I was asked yesterday about the meaning of something Paul wrote in 1 Timothy. First Timothy has some of the most debated words in all of Scripture! The specific question I was asked is this: “We know we are saved by grace through faith, yet Paul writes verse 15.” She’s referring to 1 Timothy 2:15.…

Racism is an ugly word, and it’s one that is often conflated with the related—but very distinct—word prejudice. In short, prejudice is a prejudgment. We all experience prejudice. If you run into a young man in the grocery store who is 6’10”, you probably assume he plays basketball. