dearth of biblical theology is often generational and it will take time to introduce—sometimes it will take a lifetime.

Regardless, be patient and don’t demand that your people get biblical theology quickly.

7. Don’t give up!

For anyone who has come to understand biblical theology, you know it is one of the most important spiritual disciplines for reading the Bible, worshiping God, walking in truth, counseling others, and even thinking about missions, ecclesiology, and politics. For that reason, bringing biblical theology to the church is essential, not optional.

That said, biblical theology that will serve the church must not be a purely academic discipline. Biblical theology for the church must be a steadfast endeavor of helping people to read the Bible with eyes to see, know, trust, and follow Christ. And for these reasons, bringing biblical theology to the church is a test of endurance. But such a slow process is worth the time and the effort. So don’t give up.

In all, I pray these seven cautions might help you bring biblical theology to your church. For indeed, the church needs the full counsel of God, as well as pastors who will preach and pray to that end.

May God be pleased to fill his pulpits and his churches with Christ-centered biblical theology.

Across the pages of Scripture, we find public persons, historical events, and heavenly institutions, playing significant roles in their own day and for generations to come. To the sevenfold list just offered, we could add seventy-seven more. For throughout God’s plan of salvation, there are persons, events, and institutions ordained by God to give us the rise and fall of biblical history. Yet, these historical figures, and the stories that introduce them, also form the basis for biblical types that foreshadow future events.

For those who read the New Testament, it doesn’t take long to see how the Apostles explain the person and work of Jesus through the categories of the Old Testament. Jesus is a prophet like Moses, a priest like Melchizedek, a king like David, and a spotless lamb like the sacrifices of Leviticus and Numbers. Just the same, when we open the Old Testament, we find passages that resemble (or better: prefigure) the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. In a word, Scripture is unified around the revelation of God’s Son (Luke 24:27; John 5:39; Heb. 1:1–2; 2 Pet. 1:10–12), and if we are going to understand the Bible and its variegated-yet-unified message, we must come to grips with biblical types and something called typology.

But what is typology? And how do types work?

Is typology a way of reading Scripture, wherein the interpreter employs a typological method of reading? Or, is typology something we find in the text itself, a God-inspired way of writing that assumes the Spirit of God has inspired every word of Scripture, including the types and shadows that point to something later and greater? Who makes a type? Are types in the eyes of the beholder? Or are types something given to us by God and revealed to us in Scripture?

How one answers these questions will have a massive impact on how they interpret Scripture and do biblical theology. For in fact, different types of biblical theology (e.g., dispensational, covenantal, Roman Catholic, etc.) emerge from differing approaches to typology. This is a point made by Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum in Kingdom through Covenant.^[1] It is also evidenced in the way Graeme Goldsworthy introduced macro-typology as a significant pillar for his own approach to biblical theology.^[2] Likewise, biblical theologian Jim Hamilton has spent considerable time on typology, proving again that you cannot do biblical theology without having a firm grasp on typology.^[3]

But this only stresses the point: What is typology?

In this essay, I want to introduce typology as a literary feature of God’s inspired Word. Without going into all the academic debates, I will define typology and then demonstrate how typology is discerned in Scripture.^[4] Indeed, our all-wise God introduced biblical patterns (types) into history and Scripture in order to bring his plan of salvation to completion in Jesus Christ. And receiving his written revelation, Christians must now understand how typology works in the Bible so that they can make sense of the big picture and its many interconnected parts. Accordingly, seeking to understand how types work in the Bible is not just an exercise in the esoteric; it is vital for all forms of biblical interpretation and spiritual formation.

4. David Schrock, “What Designates a Valid Type? A Christotelic, Covenantal Proposal,” Southeastern Theological Review 5.1 (Summer 2014): 3–26; David Schrock, “From Beelines to Plotlines: Typology That Follows the Covenantal Topography of Scripture,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 21.1 (Spring 2017): 35–56.

With that in mind, let’s define typology.

What is a Type?

When Sam Emadi and I wrote our dictionary article on “Typology” in the Dictionary of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, we defined typology as

The study of patterns (types) in the Bible that escalate over time until they find their intended fulfillment in Christ and his Church. Like seeds planted in the soil of the OT, biblical types are persons, places, events, and institutions that develop across redemptive history until they reach full-flower in God’s climactic revelation in Christ. God designed types as a form of revelation to prepare the way for his Son and in the fullness of time, biblical types proved to be an important way NT authors demonstrated that Jesus was the Christ.^[5]

5. David Schrock and Samuel Emadi, “Typology,” in Dictionary of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2023), 897. This definition follows the train of many other scholars that conjoin textual correspondence and theological escalation across redemptive history. For instance, Leonard Goppelt’s definition is a standard, “Only historical facts—persons, actions, events, and institutions—are material for typological interpretation; words and narratives can be utilized only insofar as they deal with such matters. These things are to be interpreted typologically only if they are considered to be divinely ordained representations or types of future realities that are even greater and more complete. If the antitype does not represent a heightening of the type, if it is merely a repetition of the type, then it can be called typology only in certain instances and in a limited way.” Leonard Goppelt, Typos: The Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament in the New (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 17–18.

From this opening definition, we showed how the Spirit of Christ inspired the Old Testament prophets (from Moses to Malachi) to introduce types (persons, places, events, and institutions) in Scripture, in accordance with the details of history, such that they would form the backdrop for the Son to come into the world. Thus, we argued that types in the Old Testament are prospective, as they move from the Law through the Prophets and Writings to Jesus. Equally, we showed how the New Testament authors penned their Spirit-inspired testimony to Christ by means of applying Old Testament patterns to the person and work of Christ and his Church. In this way, we suggested the New Testament patterns of speech were retrospective. Together, the whole Bible points to Jesus Christ such that those who want to be conformed into Christ’s image must see how these types naturally lead to their divinely intended goal—namely, Jesus Christ.

Thus, types are placed in redemptive history and biblical revelation by the Spirit of God, so that those who trust in Christ might see them and understand what they are saying. Yet, believing that they are there and proving their presence is not the same. And that is where this essay picks up to offer you three characteristics of biblical types and five ways to see them in Scripture. So let’s look.

Three Characteristics of a Biblical Type

First, “type” is a biblical word.

Across the New Testament, we learn that Paul and the author of Hebrews use the Greek word typos to describe people (Adam in Romans 5:14), events (the history of Israel in 1 Corinthians 10:6), and institutions (the tabernacle in Hebrews 8:5). Yet, translated by the ESV, the English reader might not immediately make the connection to typology, because the word typos is rendered as “type,” “examples,” and “pattern, “ respectively. Likewise, when Peter compares Christian baptism to Noah’s ark, he uses the word antiypon, or “correspondence” (1 Pet. 3:21). In other words, he sees baptism as the antitype and Noah’s ark as the type.^[6]

6. For a complete exegetical investigation of the New Testament use of typos, see Richard Davidson, Typology in Scripture: A Study of Hermeneutical TYPOS Structures (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1981).

Clearly, each of these uses is unique and needs to be examined in context. But the point to be made is twofold. First, types are found in Scripture and named by various apostles. And second, without restricting types to those named in the New Testament, types can and should be defined by their use in Scripture.^[7] In other words, while many have employed various literary theories to define typology, this moves too quickly. Scripture itself is the first and best place to define typology, and so we should look there.

7. For an example of typology that is not named in the New Testament, see Sam Emadi, From Prisoner to Prince: The Joseph Story in Biblical Theology, New Studies in Biblical Theology (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2022).

Even if various literary theorists have provided worthwhile tools and concepts for furthering our understanding of typology, we must recognize that the Bible itself gives us definitions and direction for seeing what the Spirit inspired. Jesus himself taught his disciples how to read the Old Testament, and even before Christ and the gift of the Spirit, the prophets of Israel showed great sensitivity to the way in which they spoke and wrote based upon previous patterns of sound doctrine. Thus, the first characteristic of biblical types is that they are explicitly named in Scripture and we should learn from the inspired authors how to understand them.

Second, biblical types are historical realities, not metaphysical mysteries.

While philosophers like Plato have used “typology” to speak of metaphysical realities, and some biblical scholars have argued that books like Hebrews are employing platonic categories, we need to see that in Scripture, typology is always rooted in history. To put it differently, types in the Bible are not signs or symbols that point to some rational idea or moral norm outside of the Bible. Instead, they are evidences of divine revelation. As God spoke to his prophets verbally, so he also revealed himself to his prophets visually.

For instance, Moses received a vision of heaven on Mount Sinai that would correspond to the tabernacle he would build through the Spirit-filled artisans led by Bezalel. As we read in Exodus 25:9, 40, Moses was given a pattern for the tabernacle. And as Hebrews 8:5 tells it, the earthly tent was a copy of the heavenly original. But also, as Ardel Caneday has observed, this vertical correspondence between the heavenly temple and its earthly type brought into history a prophetic revelation. That is to say, the tabernacle that was revealed from heaven became a historical type that pointed to the day when Christ would first become a greater temple (John 1:14) and then enter the true temple made without hands (Heb. 9:11, 24).

To move from the specific example of the tabernacle to the ongoing pattern in the Old Testament, God introduced into history persons, events, institutions, as well as covenants, that brought redemption to Israel (think: the exodus). Yet, these historical realities also prepared the way for a greater salvation, which is why they are called types. With the benefit of historical perspective, we see that these things are prospective pointers to later and greater realities. Indeed, this heightening of expectations is called “escalation,” and it explains the historical relationship between type and antitype, or shadow and substance, as Colossians 2:17 and Hebrews 10:1 frame it.

At the same time, it is important to see that types in the Bible are more than a superficial comparison between two similar persons, events, or institutions. Rather, between Adam and Jesus there are countless “Adams” (Noah, Abraham, Melchizedek, David, etc.) who reinforce the pattern and bring the last Adam ever closer. The same is true with the tabernacle, which is followed by Moses’s tabernacle, David’s meeting house (1 Chron. 6:31–32), Solomon’s temple, the second temple, and finally Jesus and his church. Events like the Passover are also repeated in history, as Rahab’s salvation depends upon a Passover-like event (Joshua 2), and Zechariah’s visions of salvation come in the middle of the night (Zechariah 1–6).

In the end, these typological structures, which are composed of multiple, escalating types, become a significant part of reading the Bible and seeing what God has revealed. Put negatively, one cannot understand Jesus Christ as prophet, priest, king, temple, sacrifice, or anything else without a biblical typology rooted in history and the progress of revelation. In this way, biblical types are rooted in history and revealed in the text of Scripture.

Third, biblical types must be discernible from the biblical text and not just the imagination of the interpreter.

In church history and among academics, there have been many debates about what makes a type valid and how Christians can recognize them in Scripture. In the definition above, I pointed to a few things that spotlight biblical types, but now I will get more specific. Here are five ways to identify a type in Scripture.

1. Some types are explicitly identified.

As we have seen already, some types are named in Scripture. In Romans 5:14 Adam is a type of Christ; Hebrews 8:5 calls the tabernacle a type of the true temple in heaven; and Peter says baptism “corresponds to” Noah’s watery salvation as a means of salvation (1 Pet. 3:21). There are other types, however, that do not employ the word typos, but remain typological. For instance, Peter says that Jesus is a prophet like Moses in Acts 3:22–26 (cf. Deut. 18:15–18); Paul calls Jesus the Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7); Hebrews 5–7 compares Jesus to Melchizedek (cf. Genesis 14; Psalm 110). In fact, the whole book of Hebrews teaches Christians how to see the shadows of Christ surpassed in his substance, but that takes us beyond the explicit typology of the New Testament.

2. Some types are connected to a series of biblical images.

That is to say, there are certain “biblical threads” that progress throughout the Bible.^[8] Usually, these threads start with a historical person, event, or institution, they experience some form of escalation within the Old Testament itself, and then they find their greatest fulfillment in Christ and sometimes, by extension, the church. A few examples of this typology include the exodus/exile, tabernacle/temple, the promised land, priests and kings, marriage and adultery, and the biblical covenants. Indeed, every book in Crossway’s Short Studies in Biblical Theology is employing some degree of biblical typology. And if you want to see how these things develop go read one of those. Maybe start here, with my personal favorite.

8. Goldsworthy, Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics, 253–56, calls these macro-types. He lists eighteen different macro-types: God and creation; God’s breath and the creation of human beings; Eden and dominion over creation; redemption; covenant and calling; promises of land, people, name, and blessing; captivity and exodus; prophetic word; law structures; redemptive temple worship; possession of the land; nationhood and leaders; kingship, temple, and David’s throne; Solomon and national decline; destruction and exile; prophetic ministries; and return and rebellion.

While each typological thread is developed in its own way, there will be a shared pattern of development. This is something I have called “covenantal topography,” and it is the idea that each typological structure in Scripture moves through the same covenant history and thus they each, in their own unique way, will form, deform, and reform over time. Or to put it canonically,

“types” are introduced in the Pentateuch, improved or deformed in the Prophets, and fulfilled in Christ (and his church). Therefore, when identifying types, we should be aware of more than the type. We must begin to see the typological structures from which they emerge.

3. Some types are evidenced from linguistic and/or sequential correspondence.

All valid types must have significant correspondence. The question is, “What makes correspondence significant?” Is the mere Old Testament mention of the color red enough to connect it to the cross and Jesus’s blood? Some think so; I don’t. Instead, there must be something more than a superficial resemblance.

To get concrete, here are two useful tests for discerning types.^[9] The first test is linguistic correspondence, which asks the question: Are there words or phrases shared between the type and antitype? It is possible that different words or terms are being employed, but shared language heightens the correspondence. The second test is sequential correspondence, which looks for a common arrangement of events. Of course, later sequencing could actually reverse an earlier referent, if the author was being ironic. For instance, Jeremiah 4:23–26 reverses the days of creation in order to prove de-creation. Nevertheless, the reversal is the point and one cannot fully understand the prophet’s message without identifying his dependence on Genesis 1.

9. These tests are derived from James M. Hamilton Jr., “Was Joseph a Type of the Messiah? Tracing the Typological Identification between Joseph, David, and Jesus,” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 12.4 (2008): 52–77.

Together, these two tests provide a good starting place for identifying types. And more, these tests show the skeptical that types are not a fanciful game that the imaginative play with Scripture. Rather, discovering biblical types and the connections between type and antitype are an exercise of faithful hermeneutics that is always governed by the text.

4. Some types are confirmed by their relationship to biblical covenants.

In addition to linguistic and sequential correspondence, we must also consider the relationship between biblical types and biblical covenants. From one angle, biblical covenants are comprised of multiple types. For instance, in the Sinai covenant, we find a marriage-like covenant at the Mountain of God (Exodus 19–20), where a mediator delivers the law of God to the people of God (Exodus 21–24, 32–34), such that God would be able to dwell with Israel (Exodus 25–40). Without even considering the typology of the redemption (i.e., the Passover, the victory at the Red Sea, water-giving rock, etc.), it is clear that this covenant sets a pattern for others and is itself formed by previous covenants too.

At the same time, biblical types are governed by the covenants in which they are formed. To say it differently, biblical covenants help situate and clarify what is significant about the relationship between the type and its fulfillment. As I have written elsewhere, the faithful interpreter “must show from the text how the type corresponds to its covenantal context.”^[10] Thus, biblical types do not simply escalate from the Old to the New; they escalate by means of biblical covenants. Hence, when students of Scripture begin to learn about types, they must also attend to the various covenants that develop in Scripture.

10. Schrock, “What Designates a Valid Type? A Christotelic, Covenantal Proposal,” Southeastern Theological Review 5.1 (Summer 2014): 5.

5. Some types aren’t types at all but another form of connection.

Finally, while biblical types are resident and repeated throughout the Bible, they are not the only way to move from one testament to the next. In fact, there are numerous ways. Some of these include promise-fulfillment (the prediction of the messiah’s birthplace in Micah 5:2 is fulfilled in Matthew 2:6), analogy (in the Old Testament Israel was called God’s bride; in the New Testament the church becomes the bride of Christ), and example (in 1 Corinthians 10 Paul uses the Old Testament as a moral example). These and other approaches to canonical exegesis are necessary for not making everything a type.

Indeed, the willingness and ability to dismiss a proposed type is what makes an interpreter credible. Truly, the Bible is filled with types and typological structures. But not everything is a type, and careful readers of Scripture will see that and help others to see it too.

Scratching the Surface, Saturating the Soul

All in all, these three characteristics of biblical types, combined with these five “best practices” for discerning a valid type, will help you get into the water of typology. Or better, they will help you swim in the water of God’s Word, an ocean filled with beautiful and challenging types (persons, events, and institutions) that reveal and conceal God’s glory (cf. Matt. 13:10–17).

Still, recognizing types in Scripture is not just a matter of mechanics. Truly, it requires Spiritual illumination (1 John 2:27) and the ongoing renewal of your mind (Rom 12:1–2), not to mention ongoing reading and reading with others. Truly, “seeing the connections” in Scripture is something that takes time and occurs when your soul is saturated with Scripture and your eyes of faith have learned from the apostles that all the promises have found their ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1:20).

Indeed, until we see Christ with our glorified eyes, let us know him more through biblical typology.

1. Voddie T. Baucham, Jr., Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastrophe (Washington, DC: Salem Books, 2021), 14–19.

Still, when he arrived at New Mexico State University in the Fall of 1987, he did not yet know the Lord. As he said later, “I did not know Jesus from the Man on the Moon.” ^[2] Yet, a campus minister explained to him what the Bible was, what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is, and how to “search the Scriptures daily.”^[3] In October 1987, God gave Voddie new life, as he took this football star with NFL hopes and made him a Christian who would become a true north star for so many Christians in the first quarter of the twenty-first century.

As Voddie tells his story in Fault Lines, he was a young man on the move. After playing football at NMSU, he transferred to Rice, where he met the woman who would become his wife and mother to his nine children. Before finishing college, they moved together to Houston Baptist University (now Houston Christian University), and from there to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. Indeed, long before we came to know Voddie as the traveling evangelist, Christian apologist, church planter, seminary dean, and conference speaker, the Lord was already leading him from one station of life to another.

Accordingly, Voddie was always a man on the move. After finishing his time at SWBTS, he pursued a doctoral degree at SEBTS and began to receive invitations to speak throughout the Southern Baptist Convention.^[4] In 2006, he moved to Texas to plant a church with a unique model of family ministry. In 2015, he moved to Africa to start a new theological seminary. And most recently, in 2025, he brought his family to Cape Coral, Florida to start Founders Seminary—a work begun by his close friend and confidant, Tom Ascol.

4. Baucham, Fault Lines, 30–31.

While always pastoral in heart and at times serving as a pastor, Voddie was far more like the apostles and evangelists of the early church. Like Paul and Timothy, who were constantly on the move—preaching, correcting, encouraging, and building up the church—Voddie gained a reputation as someone who traveled the world preaching the Word of God without reservation or apology.

Always On the Move, A Man Who Never Moved

Indeed, while Voddie’s life and ministry was always on the move, his commitment to the truth never moved. From before the time he wrote his first book, The Ever-Loving Truth: Can Faith Thrive in a Post-Christian Culture? (2004) until his final message delivered at New Saint Andrews College (Moscow, Idaho), Voddie’s voice was always clear and his message was always straight. Combining academic rigor with good humor, he brought biblical exposition to the masses, punctuating sage wisdom with his famously dramatic pauses. He wanted us to think and to feel the Word. The challenges we were up against were greater than we understood. But Voddie understood.

At a time when the world was overrun with deceitful acronyms (e.g., LGBT, CRT, DEI, etc.) and when a promising gospel-centered movement was pulled to the ideological Left by social justice in the church and BLM in the streets, Voddie Baucham remained unmoved.

Indeed, as man who was once reprimanded by Dwight McKissick for wearing Afrocentric T-shirts, Voddie Baucham provided firsthand testimony to the truth of God’s Word and the errors of social justice. But more than just speaking from his experience, Voddie provided some of the most trenchant critiques of Social Justice and Ethnic Gnosticism (a term he coined). He may not have spoken for many African American voices—as criticized by Phil Vischer^[5]—but he nevertheless gave voice to many, even as he trained black pastors in Africa. And more, he had been engaging these cultural lies long before they infiltrated the church. Characteristic of Voddie’s unwavering commitment to the truth, he had been talking about the Frankfurt School more than a decade before the SBC resolved to employ Critical Race Theory and its “analytic tools” in 2019.

5. Timothy Martin points out the irony.

Put all this together, and we begin to see how Voddie Baucham served as a North Star in the constellation of evangelical speakers. Or to drop the metaphor, he was an embodiment of everything that Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:1–5. In this final chapter of Paul’s life, he wrote to his protégé and urged him to remain steadfast. He writes,

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

These words are a constant charge for every pastor. And thankfully, in Voddie’s life, he embraced them all. And thus, as we offer tribute to Voddie today, we want to give thanks to God for this valiant servant and suggest four ways that Voddie embodied Paul’s words. As two pastors who preach the word ourselves, want to highlight the ways that Voddie has impacted us, even as we commend his life and labors to others as well.

In short, as a man who is gone too soon, he established himself as a north star to his generation by being a preacher of the word, a lone voice in the church, an apologist to the culture, and an evangelist to the end.

A Preacher of the Word

The first time I (Dave) heard of Voddie Baucham was in 2000, when he spoke to a gathering of 40,000 college students at One Day (Shelby Farms, Tennessee). While summer plans kept me from joining my friends at this Passion event, the sermons and the music of that day reverberated across college campuses. Twenty-five years later, John Piper’s “shells” sermon might have the most notoriety, but I cannot forget hearing Voddie speaking the words of Isaiah 53. And thus, I was introduced to Voddie as a preacher.

Indeed, when Paul exhorts Timothy, this is his simple word: “Preach the word!” More fully, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word.” Ever since Paul wrote these words, men have sought to preach with an eye to their Lord, knowing that they will give an account to God (cf. James 3:1). Tragically, many famous preachers in our own day have broken their sacred duty by drifting into error or diving into sin. By contrast, Voddie Baucham was a faithful preacher to the end. His life and ministry bear testimony to the truth he proclaimed and the character that he possessed.

Together, his life and his preaching have left an indelible mark on all those who listened to him. From the first time I heard him, until the last (at the 2025 Founders Conference), his sermon was never to be missed. He had proven himself to be bold and biblical. He was a proven expositor and careful student of history, theology, culture, and the human heart. Combined with humor and gravitas, his ministry defined what it means to be a preacher of the word—and what it means to preach the word in season and out of season.

A Lone Voice in the Church

When Paul wrote to Timothy, he told him there would be seasons when God’s Word would be agreeable and others seasons when it wouldn’t. Across the ages, this axiom has stood the test of time. And even in the last three decades we can see ways that the church was pressured to whisper about sexual sin and shout about social justice. Ironically, many of the traveling evangelists that preached next to Voddie would take very different approaches as cultural winds picked up. One can hardly imagine a conference today that would include Louie Giglio, John Piper, Beth Moore, and Voddie Baucham.

For anyone who has been around Big Eva for the last twenty-years, they can see the cultural changes. We wrote about some of them in the book Dividing the Faithful: How a Little Book on Race Fractured a Movement Founded on Grace, and not surprisingly, Voddie’s work preceded and shaped our own reflections. Yet, it did so amid much controversy and even cancellation. For if Voddie was once a rising star in the Southern Baptist Convention and a popular preacher at events like One Day, it did not continue unhindered. He was cancelled twice. Why?

First, as he tells it in his book Fault Lines, his commitment to the doctrines of grace ran into problems with SBC leaders who opposed Calvinism. Likewise, his commitment to training up children at home, instead of in government schools, also invited ridicule. In a denomination that sent eighty-five percent of its children to government schools, Voddie stood against that common practice. While applauded by some, he was a lone voice in the church. Yet, wisdom is proven by her children, such that today, Voddie’s caution—that children sent to Caesar will become Romans—is undeniable true. Still, to speak such truth came with a cost.

Yet, what was the SBC’s loss was TGC’s gain. As The Gospel Coalition began to pick up steam, Voddie Baucham became a fixture in the movement and a Council Member. He spoke at many events, including TGC’s national conference in 2015, where he spoke on the resurrection. But this did not last.

Indeed, it’s difficult to understand Voddie’s transition out of that council apart from his famous article, “Thoughts on Ferguson” (November 2014) and his unwillingness to go with the rising narrative of America’s structural racism. In point of fact, Voddie’s article on Ferguson was not the last time his name showed up at TGC, but clearly his views on race were not in season to many evangelical gatekeepers.^[6] And if, in 2015, his move to Africa made his absence on the evangelical speaking circuit understandable, it was not because he had changed. Rather, as he pointed out in Fault Lines, the shift was caused by the introduction of CRT and cultural Marxism—ideologies that Voddie had been fighting for decades.

6. Evidence of this is seen in the fact that many of Voddie’s books on Scripture, family and apologetics continue to be commended. But not so his views on race and justice.

On the one hand, his cancellation in the SBC over Calvinism and schooling proved a point Voddie was eager to make: the SBC was not racist. His melanin was welcome, just not his views. This did not offend Voddie, for this ultimately affirmed his treatment as an equal.^[7] On the other hand, while Voddie’s race was welcome in both the SBC and TGC, his views on America’s challenges around race were quite unwelcome.

7. Baucham, Fault Lines, 33.

To return to Paul, the Apostle urges Timothy to “be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” In Voddie’s case, he was. As you can see in this panel on politics, he was always ready to give an answer for the hope that he had in Christ and to explain why his commitment to Christ required him to stand for the truth. As one of eleven evangelical leaders engaged at an event on following Ferguson in 2014, “A Time to Speak,” Voddie’s perspective was outnumbered, ten-to-one.^[8] Voddie felt the fault lines personally and early.

8. This event video offers a time capsule of the discussion within the Young, Restless, and Reformed movement including the Who’s Who of conference speakers at the time: Matt Chandler, John Piper, Darrin Patrick, Eric Mason, etc. This panel took place four years before two high profile moments in 2018, MLK50 and Platt’s T4G sermon, “Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters: Racism and Our Need for Repentance”; five years before the SBC’s Resolution 9; six years before George Floyd; and seven years before Voddie’s, Fault Lines. Today, Voddie’s views expressed in this panel are more widely engaged and even appreciated. At the time, while many in the pews were making similar arguments, Voddie stood alone among his peers, those setting the agenda for public conversations such as the one held at this event. For this he deserves honor.

A Prophet to the Culture

In 2015, Voddie not only moved on from evangelical panels, but he also moved continents. Receiving a call to serve as the founding Dean of Theology at Zambia Christian University (Lusaka, Zambia), he did the hard work of raising up a school to equip the saints in that nation. For us, his name was not forgotten, nor his place in the universal church. But continuing in America, Voddie dropped off our radar until the zenith of social justice hit the streets with BLM marches in the summer of 2020.

As evangelicals went in search of leaders who were not woke, Voddie’s voice came from across the seas to provide immense wisdom and clarity. At a time when lock-downs made everything go online, his voice began to re-emerge in conferences and other places of biblical proclamation. In January 2021, his presence at the 1500-person Founders National Conference in Fort Myers—the first large gathering in more than 18 months—will never be forgotten.

And since that day, Voddie’s frequent visits to America have filled the land (and the internet) with cultural apologetics for wandering sheep. Indeed, 2020 has been called the “Great Sort” because so many previously-trusted leaders stumbled in their treatment of COVID and the culture. Equally, with the rise of online communications, many evangelicals began to go in search of new voices. Some went in search of false teaching, but many found themselves in places where the sound teaching had been captivated by social justice. And at this time, few men were ready for the season more than Voddie Baucham.

Indeed, by means of his traveling and preaching, he brought truth to those who were wandering. And thus, while many shepherds wandered from the truth—and thankfully many have returned—Voddie Baucham was again a North Star. At a time when many church-goers would not “endure sound teaching” and would “accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,” Voddie began denouncing things like Ethnic Gnosticism and Social Justice that emerged from the Frankfurt School and Critical Race Theory.

To be sure, such plain speech offended many—including those who once walked beside him. But true to form, Voddie did not deviate. Instead, he continued to explain the Bible and the world to those who love the Bible. And thus, the years of 2020 to 2025 made him one of the most trusted voices in America—a seminary president from Africa who even preached the gospel to the likes of Ben Shapiro.

Recently, it has been observed by Jason Whitlock, Chad O. Jackson, and Virgil Walker that Voddie’s name was not well-known among the so-called Black Church and that major publications have not recognized his untimely death. But clearly, Voddie was a public theologian par excellence and one whose voice will continue to speak to matters of Christ and culture, by means of the countless videos that captured his preaching.

An Evangelist Until the End

If Voddie was a voice crying out for truth in season and out of season, he was also a man who fulfilled his ministry until the end. As Paul told Timothy, “As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

Voddie wore sober-mindedness on his sleeve. Before preaching, noticeably, Voddie was consumed with his task. Like an athlete preparing to take the field, he prepared his heart and mind to preach the gospel to those who needed the truth. And in the words that he leaves behind, it is clear that he did the work of an evangelist until the end.

Even in the week before his death, Voddie preached the gospel to the saints at Grace Baptist Church and proclaimed God’s truth to the students at New Saint Andrews. Like Charlie Kirk who preceded Voddie’s ascent to glory by days, Voddie was preaching the good news. To do this meant that he had to endure suffering—both physical and relational. It cost him a great deal to be faithful. And yet, such fidelity reflects his all-consuming commitment to God’s Word.

From the days when he preached the gospel to teens in Texas to the days when his sermons would travel the earth, he was a man on the move whose biblical convictions did not change. For a generation, he was a north star and one whose light continues to shine.

As Paul said in Philippians, when he contemplated his own earthly passing and his impact on others, he urged the saints to shine as lights, “holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain” (Phil. 2:16). Applied today, one of the best ways to honor Voddie Baucham is to give thanks to God for him, to examine his life and ministry, and imitate his faith.

Voddie ran hard and he did not run in vain.

May we run that same race, stand in the same truth, and shine like stars with Christ’s light until he comes.

As Erika Kirk reported on Instagram, these were words that Charlie Kirk wore on his wrist until he gave his red bracelet to an admirer. At first glance, these words might appear to be Pelagian (a belief that one can save oneself by good works) or evidence that God favors those who work for him. But understood properly, these two exhortations are deeply and even necessarily Christian. And we need to understand why, and how such self-motivation is necessary for the doctrine of vocation and for filling our lives with good works that please God.

Good Works: Necessary After But Never Before Salvation

If there is any place in Scripture that gives us a theology of good works, it is Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. In Ephesians 2:10, Paul writes, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” In context, this charge to do good works follows one of Paul’s most ardent claims: good works cannot save you. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. And no two verses in Scripture make this point more clearly than Ephesians 2:8–9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Truly, working harder and being better justifies no one. At the same time, however, no one who is justified by grace is devoid of good works. In fact, the same people who were set apart by God before the foundation of the world for salvation (Eph. 1:4–6) are the ones for whom God prepared good works (Eph. 2:10). And when the child of God, who was born in sin and unable to save himself (Eph. 2:1–3), is made alive by God (Eph. 2:5), then he or she will not only do good works, but they will discipline themselves for the purpose of doing those good works (cf. 1 Tim. 4:7–8). And such self-discipline, which is empowered by the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22; 2 Tim. 1:7), might include wearing a red bracelet that says: Work Harder. Be Better.

Indeed, when God brings a sinner from death to life, he expects that they would work. That is the point of Ephesians 2:10 and it is also what Paul says in Titus 2:14, when he says that Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” In these verses, the works that God has in store for his people are not simply visible works, powerful works, or plentiful works. All of those things may be true, but not necessarily the case. God sees the Christian’s many hidden works and holds them, his workmanship in Christ, as precious.

No, what makes God’s works evidentially his is the truth, beauty, and goodness of his works. Man is not saved by good works, but the saved man will do works that are good. In other words, as he works for the Lord he will be sanctified, even as this man blesses and benefits others. Still, such sanctification is not automatic. It is all too easy to do works that appear to be good to others, all the while becoming increasingly corrupt within oneself. Judas appeared to be a good worker, until it was proven otherwise (Matt. 26:14–16). And Demas appeared to be a faithful servant of the Lord, until the pleasures of the world became too enticing (2 Tim. 4:10).

Accordingly, good works are not simply defined by their earthly impact or their visible intent. God knows the heart, and he knows whether the works done in the name of Christ are truly good; he also knows whether they give the appearance of godliness, all the while denying God’s power (2 Tim. 3:5). In our fallen world, there are many who appear to bear good fruit for the Lord until they dry out and descend into sin. Conversely, there are others who appear to be unfruitful or foolish in their early works, but by God’s grace, they keep working. And God, in his mercy, renews their minds, strengthens their hands, and honors their labor because they have continued to abide in Christ. In John 15, this is what Jesus taught his disciples. Those who abide in Christ by God’s word and prayer will bear fruit that lasts. For when it is the Lord doing the work in them, they will continue to run the race with perseverance and God will get all the glory.

Returning to Ephesians 2:10, believers will walk in all the works planned out for them before the foundation of the world. And in this way, they will work hard and get better. In all, good works do not save us, but they are necessary for our sanctification and for the building up of the church.

Moving from Theory to Practice

That being said, good works do not happen because we have a good theology of grace and works. Yes, doctrinal clarity is essential, but so is action. Working harder and being better do not happen by accident. And not surprisingly, in the same letter that Paul defines the purpose of good works, he also gives instructions for walking in light (Eph. 5:8), love (Eph. 5:2), wisdom (Eph. 5:15), and holiness (Eph. 4:17). Indeed, after explaining how the church is built up by the good works of those who are members of Christ’s body (Eph. 4:1–16), Paul goes on to explain common ways that Christians must conduct themselves (Eph. 4:17–5:21). And these ethical imperatives lead him to give instructions to wives and husbands (Eph. 5:22–33), children and parents (Eph. 6:1–4), as well as bondservants and masters (Eph. 6:5–9), and all of this before turning to the evangelistic efforts that come about when the saints move from the household of God to engage the powers and principalities in the world around them (Eph. 6:10–20).

In Ephesians, Paul shows us how a sound doctrine of grace leads to a life filled with good works—and good works that cover every square inch of creation. Indeed, from the altar to the city, Paul explains how true worshipers of God can adorn their lives with good works that glorify their Savior (cf. Titus 2:8). Still, such Christ-honoring works do not happen by accident. Instead, we must have our minds renewed by Scripture. And in what follows I want to explore how Ephesians 6:5–9 provides at least seven Christ-centered ways we can work harder and be better.

Acknowledging the cultural differences (and exegetical challenges) that stand between Paul’s instructions to masters and slaves in Ephesus and our own modern, free-market, post-slavery context in America, there are numerous ways Paul’s words continue to speak to marketplace Christians today.^[1] And by walking through these five verses, I intend to show how (points 1 and 7) Christ motivates, (2) supervises, (3) sanctifies, (4) hires, (5) provides an example, and (6) evaluates his followers. In so doing, these five verses connect Sunday to the rest of the week, as Paul teaches Christians how Christ should be present with them in all that they do.

1. For a short primer to some of the differences between slavery in Paul’s day and slavery as found in the antebellum South, see Clinton Arnold, Ephesians, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 419–20.

Seven Christ-Centered Ways to Work Harder and Be Better

1. Christ is the Ultimate Motivation for Work

In Ephesians 6:5–8, Paul addresses slaves (NASB, NIV, RSV, HCSB) or bondservants (ESV), and he calls them to “obey” their earthly masters (“masters according to the flesh”). Why? For the sake of Christ. Verse 5 reads, “Obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ.” Paul explains that in obeying earthly masters, those in the service of another are evidencing their commitment to Christ.

There are many ways this teaching has and can be abused by those in authority, but written to those under authority, Paul is urging Christians to respect and obey their “employers” for the sake of Christ. In fact, in Paul’s letter to Philemon, the Apostle sends Onesimus back to his earthly master, so that the man who ran away can return, since he has now been redeemed by Christ. In the short account of Onesimus, this bondservant’s conversion to Christ changed his relationship with his heavenly Lord as well as his earthly master. And thus, as a servant of Christ himself, Paul charges Philemon to receive back his servant Onesimus, who has now come to faith. Paul says in verses 15–16,

For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

If Ephesians 6 (along with Colossians 3) gives us the doctrine of vocation, the letter of Philemon illustrates the same. And in both places, the ultimate motivation for the worker—whether bond or free—is the chance to serve Christ. This is the change that Paul saw in Onesimus, his true child in the faith (Philemon 10), and it was the reason why he was confident to send him back to Philemon. Likewise, Philemon’s own submission to Christ is equally evident in Paul’s words to him. As Paul concludes his letter, he trusts that any wrongdoing that Onesimus might have done to Philemon could be charged to Paul’s account (Philemon 17–21). Such a presumption on Paul’s part stems from his knowledge of Philemon, and of Philemon’s own motivations.

Indeed, the whole letter of Philemon is suffused with men and women who are serving others because of their commitment to Christ. Thus, we learn that motivations for good works cannot arise from vices like selfish ambition (Phil. 2:3), vain conceit (Gal. 5:26), hedonistic pleasure (Phil. 3:19), or desire of riches (1 Tim. 6:5, 9–10). But neither can good works ultimately be motivated by the best of human virtues (e.g., prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance).

We can give thanks to God for the natural man who forsakes vice to strive after the four cardinal virtues, but ultimately anything not done by faith is sin (Rom. 14:23) and anything not done for Christ is subject to loss (Matt. 16:26; 1 Cor. 3:10–15). Fruit that lasts comes from a heart that abides in Christ (John 15:1–5), and we should not be afraid to affirm this absolute truth. To be sure, this ultimate motivation does not eviscerate other, lesser human motivations, nor does it deny their importance, especially in a world filled with believers and unbelievers. Still, as Christians, other motivations must be trained to serve the first motivation—to serve Christ.

In all that we endeavor to do, therefore, the Spirit-filled believer will long to glorify Christ. And this motivation will animate every good work. As Paul says in Colossians 3:17: “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

2. Christ is Your Vocational Supervisor

If Christ is your motivation, then he must also be your daily supervisor. As Ephesians 6:6 puts it, the servant of Christ does not work “by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers.” As Galatians 1:10 indicates, the man who seeks to please others cannot serve Christ. And why? Because such a commitment to pleasing others above God ensures motivations that can be misled or corrupted. In its original context, Galatians 1 is about the gospel and those who preach it, but because all Christians are witnesses of the truth, it has application vocationally, too.

For those who dare to let Christ be their ultimate motivation, they will also need to learn from him how to conduct themselves faithfully in a world filled with traps and temptations. It is one thing to say in the abstract, “I will glorify God in my work.” It is another thing to do it. For while Scripture does not record Jesus doing most of the vocations that his followers will pursue, every vocation is filled with difficult relationships, temptations to cheat, and opportunities to take advantage of others. In other words, every vocation is fundamentally moral and in need of Jesus’s instruction.

Whereas the natural man may look to book-selling experts or industry leaders to find help with work, the Christian does that too—but only after letting Jesus supervise his daily conduct. Fundamental to every vocation is the need to make decisions and to base those decisions on general wisdom and technical knowledge. Yet, before seeking wisdom about what to do in a given task, we must ask a more basic question: Will I serve God? Or will I serve man? As Jesus says, “No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matt. 6:24). In context, Jesus is talking about God and money, and Paul seems to be making a similar point in Ephesians 6. Every worker will be working to please Christ or some other human individual or collective.

Therefore, we must learn from Paul that no matter the company, the institution, or the office, the Lord claims precedence over them all. Christians bought by Christ’s blood are not first and foremost slaves of their earthly master; they are slaves of Christ. And thus, what he says matters most. And more than that, knowing that we are slaves to Christ frees us to do all that he commands us to do, even if that means ruining our career tomorrow by refusing to participate in a job-preserving or career-advancing lie.

Equally, seeing Christ as our supervisor does not mean that Christians are free to reject the authority of their earthly supervisors, but just the reverse: Christ’s oversight motivates us to humbly respect and obey our earthly “lords.” This is why Paul uses the word “obey” when speaking to servants, and this support for earthly authority and submission is not something to throw off but to embrace with wisdom and zeal.

3. Christ is Your Sanctifier

If Christ’s supervisory role calls us to affirm our allegiance to him, it also beckons us to work with zeal, virtue, and excellence—or, simply working harder while being better. In truth, our earthly masters may not see our lack of effort or character deficiency. Others may not care. As long as the job gets done, the results justify everything else. Right? Too many are the work environs where productivity is prized, not integrity. And equally, too many Christians accept poor work in the name of grace.

But does such work please the Lord? Not according to Ephesians 6.

Unrighteousness cloaked by effectiveness is not what pleases the Lord, nor is a consistent devotional life (e.g., reading the Bible every morning) sufficient to pass off a pattern of shoddy workmanship. As Proverbs speaks about honest scales (Prov. 11:1; 16:1) and righteous speech (Prov. 10:11, 20), it also commends hard work (Prov. 10:4; cf. Eccl. 9:10) and skilled labor (Prov. 22:29). Truly, God expects his sons and daughters to do more than get work done. He longs for them to reflect his character in their labors, and to be improved by the work itself.

Truly, if it is common to spend between 40–60 hours per week working, then it is vital to fill that time with works of faith and labors of love. Alternatively, if we compress our faith, hope, and love into the parts of the week where we are only reading the Bible, singing in church, meeting for Bible study, or leading family worship, then most of our waking ours are devoid of motivations that match our faith. But if we can pursue work as an extension of our faith and a vehicle for our love, then we soon discover that the two great commandments—to love God and love neighbor—are the animating principles of our daily work.

Notably, we see this truth in Ephesians 6:6, as Paul calls for Christ’s disciples to do the will of God from the heart. In other words, work for the Christian is not just a means to some spiritual end (e.g., evangelism at the water cooler or making money for the church). Nor is daily labor the necessary but wasted time in between more important things—Sunday worship or specific church missions. Rightly understood, work is the place—perhaps the most enduring and challenging place—where Christians can put God’s will into practice. And this is true for the man who goes to work six days a week or deploys for six months at a time. It is equally true for the single woman who has taught school for three decades or the mother of three littles, who spends her days running from feeding to cleaning and repeating.

In short, when Christ is your motivation and Christ is your supervisor, then Christ will also be your sanctifier, as he uses your work as a place to test your heart and train your affections. Indeed, anger, boredom, envy, frustration, disappointment, and pride are just some of the reactions that come out of your heart when you work—not to mention what comes out of your mouth. And this is as Christ intends. Regardless of your vocation, the thorns and thistles of the curse will rub your flesh raw and expose what your soul is really like. But take heart, if you are working as unto the Lord and doing the will of God from the heart, he will use work as a means of immense sanctification.

So, work as a bondservant of the Lord, doing his will from the heart. For this testifies to his daily grace and his unchanging greatness. Indeed, seek to be productive, but don’t miss what the Lord is doing in you, as he calls you to serve him from the heart.

4. Christ is Your Hiring Manager

If Christ is our motivation, supervisor, and sanctifier, it should not surprise us that he is also the one who “hires us.” Yes, I am speaking metaphorically here, but stay with me. While not denying the reality of HR departments and earthly hiring managers—as well as the need to update resumes and learn job interviewing skills—we need to recognize that Christ is ultimately the one who provides our work and the one who employs us. Practically, remembering this reality does two things at once. First, it keeps the sovereignty of God at the forefront of our thinking and praying. And second, trust in Christ’s sovereign rule leads, guides, and directs us in our vocations.

Grounding this point in Ephesians 6, Paul’s words do more than draw the implicit connection between God’s sovereign rule and man’s work. He actually says that in fulfilling our calling, we are to “render service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man” (Eph. 6:7). Affirming the human element in our work, Paul’s words heighten our calling to serve the Lord himself.

Once again, Paul’s point of view is radical. It grates against any sense of self-achievement that deceives us into thinking that we can offer service to God on our own terms. Likewise, it crushes the desire to boast in one’s resumé, education, or workplace accomplishments (cf. 1 Cor. 4:7). To the self-confident, sought-after contractor, this godly way of thinking is repulsive. But to the Lord who opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble (Prov. 3:34), this exactly what he wants. Equally, when we are faced with a human supervisor who despises us for our Christian faith or biblical ethics, we can remember that the Lord is the ultimate hiring manager. And this gives us confidence to keep serving him, with or without the support of others.

So, Paul’s words remind us of who ultimately signs our contract and gives us our daily bread (cf. Matt. 6:11): the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth. And this means that as we work for him, we can trust him that by our honest work we will eat (2 Thess. 3:6–12) and provide for others (Eph. 4:28). The alternative is to look proudly upon the work of our hands like Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 4:29–30) or to look anxiously upon the fields like the heathen (Matt. 6:25–34). In either case, we might be working hard, but we won’t be working in faith. And so, if we are going to work harder and better, we must remember who ultimately employs us. It is the Lord who owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Ps. 50:10). Thus, just as our ultimate motivation should be the Lord, so too the Lord is our ultimate hiring manager.

5. Christ is Your Example

In addition to overseeing our labors, Christ also teaches us how to “work.” Importantly, such work does not justify us, but it does sanctify us and glorify the Lord. As we observed from Ephesians 2:10, those who have been saved by faith and not by works (Eph. 2:8–9) have prepared for them by God good works to walk in (Eph. 2:10). For some, these good works include labors in the church, as Paul says in Ephesians 4:12–16. But many good works will be done “outside of church,” as the Lord sends his saints into all parts of the earth. Still, whether good works are pursued in the church or the world, the Lord is our model for all good works. And helping us to see what good works look like, Paul gives three ways to work in verses 6–8. 

In three consecutive participles (italicized below), Paul says

• doing the will of God from the heart,
• rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,
• knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord.

In these three actions, Paul teaches Christ’s disciples how to work like Christ. First, he calls us to learn the will of the Lord. Because Christ is the perfect example of God’s will, this instruction leads people to watch the Lord in his work. In this way, we can say Christ is our model, example, or guide. To be sure, the Lord doesn’t teach us medicine or metallurgy, but he does teach us principles of mercy and justice, wisdom and goodness. These impact every area of work and therefore apply to all people, regardless of calling.

Second, by learning from Christ, we learn how to have a good will in serving the Lord. Just as Christ did everything in service to his heavenly father, so must we. Hence, one of the most important habits a Christian can cultivate for “success” is the study of God’s Word, especially the person and work of Christ. Only those who know Christ and his ways, can render service with a good will. Indeed, it is one thing to abide by company rules for the sake of a job, but it another to abide in the love of Christ as you let the word of Christ rule in your heart. The former may be sufficient to keep your job, but the latter is what the Lord requires, as it ensures that our vocations become vehicles of active service to the Lord.

Third, our motivation to do the will of the Lord is increased by looking to the future reward that God promises to those who work by faith in Christ. Indeed, faith impels Christ’s followers to labor in love; however, hope is also needed. As the workplace affords the Christian laborer multiple chances to love his neighbor, it also comes with difficulties. In response, how will the Christian press on without growing discouraged or turning from the Lord’s ways? The answer that Paul gives is to keep looking to the future reward. By sowing good seeds in the hope of a reward, the follower of Christ looks forward to a harvest that goes beyond company goals. This is what empowers God’s people to endure. And again, no one has modeled this better than Christ, who died on the cross in hope of what it would achieve when he rose from the dead (cf. Heb. 12:1–2).

For all these reasons, Christ’s humble obedience to the Father and his sacrificial exercise of love and justice on the cross models for all Christians the way they can and must work for God’s glory. Therefore, we should look to Christ and learn from him how to work regardless of where that labor is found.

6. Christ is Your Workplace Evaluator

In Ephesians 6:9, Paul turns from slaves to masters. Again, he puts Christ at the center of his instructions. Importantly, Paul uses the same perfect participle (knowing) in both verses to address slaves (Eph. 6:8) and masters (Eph. 6:9). And in between Paul says the reward from Christ is irrespective of social class or economic condition: “knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.”

With an economic valuation that comes from heaven, he encourages masters and slaves that their eternal rewards are not dependent on their earthly standing. Rather, the reward comes from God, who looks at the heart (cf. 1 Sam. 16:7). Moreover, by saying in Ephesians 6:9, “Masters, do the same to them,” he stresses the reciprocal nature of masters and slaves. In this way, he relativizes earthly status, while ennobling all forms of work.

In principle then, Paul teaches that the value of work is based on someone’s relation to Christ and eternity, not to his income level, educational background, or business success. To be clear, those things are not unimportant, for each of them come with a particular stewardship to serve Christ. But ultimately, one’s value before the Lord is not based on his or her works; it is based upon their standing in Christ.

“Well done, my good and faithful servant,” is the uniform praise that God gives to all his children regardless of their earthly standing (cf. Matt. 25:14–29). And thus, Paul’s words teach the Christian laborer to be content where they are and to grow where they are planted. If possible, they can and should seek to be more free or effective (see 1 Cor. 7:17–24). A holy ambition is good and right.^[2] But ultimately, our value and worth are found in Christ’s perfect work and not in our good (but not yet perfect) works.

2. For more on holy ambition, see Tyler Cox’s forthcoming Christ Over All article. 

7. Christ is the Ultimate Motivation for Work

Finally, we return to the first point, because Paul returns with masters to his opening point. The ultimate motivation for work is the glory of God. And we see this point in Ephesians 6:9 when Paul says, “Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.”

Again, these words are meant to humble masters, and to prevent them from abusing their power. Like the men or women who serve under them, they too are to use their position to reflect God’s character. Only in this case, their position of authority requires genuine humility that looks like kind-hearted service to those under their care (cf. Mark 10:42–45). Why? Because they too are servants under the wise and loving care of Christ, their master in heaven.

Negatively, Paul warns those with authority to stop threatening and motivating others by fear of punishment. Likewise, he urges faithful service by means of considering Christ. In this way, Paul concludes this section like he began, with a Christ-centered motivation for masters to glorify God with their lives and their livelihoods.

Remembering Christ’s Perfect Attendance

In the end, Paul finishes his instruction about submission (going back to Eph. 5:21) by stressing the fact that God in heaven is looking down on all actions and attitudes of his people. And he calls masters (and all of us) to attend to this fact: God is always present.

Enthroned in heaven with all creation under his feet, Christ is never absent from the world and its various places of labor. And while false motives and unjust practices abound in the world, God is calling Christians to do more than bring Jesus to work. He is calling Christians to realize he is already there. As “little Christ’s” (i.e., Christians) we are to see him in our daily workspaces so that we might work to reflect his glory more and more.

Indeed, for Paul, who at times worked in the marketplace to provide for himself (see Acts 18:1–3; 1 Thess. 2:9), such service included far more than just making money for ministry or being a witness to co-workers—although both of those motives existed. For Paul, working unto the Lord, whether as a slave or a master, was a call to do everything with an eye to the Lord and with an awareness of his presence. In a few words, it was a calling to work harder and be better—by God’s grace and for God’s glory.

Such a motive should grip all of Christ’s followers today, too. Though the economic systems of the West are far different from first-century Ephesus, these inspired words survive the test of time. As long as occupations of authority and vocations of submission exist—and usually our places of employment consist of both—these words give us sound counsel for our daily labors. Thus, we can apply Paul’s words today, because they are centered on Christ and the calling of disciples to work as unto the Lord, by remembering that in all we do we can look to Christ, so that we might look like Christ.

To that end may we labor.

While details continue to come in and motives continue to be debated, it is clear that the alleged assailant, Tyler Robinson, couldn’t handle the truth Charlie spoke. From whatever fetid corner of the internet that Robinson was radicalized into his hateful and anti-American ideology, it is clear that it could not stand up to the reality Charlie promoted. And so, in response, he sought to silence the truth with one blast of a rifle. But what he and others who have celebrated Charlie’s demise fail to understand is that Truth, with a capital T, cannot and will not be silenced.

Indeed, in the days since Kirk was assassinated, countless voices have risen to fill the void. Some of these voices have been pastors, like Michael Foster, who called his congregation to follow Charlie Kirk’s example, and professors like Mark Devine, rightly identifying Charlie as a Christian martyr. Others have been politicians, like J.D. Vance, who spoke of Kirk’s role in his own political ascension. Going far beyond the Christians and conservatives—which marked out Charlie’s own vocation—entertainers, like Tom MacDonald, have written tributes to Charlie.

While the earthly voice of Charlie Kirk has issued its last narrative-busting question, the chorus of countless truth-tellers has only begun to warm up. In fact, to honor Charlie Kirk—and more, to honor his Lord—we must do all we can to continue to ask hard questions, to proclaim the truth, and to promote honest dialogue.

Threats to America’s Social Fabric

Historically, America has stood for freedom, or, as Superman used to say, “Truth, justice, and the American way.” When we consider the social and political order that we enjoy, it is self-evidently built on an enduring (but beleaguered) set of principles and beliefs that were present at our founding and are deeply rooted in the very ideas Charlie devoted his life to promoting. For Charlie, “Make America Great Again” was not a cheap endorsement of Donald Trump or a contrived way to build his brand. Rather, from the time he began visiting campuses thirteen years ago, it was a commitment to engaging ideas—ideas that once made America great.

And ideas that will make America great again—if only the movement that Charlie started continues.

What is evident today, however, is that there are menacing counter-ideologies, woke principles, and deadly beliefs that threaten this order. These competing ideologies have manifested themselves in BLM riots, Antifa terror, and mass shootings at the hands of angry transvestites.^[1] In a word, the radical agenda of progressive Leftists is one that denies God and his law, denies nature and its fruits, and denies Christians like Charlie Kirk the right to speak freely on a college campus.

1. We aren’t using the term “transgender” here because one cannot change one’s God-given gender. You can change your clothes, you can even cut off healthy body parts. But you can’t change you gender or sex. So the word “transvestite,” which is a word our grandfathers used to use, is a more accurate account of reality.

The principles of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness that our founders cherished were once protected and promoted by college professors. But since the downfall of education in the twentieth century, college campuses have become a hotbed for angry students who would rather cancel their peers than question their own false and incoherent beliefs. And since 2016, and especially since 2024, cancel culture has moved from ballots to bullets and from job loss to blood loss. In the process, what made America great—namely fundamental freedoms that arose from the Protestant Christianity of their forefathers—has been threatened.

Yet truth cannot be killed. For the Truth was killed two-thousand years ago, and He rose from the dead three days later never to die again. But mere mortals who proclaim the truth in the environs where darkness festers can be killed. And in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, we are now left to ask: What now? What next?

As noted, many faithful friends have written tributes to Charlie Kirk. And these testimonies to his faith, love, hope, and service—to God and country—take the priority of immediate place. But soon, the emptiness of Charlie’s famous tent will need to be filled. And not by only one man. For who can truly replace Charlie Kirk? But his place will need to be filled by many. By thousands, if not millions, of young men who looked up to Charlie Kirk.

And thus, dedicated to those men—men like our sons, and those a few years older than them—we offer the following call to arms. This is a commission and exhortation, if you will, given by God’s Word and modeled on the life of Charlie Kirk.

Be Men With Chests

If you are like us, when you hear unsettling news like the cold-blooded assassination of Charlie Kirk, you want to spring into action. Every fiber of your being wants to deploy to the field of battle and see the evil destroyed. We want to affirm this as a good and right response. It is good and right for men to respond with an instinct cocked to lead and protect and defend our society, and especially the vulnerable, against evil.

In fact, men who lack this kind of instinct, this God-given thumos—or spiritedness—are what C. S. Lewis described in his Abolition of Man as “men without chests.” These are men who encounter reality and process good and evil in a way that does not produce personal virtue, but instead live in a way that denies reality, nature, the goodness of good and the evilness of evil. We cannot be like that. We want to have a heart after God’s own heart, like King David (1 Sam. 13:14), which means we must hate evil and love good (Amos 5:5). And we must channel these emotions productively. We must take that anger, mixed with sorrow and loss, and work it for good. As David put it, “Be angry, but do not sin” (Ps. 4:4; cf. Eph. 4:26). And that means we need to get to work and follow through with what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10:6, to “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

Still, such a noble calling needs concrete steps. And so we want to offer five actions you—and especially young men—can and should do this week, and next week, and every week after that to honor the legacy of Charlie Kirk and amplify the Truth of Christ such that the evil now facing (and filling) America would be turned back. 

In order, we should (1) Pray and read the Bible, (2) Go to church, (3) Become a Member, (4) Bring Christian Community into the World, and (5) Build Outposts in the Wilderness.

Pray and Read the Bible

The first thing we should do in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination is the first thing we should do in any situation: Pray.

The radical Left loves to mock the power of prayer, especially when Christians are driven to pray in a moment of tragedy, danger, or evil. But they do this because they have a bankrupt understanding of reality. They don’t believe in God, or in his Power, and they certainly don’t believe that, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

Prayer has been the engine of great movements of God all through history, from Pentecost to the Protestant Reformation to the First Great Awakening. We have not—so often because we ask not. So many of the Great Christian reformers of history were men of prayer. Their dependance upon God galvanized them, gave them balance, and spurred them on. Let us do the same!

God listens to the prayers of his saints and he intervenes on earth when his people cry out to heaven. As Psalm 145:18 says, “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” Do not let those who don’t believe in God convince you that prayers to the One who made you and everything else in the universe are not worth the effort. Again, the Bible and world history suggest otherwise. Charlie Kirk was a man of prayer, because he believed in the power of God. Be like Charlie and pray. And pray as Jesus taught us to pray:

⁹ Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
¹⁰ Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread,
¹² and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6:9–13)

At the same time, as these verses from Matthew’s Gospel indicate, the way we know how to pray is by reading the Bible. And so, if you have never read the Bible, or if you haven’t read the Bible in a long time, find a Bible—online or at church near you—and begin to read.

Romans 15:4 says, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The Word of God is for hope. And if you are in need of hope today, then go read the Bible. Start with the Psalms and the passionate cries of David. Read Genesis to see how the world began. Head to the Gospels to encounter the real and living Jesus. And take time to read Paul’s letters, which offer practical instruction on how to walk worthy of Christ’s gospel.

Even more, if you need help understanding the Bible, you might find help with these two podcasts—Bible Talk (for the Old Testament) and Via Emmaus on the Road (for the New Testament). But just the same, you should find a local Bible-believing church and begin attending regularly. For truly, the Word of God is best understood in the context of a community, and the church is the place where God invites you to read, apply, and live out the truths of the Bible.

Go to Church

One of the most radical political acts you can do this week is go to Church and sing praises to the Risen King who sits at the right hand of God Almighty. Jesus is the King of Kings who has received all power and authority in heaven and earth (Matt. 28:18–20). Therefore, any political regime, any ideology, any individual who does not recognize Jesus as king is already doomed. They just might not know it yet (Psalm 2).

The Bible commands God’s people to gather on the first day of the week every single week (Hebrew 10:25) so that we can celebrate the central fact of the universe: that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, that he rose on the third day, and that he ascended to heaven where he now lives to intercede for his people. Going to church is not an act of retreat; it is participation in the victory celebration of Christ. Yes, it’s a hospital for sinners, but it’s also the training hall of soldiers. And it is also the place where you will learn how to fulfill your calling on earth until the Lord calls you to stand before him.

If church attendance has been lax, repent of your infrequent or unlikely attendance. Equally, if seeking peace with King Jesus has been lukewarm or non-existent, confess your evil unbelief and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and be reconciled to God (Rom. 10:9). And with newfound faith and zeal, go to church this Sunday. And the next Sunday. And the next.

This is exactly the opposite of what the radical Left and their (very real!) demonic powers want you to do. Neither of us knew Charlie Kirk personally, but friends of his and the public record of his ministry have shown that he was a man who went to church regularly. His pastor knew him, prayed for him, and offered him counsel. You too need a Bible-believing church and a faithful pastor. You won’t run the race well without them.

Become a Faithful Church Member

Getting a gym membership to get in shape is great. But it requires you doing something when you get there. Spending an hour at the local Crunch Gym every day means nothing if you don’t exercise. The same is true at church.

If you are going to be effective for the Lord, then you must become a faithful member of a local church. The church is designed to equip, encourage, and correct you—just like the local trainer. So when you go to church, start by introducing yourself to the pastor(s). Meet others sitting in the same row. Stick around after church and have a conversation with other believers. Share your grief over Charlie Kirk’s murder, and encourage others with the Truth of God’s Word. And then become a member.

Church membership is the language that the Bible uses for getting plugged into the church. In places like 1 Corinthians 12:12–27, the Bible compares the church to a body. And as a body has many members, so you (a Christian) are an important part of that body. And actually, it is in the church body where you will learn what you are and where you are best able to serve. God did not intend for his children (to mix metaphors) to be by themselves. He intended them to serve one another and work with one another. If you aren’t plugged into a Christian body, you’re a severed toe, a dangling ear, or disjointed finger. Gruesome, I know. But that is the picture the Bible gives us. We are in dark days, and we will face dark days to come. Knowing this, you need to be plugged into a believing community.

As Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, “though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” These threats are real, and there is even one who “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). So join a brotherhood of believers, lock arms with them, and be unstoppable. Jesus promised in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of Hell will not prevail against his church. That’s you, Christian—but only when you are joined to other believers under the Lordship of Christ.

America was founded by those who enjoyed thick Christian community. And by means of their faith in God and their commitment to their local churches they changed the world.

Bring Your Christian Community Into the World

The kind of Christian community that comes from being plugged in isn’t a Sunday-only experience. It is a Sunday-through-Saturday Christianity. It remains alive when you exit the doors of the church. It follows you to the office, to the boardroom, the school, the neighborhood cookout, the city council, the local university, and even the halls of Congress.

This Christian community is the kind that Jesus described in Matthew 5:14–16, where Christians are a light on a hill and salt to the earth. They are light and salt because they benefit those around them. Genuine faith is always personal, but never private. And if your Christianity is worth its salt, it will be a light to your neighbors as they see in you the kind of unswerving joy and unmovable certainty that only comes from a life grounded in Christ.

In a word, such a life is infectious. It is effective. And it is the kind of thing that is good but not safe, to quote C. S. Lewis’s description of Aslan in Narnia. 

When Christians live their faith out loud and in public, it is dangerous to Leftist ideology, because the light of Christ always exposes the joyless emptiness of godless materialism. Indeed, all forms of progressive thought—e.g., Cultural Marxism, Radical Feminism, Transgenderism, etc.—are lifeless religions predicated on false ideas. Their adherents hold inconsistent beliefs that offer no eternal hope and are bankrupt in terms of their earthly use.

Charlie Kirk was a master at exposing these inconsistencies and the miseries that such ideologies produced. As a result, he was hated, but only because he was so effective. As he himself said in his Man Rampant episode with Doug Wilson, he was effectively destroying four years of higher education talking points (built upon twelve or more years of elementary indoctrination) with repeated three hour debates.

Truly, Kirk was a generational talent. His ability to step onto a college campus and debunk untold lies and debate hateful opponents with joy and confidence was unprecedented, and it is what made him so dangerous. He knew the Truth and that Truth empowered him to offer freedom to others who would listen.

But it is equally true that he was not a one man show. The organization he built since 2012 united countless young, conservative Christians across the country. And those outward facing public communities are what Christians must continue to foster today. Yes, start with prayer, the church, and vibrant membership, but don’t forget to extend your Christian community into the public square. You don’t have to set up a tent on a college campus that says, “Prove Me Wrong.” But you might.

What you do need to do is to magnify the message of Christ by means of being the community of faith in public. As the Reformer John Knox once said, “A man with God is always in the majority.” And we aren’t just one man. We are millions of believers strong in this country that are tired of seeing radical ideology attack the good foundations of America. And with Charlie Kirk lifted from the battle, we need Christians—and especially, young godly men—to get off porn, stop doom scrolling, stop escaping into video games, and join (and then lead!) the community of faith in public. The world needs you—now, more than ever.

Build Outposts in the Wilderness

Finally, in this spiritual battle, go build something great.

It is absolutely incredible to think that an eighteen-year-old with no college education could in less than fifteen years become arguably the most effective evangelical political leader in America. He was instrumental in bringing Trump into office; he played a critical role in leading J.D. Vance into national politics; he founded an organization that is as large as any conservative think tank in America; and most importantly, he started a family with one precious wife and two children with eternal souls. In short, he was a builder. And in this, he should be a model to everyone of us—but especially, every young (middle-aged or old) man.

Men were created to worship God and build the future. You shouldn’t assume that you will build another TPUSA. You don’t have to. Go build a family, a business, or a reputation for getting things done. Build into the church where you worship and build up the people around you. Imagine what would happen if this nation had ten-thousand young men—or better yet, ten-million—who were fighting evil and building in the name of the Good, True, and Beautiful. It would certainly save this country from the forces of radical progressivism. And more, if they did it in Jesus’s name—it would be a revival of incalculable proportion.

Charlie Kirk built a reputation of being someone who was willing to invite opposition in the name of freedom of speech and public debate. He embodied everything that was good and right about America. And he did it as a Christian who became more like Christ over time, not less. In this hour of mourning and loss and despair, it is right to lament Charlie’s death and to call for justice—even capital punishment that is swift and just. But let’s make sure our emotional energy does not turn us into bitter skeptics or disengaged cranks. And heaven forbid we would respond to evil with more evil. For the Christian, self-authorized violence is never the answer. God will repay (Rom. 12:19).

No. Instead, with all of the emotions that have come over the last week, go and do something great. Begin with prayer. Feed on Scripture. Root yourself in the church. And go build something that will outlast you. For the high-school junior, that might mean consistently reading the Bible and praying for the future. For the college senior who hasn’t gone to church since leaving home, that might mean finding a church next Sunday. For the under-employed single man, that might mean adding a second or third job, or pursuing additional education or a skill or trade and praying that God would make you marriageable. And for the all-too-content pastor who always preaches a “safe” message of cultural neutrality, that might mean calling out the sins of the Leftist radicals and addressing head-on the ideologies that animate them.

These and countless more are the actions steps you could take. But whatever you do, don’t shrink back and pretend this evil is going away or that it is someone else’s job to rise up. On college campuses across our country, Charlie Kirk was a voice crying out in the wilderness. But we believe and we are praying that the assassination of Charlie Kirk, which was meant to silence the Truth, would result in tens of thousands, even millions, of young people standing up in his place, speaking the Truth in love with a boldness that is as infectious as it is unstoppable.

Truly, may this moment be a Turning Point. And may all of us commit to making our lives count—for Christ and for the good of our country.

Accordingly, many non-Christians have begun to recognize the way that Christianity is a necessary source for the Western Tradition. Apparently, they have looked around to see militant Islam overrunning European cities, while transgender ideology has continued to mutilate children in America. Clearly, the cultural upheaval over the last few decades has made a few people wake up to what they have lost.

Equally, there has been a rise in the public discussions about Christ and the Bible. For instance, Joe Rogan interviewed Bible apologist Wesley Huff, while Russell Brand has confessed Christ as his Lord and has been seen commending the work of Joe Boot, a regular contributor to Christ Over All. In this cultural context, it may not be strange to see Jordan Peterson discuss the Bible with a dozen intellectuals. After all, he has been citing the Bible for years—both online and on lecture circuit.

Still, for all the ways that the Bible has found a place in public discourse, the question remains: What are these Christians and non-Christians saying about the Bible? Are they rightly handling the Word of God? Or are they only using the Bible to prop up some other cultural project or to espouse their own ideological pre-commitments? In truth, this question is not new. At least, it is not new in America.

In his two books on the Bible (In the Beginning Was the Word: The Bible in American Public Life, 1492–1783 and America’s Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794–1911), Mark Noll identifies ways the Americans—before and after the founding—used the Bible for political and social ends. While the Bible played a vital role in the formation of America, it is debatable as to the ways in which pastors, politicians, pundits, and professors rightly understood it. Likewise, as Michael Legaspi framed it in The Death of Scripture and the Rise of Biblical Studies, the “academic Bible” became an object of scrutiny instead of retaining its role as a divine source of revelation and command.

Long story short, in a country founded upon and filled with biblical language, customs, and commitments, we must still ask the question: But what does the Bible mean? It is not sufficient to simple answer the postmodern question: What does the Bible mean to me? We must understand Scripture on its own terms and then to help others to do the same. While we can celebrate the return of the Bible in popular conversation and spaces of intellectual debate, we cannot assume that its presence is sufficient to spark a revival.

That said, no revival, spiritual renewal, or cultural restoration can be had without the Bible. Thus, we can and should celebrate these recent shifts, even as we pray that God would give spiritual light. Yet, if spiritual light is going to come, the Bible must be read and understood properly. For truly, it is not the presence of the Bible that brings life; it is the right preaching and believing of the Bible that brings change.

And so, that means with this revival of interest in the Bible, and the Gospels in particular, we need to engage with what is being said. For that reason, we are devoting this whole month to the Gospels, including Jordan Peterson’s recent work. We need to see what he gets right and what he doesn’t. And who knows, maybe if he learns about our project, he’ll want to talk to us. You can pray for that opportunity.

In short, our hope this month is to consider the four Evangelists—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each year, Christ Over All wants to devote at least one month to a biblical book (or books), and this year it is the Gospels. And so, we have recruited a host of New Testament scholars, pastors, and theologians to give us an introduction to each book and to help us understand the corpus, as a whole.

Lord willing, this month will help you better appreciate and understand what the Gospels are, so that you might discern ways that the Gospels are misused or denied in the public square. All month long, we will be looking at these four witnesses to help us receive and believe the one true Gospel. And if you know anyone who would benefit from this month, please share it with them.

The Nicene Creed: 1700 Years of Homoousios

Before moving on to August, however, let me offer a few reflections on the last month. In July, we looked the Council of Nicea (325), as well as the history and doctrine that emerged from the Nicene Creed. As we celebrate 1700 years of the homoousios—the fact that Jesus the Son is of the same substance or essence as God the Father—we have taken time to help scholars and Sunday School teachers alike to remember why this creed is so important. Even more, as some today have forsaken the Baptist faith citing the pursuit of Nicene orthodoxy, we have sought to provide Baptists with countless reasons for affirming Nicea and the Second London Confession.

In fact, the Second London Baptist Confession, following the Westminster Confession of Faith, is thoroughly Nicene in its statements. And as such, Baptists should have no trouble reconciling the two. And expounding these biblical commitments, this month provided the pre-history leading up to the Council of Nicea and the post-history that saw the debates of Athanasius and Arius lead to the Nicene Creed of 381, when the bishops gathered again in Constantinople.

Equally, our month provided reflections on each section of the creed, from the Father, to the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We looked at how a major distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism really flows down from a difference in understanding the Trinity; Rome elevates Mary and the entity of the Roman Catholic Church to share roles reserved for members of the Trinity. To better understand how to understand the Trinity, we also published on the person and nature distinction, and how it has been clarified over time. We also looked at the statement about the church—“one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.” And getting further into the details, we looked at how God the Son is distinguished from God the Father by eternal generation and whether Mary ought be called “the mother of God” and why that matters. We explored how the Nicene Creed contains the fundamental elements of the gospel, how it helps us to read our Bibles better, and how it is insufficient as the only grounds for unity. We rounded out the month with a call to preach the Nicene Creed, along with a few pointers on how to do this well.

The 1700 year anniversary of Nicaea was not the only milestone this month. This month we acknowledged the 100 year anniversary of the Scopes Trial, a trial that sadly helped pave the way for a wider acceptance of evolutionism—in part due to critical missteps of William Jennings Bryan. We also commemorated the homecoming of Pastor John F. MacArthur Jr., who died at age 86 after pastoring Grace Community Church for around fifty-six years. We mourn the loss of this giant in the faith, and we are grateful to God for his tenacious commitment to the Bible no matter the cost. While we have our respectful differences in some areas, we have sought to share MacArthur’s ethos by confidently apply the whole counsel of God to every area of life, both public and private. You can read our tribute here.

Another way we have sought to imitate MacArthur is by occasionally addressing problems within the church—or in our case, the group of churches that comprise the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). In March 2025, we published an entire month on the SBC’s public policy arm—the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). The ERLC was led by Brent Leatherwood, who largely carried on the leftward-leaning political legacy of Russell Moore. Our goal was to soberly and civilly identify problem areas in the ERLC along with possible solutions for its future.

At the Southern Baptist Convention a few months later in June of 2025, almost 43% of the messengers representing SBC churches nationwide voted to abolish the ERLC. While that vote fell short, on July 31 of this year, Brent Leatherwood resigned as ERLC President. We wish Brent well for the future, and we hope that this development will lead to needed change in this entity. Would you pray with us for the trustees of the ERLC, that the new ERLC president they appoint will restore confidence in this entity and lead it to represent more accurately the interests of Southern Baptists in Washington, D.C.? This is a pivotal season.

If you missed any of this past month’s article, or if you know of anyone who would benefit from them, we’ve include the list below, with the longform essays and podcasts in bold.

• The Trinitarian Framework of the Nicene Creed by Leonardo de Chirico • Concise Article • All attempts to point to ‘Nicene Christianity’ and ‘creedal orthodoxy’ as the common ground between Roman Catholicism and evangelicalism are historically simplistic and theologically superficial. How the trinitarian framework is received, believed, and applied indicates a significant distance between the two traditions despite formal points of agreement. The words used are the same, but the theological worlds they open are different.
• 4.30 Kyle Claunch, David Schrock, Stephen Wellum • Interview • “God the Father: Namesake of all Fatherhood” by Kyle Claunch, David Schrock, Stephen Wellum • Interview • Listen in as David Schrock and Stephen Wellum interview Kyle Claunch on his Christ Over All essay: “God the Father: Namesake of all Fatherhood”
• On the Trail of Orthodoxy: The Person-Nature Distinction in the Nicene Creed and Beyond by Michael Wilkinson • Concise Article • Nothing is as vital for understanding the doctrine of the Trinity as the distinction between ‘natures’ and ‘persons.’ The distinction is simple to initially grasp, and yet is one of the deepest mysteries of Christian theology. How and why did the Nicene theologians develop this doctrine? And how can we still use it today?
• Creeds and the Gospel: From the Beginnings to the Council of Nicaea (325) by Donald Fairbairn • Longform Essay • Should we abandon man-made confessions of faith and instead have “no creed but Christ”? Enter the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.
• 4.31 Donald Fairbairn • Reading • “Creeds and the Gospel: From the Beginnings to the Council of Nicaea (325)” by Donald Fairbairn • Longform Reading • Should we abandon man-made confessions of faith and instead have “no creed but Christ”? Enter the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.
• God the Father Almighty: The Trinitarian Depth of the First Article of the Creed by Kyle Claunch • Concise Article • To rightly understand the true Son, one must rightly understand how the Son relates to the Father. This is our God!
• One Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God by Stephen Wellum • Concise Article • Is the Jesus of the Nicene Creed different than the Jesus of the Scriptures?
• On The Holy Spirit by Robert Lyon • Concise Article • The Holy Spirit seems like an afterthought in the first version of the Nicene Creed. Discover the glories hidden in the creed’s short statement, and why they were expanded in the Creed we have today.
• Christ Came for Us Men and for our Salvation by Harrison Perkins • Concise Article • Is the gospel a mere historical announcement of what Jesus has done? Or does it include a call to embrace a personal salvation that Jesus was sent down to accomplish?
• 4.32 “Creeds and the Gospel: From the Beginnings to the Council of Nicaea (325)” by Donald Fairbairn, David Schrock, Stephen Wellum • Interview • Listen in as David Schrock and Stephen Wellum interview Donald Fairbairn on his Christ Over All essay: “Creeds and the Gospel: From the Beginnings to the Council of Nicaea (325)”
• “What hath Nashville to do with Nicaea?” by Michael A.G. Haykin • Concise Article • In rejecting creeds like Nicaea for the sake of ‘soul liberty’ and biblicism, many Baptists—especially in America—have inadvertently marginalized the central theological claim of Scripture: the revelation of the one true God as Triune.
• A Personal Tribute to John MacArthur (1939–2025) by Ardel Caneday • Concise Article • We honor the life and legacy of a man who tenaciously preached the scriptures and stood for the truth no matter the cost.
• How Should One Understand One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic? by Jeremy M. Kimble • Concise Article • When most people think of the Nicene Creed, they think of the Trinity. But the doctrine of God is not all that Nicaea addressed. The Creed called the church “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.” How can we as Protestants affirm this section of the Creed without returning to Rome?
• Creeds and Quiet Time: How the Nicene Creed Helps Us Read the Bible by Knox Brown • Concise Article • Should we use the Nicene Creed when we read the Bible? Yes. Rather than distorting Scripture’s sense, the Creed enhances it by aligning our worldview with that of the biblical authors, so that we more readily and deeply comprehend Scripture’s meaning. But there is a danger in turning to the Creeds—if wrongly applied, they can subvert Scripture’s authority and lead us back to Rome. So let’s learn the right and wrong ways to use the Nicene Creed in our quiet time.
• The 1925 Scopes Evolution Trial: Why It Matters 100 Years Later by Terry Mortenson • Concise Article • 100 years ago, a bizarre and comical event brought agnostic objections to creationism in full view. Today, the same biblical truths and more are on trial. Our testimony must be faithful to every word of the Word.
• From Nicaea to the “Nicene Creed”: Sixty Years of Confusion and Controversy by Bryan Litfin • Longform Essay • This is the story of how the heresy of Arianism almost become the official doctrine of the early church, and the story of a few brave men who stood in the way.
• 4.33 “From Nicaea to the “Nicene Creed”: Sixty Years of Confusion and Controversy” by Bryan Litfin • Longform Reading • This is the story of how the heresy of Arianism almost become the official doctrine of the early church, and the story of a few brave men who stood in the way.
• Nicaea & Nestorius: Why Old Creeds Are Not Enough to Guard From New Challenges\ by Bijan Mahlouji • Concise Article • Creeds are helpful and necessary, but only insofar as they clarify and define the teaching of the Scriptures. Once creeds and their language start to lose purchase with people in the church, or do not clearly address the issue of the day, it is important to further define or update them.
• Debatable, Unnecessary, or Essential? The Virgin Birth and Mary as the Mother of God by Michael Pereira • Concise Article • All the creeds agree: the Lord Jesus “became incarnate of the Virgin Mary.” But how essential is the affirmation of the virgin conception of Jesus? And is it appropriate to call her “the mother of God”? Michael Pereira weighs in on these two questions.
• Brothers, Preach the Nicene Creed to Magnify Your God by Yuta Seki • Concise Article • There are certain Christian truths where eternity hangs in the balance. The Trinity is foremost among them. The Nicene Creed—preached from the pulpit—addresses the Trinitarian deficiency present among evangelicals.
• God from God: Recovering the Nicene Doctrine of Eternal Generation by Amos Peck • Concise Article • In an age of Christological confusion, the confession that Jesus is “God from God, Light from Light” remains a vital safeguard of his eternal divinity. The Nicene doctrine of eternal generation, grounded in Scripture, offers clarity, depth, and stability for the church’s worship and witness today.
• 4.34 “From Nicaea to the “Nicene Creed”: Sixty Years of Confusion and Controversy” • Bryan Litfin, David Schrock, Stephen Wellum • Interview • Listen in as David Schrock and Stephen Wellum interview Bryan Litfin on his Christ Over All essay: “From Nicaea to the “Nicene Creed”: Sixty Years of Confusion and Controversy”
• Aren’t Catholics and Evangelicals United by the Nicene Creed? A Review of a Book That Answers This Question by Mlungisi Ncube • Concise Article • “Surely we believe in one and the same Lord Jesus Christ” is often claimed to be the foundation of agreement between Roman Catholic doctrine and evangelical theology. But is this affirmation enough to be the grounds of ecumenical unity between Rome and Protestants?

News and Notes

In conclusion, let me highlight a few areas:

First, be aware of our upcoming months.

After we look at the Gospels in July, here is what we are looking at for the rest of the year. (If there are other themes you’d like us to consider in 2026, please shoot us an email).

September 2025: The Doctrine of Vocation

October 2025: Biblical Theology in the Balance

November 2025: Do the Reading: Selections in Political Theology

December 2025: Christmas Medley, Part 2

January 2026: Abolishing Abortion

Second, we’d love to see you face to face later this year.

On Monday, October 27th, Steve Wellum and Trent Hunter will be speaking in Mauldin, South Carolina at the Pastors Encouraging Pastors Conference. This conference is hosted by Christ Over All author Brad Baugham at Emmanuel Bible Church, and will focus on how the Bible fits together.

A number of us will also be at the Evangelical Theological Society in Boston (November 18–20). If you are there, please let us know.

Also, in January we will be visiting Southwest Florida to join the Founders National Conference in Fort Myers on January 22–24. That week David Schrock will be one of the speakers, and we will have a booth. Sign up here to join us.

Third, our Editor in Chief is on sabbatical (sort of).

From the beginning, Christ Over All has been led by a fellowship of pastors and professors, and that means that most of our time is not spent writing, publishing, and podcasting online. Rather, our main place of service is in local churches. And for the next three months, David Schrock is taking a three-month sabbatical at his local church. As for Christ Over All, that means Trent Hunter will quarterback the podcast more than usual, even though David Schrock will make occasional appearances.

Fourth, please consider supporting Christ Over All.

The easiest way to support our ministry is to tell others about us: you can forward this intermission, recommend an article, or share our content on social media. But if you or your church has benefited from our ministry, would you also be willing to make a donation, especially over the lean summer months?

Every dollar given goes toward helping Christians to think with a consistently Christian worldview across all of life. When you give to our ministry, you allow us to serve more people, and make known more completely the glorious Lordship of Christ. So we appreciate a gift of any amount.

That’s all for this month. Until next time, let’s remember that because Christ is Lord over all, we ought exalt Christ in all things.

Seventeen hundred years later, the Creed of Nicaea that emerged from that Summer gathering is still cited, recited, and employed to unite the Church Universal, as it defines trinitarian orthodoxy. Many doctrines have since divided the global church, and even one word (filioque = and the son) added later to the Nicene Creed has also divided the church. Still, for all the ways that divisions have come, the Nicene Creed remains a bedrock for Christian orthodoxy.

For the next month, Christ Over All will consider the history, theology, and necessity of this ancient creed. Last year, we spent a month thinking about creeds and confessions in general, as well as their ongoing usefulness for those who believe the Bible is the final authority. This month, we will build on that foundation, as we look at each section of the Creed and how it informs our faith today.

The Nicene Creed: 1700 Years of Homoousios

Indeed, few things made today last seventeen years, let alone 1700. Obsolescence is engineered into the cars we drive and the device on which you are reading this essay. I am not a prophet, but I am willing to bet that your current device will not be in working order in seventeen years. That said, unless the Lord returns, the Nicene Creed will still be working, no worse for wear.

But obsolescence does not simply afflict technology. Sin has so corrupted human relations that institutions like marriage, which are promised to last a lifetime, are often short-lived. Ephemeral—something lasting for only a short time—is a word that marks the twenty-first century, and eternal things rarely make the never-ending cycle of news. Instead, from the things we buy to the homes we build, we have become accustomed to disposable products and replaceable people.

And not surprisingly, such a vision of the world has an impact on the Word of God and the God of the Word. Throw in our culture’s obsession with the therapeutic—a view of life that tells broken people that they deserve to be comforted without correction—and you begin to have views of God that fundamentally deny both Scripture and statements about it (like the Nicene Creed).

For instance, two decades ago, Open Theists compared God’s knowledge of the future to that of mankind, and as a result, they denied our Creator the power to know all things. Likewise, the God who is preached in countless mega-churches today is one that affirms our (fallen) human desires and refuses to raise his voice about sexual sin above a whisper. As David Wells famously observed, God has become weightless, so that even in churches where orthodox statements about God are found on the website, fear of God is lacking in the worship. In place of reverent confession of God’s matchless glory is an endless array of creative comparisons between the creature and the Creator.

As Kyle Claunch noted in our final longform of June, to make God like his creation turns comparison in the wrong direction. The uncreated God is not like his creation. Rather, we who are made in his image are like him—but not in every way. Rather, we are like him to the degree that we embody his communicable attributes. Still, there remains attributes of God that are wholly unique to our uncreated Lord. And that means that to speak properly about God is not something we can do haphazardly or without help. And this need for help is where the Nicene Creed comes to our aid.

For, in fact, this creed provides basic language for talking about God that is both true to Scripture and derived from Scripture. And lest we attempt to know God by means of worldly comparisons or ever-changing metaphors, the language of Nicaea has stood the test of time for seventeen centuries. And the reason for its endurance is its connection to the Bible. In other words, the creed is not an addition to the Bible. It is a distillation of the Bible. And this month, as we consider Nicaea’s place in church history, we will also show how it attends to the Word of God to give us a proper grammar about God the Word.

As I tell my theology class when I teach the doctrine of God, our modern culture trains us to want a god like us. But in truth, we need a God who is not like us. We need a God who does not change, who is perfect in all of his attributes, and who did not come into being at some point before the world began. Truly, this was the error of Arius as he attempted to explain the begottenness of God in ways that humans could understand.

In other words, his approach to the doctrine of God failed to distinguish the difference the between the eternal begottenness of the uncreated Son and the procreative begottenness found in humanity. Indeed, against the Arians, the Open Theists, and the pastoral therapists who explain God in purely human ways, the Nicene Creed teaches us to know, love, worship, and obey a God who is not like us.

In a day that offers modern man a world at his fingertips, the Nicene Creed trains us to look away from ourselves to the God who was, is, and forever will be the unchanging God. And more, it gives us terms of engagement that help us to know God as he is and not as the false teachers proclaim him to be. In truth, studying the Nicene Creed is not simply an exercise in ancient history or esoteric dogma; it is deeply practical and devotional—if only we are willing to give the time to think about the Father, Son, and Spirit who are of one essence with one another. That shared nature is called Homoousios. And all month long, we will celebrate the doctrine espoused at Nicaea.

The Paterfamilias: Making Fatherhood Great Again

Yet, before moving forward toward the Nicene Creed, we ought reflect on the previous month that is equally practical and often just as theological. In fact, as mentioned above, Kyle Claunch’s essay on the Fatherhood of God not only culminated a month filled with essays helping fathers to think carefully about their calling, but it also laid the groundwork for seeing how fatherhood on earth is derivative of God’s Fatherhood in heaven. And more, he made careful distinctions with respect to the way that God’s fatherhood is proper to the whole Godhead in relationship to creation, even as the Father is a personal property that is not shared with the Son and the Holy Spirit. Indeed, if you want a good primer on this month’s theological theme of Divine Sonship, Professor Claunch’s essay on God’s Fatherhood is the place to begin.

Still, this essay is only one of four longforms that we published in June. For we also took time to consider the connection between fatherlessness and the rise of Neo-Nazi sympathies in an essay by Will Spencer. In its aftermath, we had countless pastors commend his first-person testimony for bringing to light a plague that is troubling many young men. Next, Aaron Rock provided an immensely practical essay that combined solid doctrine with fatherly devotion to encourage fathers to disciple their children in the faith.

Then last, Doug Ponder provided a historical and contemporary appraisal of the terms “complementarianism” and “patriarchy.” Indeed, if fathers are to be the heads of their homes, but various terms confuse the issue today, then we need to think more carefully about the language we use, even as language changes. And so, Doug’s longform seeks to affirm the goodness of thick/broad/natural complementarianism that recognizes male and female difference go beyond the church and home, while also appreciating the goodness of the concept and term “patriarchy”—when defined biblically—as has been done throughout church history.

Thus, in these four longforms, we find critical thought on matters contemporary and eternal. So be sure to check them out and then share them with others.

At the same time, this month offered more than a dozen concise essays that ranged from affirming the goodness of Reformed Baptists raising their children in the Lord, to fathers blessing their children, to the dangers of “gentle parenting,” to the misuse of parental authority, to the way the natural law helps us think about fathering, and more. Indeed, for those wanting to think wisely about the fatherhood, this month is a great place to begin and could serve as a fruitful syllabus for the men in your church.

Below, you can find the whole month listed with the longforms bolded.

• The Dangerous Secret Your Young Men Are Keeping: Neo-Nazi Thought Has Entered the Church by Will Spencer • Longform Essay • A shocking insider confession reveals how extremist networks are targeting Christian communities—and what leaders must do now to stop them.
• 4.24 “The Dangerous Secret Your Young Men Are Keeping: Neo-Nazi Thought Has Entered the Church” by Will Spencer • Longform Reading • A reading of Will Spencer’s shocking insider confession regarding extremist networks within Christian communities.
• A Father Stands Above: On the Use and Misuse of Paternal Authority by Steve Heitland • Concise Article • Fathers are not called to be the head of their families; they just are. Whether they are heads that wound or heads that heal depends largely on their use of paternal authority.
• The Responsibility of Fathers to Protect Their Children from Pornography by John-Michael Bout • Concise Article • If you do not disciple your children in the area of sexuality and pornography, the world will.
• Intentional Fatherhood: A Purposeful Approach to Guiding Our Daughters in Dating by Brandon Philip • Concise Article • Fathers, who would you give away your daughter to in marriage? Shepherding requires intentional leadership and protection when their suitors come.
• 4.25 “The Dangerous Secret Your Young Men Are Keeping: Neo-Nazi Thought Has Entered the Church” by Will Spencer, David Schrock, Stephen Wellum • Interview • Listen in as David Schrock and Stephen Wellum interview Will Spencer on his Christ Over All essay: “The Dangerous Secret Your Young Men Are Keeping: Neo-Nazi Thought Has Entered the Church”
• The Natural Law and Biblical Mandate of Fatherhood: A Case for Creational Responsibility and Moral-Cultural Renewal by Andrew T. Walker • Concise Article • Fatherhood is built into the natural order of our created world. Its proper fulfillment is beautiful, yet its neglect is devastating.
• A Father’s Blessing on His Children by David Michael • Concise Article • Biblical blessings not only acknowledge God as the source of all blessing, but foster eternal good for Christian families. Fathers—bless your kids.
• The Fight for Fathers: The Key to Stronger Families by Owen Strachan • Concise Article • Our world and its families are desperately lacking godly, masculine men. We need fathers like the Father.
• Wisdom for Fathers: Raising up Children in a Fallen Down World by Aaron Rock • Longform Essay • How do men steward fatherhood well and raise godly offspring? Here’s a helpful mnemonic and eight tips for disciple-making dads.
• 4.26 “Wisdom for Fathers: Raising up Children in a Fallen Down World” by Aaron Rock • Longform Reading • How do men steward fatherhood well and raise godly offspring? Here’s a helpful mnemonic and eight tips for disciple-making dads.
• Fatherhood Advice: It’s Not Rocket Science—It’s Just Hard by Bob Avery Brown • Concise Article • Establishing an environment of security—with love and stability—creates the conditions for our kids to become happy, confident, free, and mature adults.
• State-Enforced Fatherlessness in Colorado. . . And Your State May Be Next by Chase Davis • Concise Article • Parent-child separation on account of not affirming a child’s “preferred gender” was almost enshrined into Colorado law. If the church doesn’t fight this fight, who will?
• Is the Grass Really Greener? A Baptistic Vision for Fathering by Brett Toney • Concise Article • Reformed Baptist families don’t need to adopt the Presbyterian model of Christian parenting—they possess an all-encompassing vision of parenting for God’s glory in their children through the gospel.
• 4.27 “Wisdom for Fathers: Raising up Children in a Fallen Down World” by Aaron Rock, David Schrock, Trent Hunter • Longform Reading • Listen in as David Schrock and Trent Hunter interview Aaron Rock on his Christ Over All essay: “Wisdom for Fathers: Raising up Children in a Fallen Down World”
• God the Father: Namesake of all Fatherhood by Kyle Claunch • Longform Essay • What of the divine name Father? Is father a proper divine name, so that human fatherhood is an analogical participation in what is originally true of God? Or is it a metaphorical name derived from human fatherhood and applied to God as a figure of speech?
• 4.28 “God the Father: Namesake of all Fatherhood” by Kyle Claunch • Longform Reading • What of the divine name Father? Is father a proper divine name, so that human fatherhood is an analogical participation in what is originally true of God? Or is it a metaphorical name derived from human fatherhood and applied to God as a figure of speech?
• Gentle Parenting: A Book Review of a Book Reviewing This New Parental Approach by Chad Lawrence • Concise Article • The Gentle Parenting approach has swept the nation. But does it accord with God’s Word? Find out yourself in this Review of The Not So Loving Side of Gentle Parenting: A Biblical Plea to Parents
• “After Complementarianism, What? Why Egalitarians Are (Still) Winning the Evangelical Gender Debate” by Doug Ponder • Longform Essay • Will the real complementarians please stand up? Why it’s time for thick/broad/natural complementarians to embrace the label of “biblical patriarchy” to differentiate themselves from the declining thin/narrow/ideological complementarians.
• 4.29 “After Complementarianism, What? Why Egalitarians Are (Still) Winning the Evangelical Gender Debate” by Doug Ponder • Longform Reading • Will the real complementarians please stand up? Why it’s time for thick/broad/natural complementarians to embrace the label of “biblical patriarchy” to differentiate themselves from the declining thin/narrow/ideological complementarians.

News and Notes

In conclusion, let me highlight a few areas:

First, be aware of our upcoming months.

After we look at the Nicene Creed in July, here is what we are looking at for the rest of the year. (If there are other themes you’d like us to consider in 2026, please shoot us an email).

August 2025: The Four Gospels

September 2025: The Doctrine of Vocation

October 2025: Biblical Theology in the Balance

November 2025: Do the Reading: Selections in Political Theology

December 2025: Christmas Medley, Part 2

Second, we’d love to see you face to face later this year.

A number of us will be at the Evangelical Theological Society in Boston (November 18–20). If you are there, please let us know.

Also, if you are a pastor in the Mid-Atlantic region, or are willing to make the trip, Occoquan Bible Church (in Woodbridge, VA), is hosting a one-day seminar to encourage pastors. This is an event that Christ Over All is co-sponsoring with Founders Ministries. And on Tuesday, July 29, 2025, Tom Ascol, Mike Law, and myself will be encouraging pastors to remain faithful in the work. So here’s information about that event. Please consider joining us for a day together.

Third, please consider supporting Christ Over All.

The easiest way to support our ministry is to tell others about us: you can forward this intermission, recommend an article, or share our content on social media. But if you or your church has benefited from our ministry, would you also be willing to make a donation, especially over the lean summer months?

Every dollar given goes toward helping Christians to think with a consistently Christian worldview across all of life. When you give to our ministry, you allow us to serve more people, and make known more completely the glorious Lordship of Christ. So we appreciate a gift of any amount.

That’s all for this month. Until next time, let’s remember that because Christ is Lord over all, we ought exalt Christ in all things.

Or actually, it was two Davids writing two respective essays—one that raised questions (the first essay by David Schrock) and one that gave solutions (the second essay by David Mitzenmacher)—concerning the conundrum that was, is, and remains to be the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission. Indeed, for the entire month of March, Christ Over All took time to look at the history, the trajectory, and the efficacy of the Southern Baptist entity that has seemingly attacked the messengers with Goliath-like rhetoric (cf. 1 Sam. 17:43a).^[1]

1. If this sounds hyperbolic, remember that when Brent Leatherwood was pressed to respond to his critics, he called them “outrage artists and grievance grifters.”

To be most fair, the charge of Goliath does not exactly fit, because our concerns for the ERLC do not put the current leadership in the camp of the seed of the serpent. We don’t deny Brent Leatherwood’s faith in Christ or his sincere desire to serve our Lord. But to be fairly honest, we do believe that enemies of the faith have used the ERLC to advance their progressive politics.^[2] And so, while effecting little positive change in places like Washington, D.C., the ERLC has become a source of constant division within the SBC.

2. This has come through participation in things like the Soros-funded Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT) and through conferences like the ERLC-sponsored MLK50, which received $50,000 from the socially progressive Democracy Fund.

In March, we, along with a band of merry keyboard warriors (not grievance grifters), chronicled these frictions in a series of essays that revealed concerns with the ERLC’s woke agenda, support of Muslim mosques, their financial ambiguity, and what the ERLC could be if it were unburdened by what has been. Long story short, Christ Over All made the case that the time has come for the ERLC to be radically reformed. Sadly, because no internal ERLC movement has sought such reform, and because the ERLC has both seeded progressive ideas into churches and lost the trust of many conservative politicians, we are now connecting the articles of March to our actions in June.

In what follows, we want to offer a short argument for why abolishing the ERLC is both good and necessary, and what that will mean if and when messengers vote “YES” for abolishing the ERLC.

What Do We Do in Dallas?

Based on everything we have said and seen, we are calling Southern Baptists to vote to abolish the ERLC, as outlined by Bylaw 25.^[3] For our purpose, the word “abolish” may not communicate exactly our intended desire, as it communicates an immediacy that the action doesn’t quite entail. Two consecutive years of majority votes are required to fully abolish the ERLC (more on this below). Likewise, this seemingly harsh action (to abolish the ERLC) has been used by the few who support the ERLC to argue for a more placid plan to reform or repurpose the ERLC.^[4] But “abolish” is the proper term and the needed action, because we long for the ERLC to “discontinue” its current ineffective and divisive trajectory.

Ultimately, what we want is reformation—in the SBC and with the ERLC—but for reasons that are now well documented, the ERLC has demonstrated ongoing disinterest in internal renewal. For instance, after Tom Ascol made the motion to abolish the ERLC in 2024, ERLC President Brent Leatherwood has never sought to take an honest assessment of the problems. Instead, he has ignored the pastors (not godless protestors, mind you) who called him to account, and since March 2025 he has committed himself to series of photo shoots promoting the work of the ERLC. Finally, in preparation for the SBC, the ERLC capped off their PR campaign with a well produced “keep us in business” video.

If only such effort (and cooperative program dollars) could be used to lobby delegates instead of lobbying the Southern Baptists to keep the ERLC. But to no avail. While one might think that last year’s narrow vote to abolish the ERLC would have been a wake-up call, it appears to be treated like a minor nuisance, conjured up by “outrage artists,” who do not understand the supposed great work the ERLC is doing.

To the amazement of those who have raised concerns, the ERLC has carried on with little course correction. No stated repentance. No visible reform. Only business as usual.

To Reform or to Abolish?

Adding to the media campaign, some prominent voices have come out in defense of the ERLC. For instance, ten former SBC presidents—including many who opposed the Law Amendment and led the SBC into the moral and financial quandary of Sex Abuse Reform—have lobbied against this vote. Yet, if you read their letter, they do not deny the need for reform at the ERLC; they simply think that the entity has all it needs to make changes.

As the aforementioned articles demonstrate, our assessment is different. And we are not alone, as many other SBC leaders, including Willy Rice and Albert Mohler, have voiced publicly. Clearly, we are at a make-or-break moment for the SBC, and a positive vote to abolition the ERLC will do one of two things.

First, voting to abolish the ERLC will give the ERLC a scalpel to begin cutting out the cancer that resides in its body politic. If the ERLC took the scalpel and used it skillfully, they could mitigate their demise by making substantial changes (e.g., a new president, new board leadership, a new mission, or some combination of the above). This would be the surgical approach, and for many, this option would be the best. And so, voting for abolition would simply tell the ERLC, the changes must be substantial.

Yet, if such changes are not implemented, and the proffered scalpel is not effective, then the vote for abolition also gives a sledgehammer to the messengers when they arrive in Orlando (in June 2026). At that point, the messengers can make a decision (with another year of evidence) to shutter the entity. Yet, the only way messengers could render such a verdict in 2026 is if the messengers vote for abolition in 2025.

To put it procedurally, a single vote to abolish the ERLC does not eliminate the ERLC in 2025. It doesn’t even defund it. It doesn’t put the ERLC staff out of a job. For all the personal (and personnel) reasons not to vote for abolition, a “YES” vote does not harm any individual. Instead, it is a vote to rigorously pursue organizational health.

Indeed, this is the wisdom of Bylaw 25, that the ERLC (like any SBC entity) has one year to change, before a second vote would shutter them. This means that a “YES” vote would not destroy the ERLC overnight. It would simply put the trustees and leadership on notice: the churches have had enough. Things must change.

Vote to Abolish? Yes!

Whether the scalpel or the sledgehammer is put to use will ultimately be determined by the ERLC, its staff, and its trustees. Yet, what a vote to abolish the ERLC means for the convention is that Southern Baptists are serious about holding entities and their leaders accountable. And more than that, a “YES” vote calls the trustees to excel still more in holding the ERLC to account, which would be the next immediate step if the convention votes “YES” on a motion to abolish the ERLC in 2025.

In the end, all entities should be fulfilling the mission given to them by the messengers, and if the messengers vote to abolish the ERLC this year, then they would not be taking an effective commission offline or hindering the public witness of Southern Baptists. If anything, from the sad reports coming out of Washington, D.C., they would be repairing the reputation of Southern Baptists. And more, they would help Southern Baptists focus on issues that unite us, rather than those that divide us.

For truly, that is our hope and aim with this motion. We pray God would use Bylaw 25 to spur the ERLC on toward love and good deeds. And we pray that by its abolition, or its wholesale reformation, that Southern Baptists would be more effective in the wider culture, as we stand together for Christ and bring his light into all parts of the public square.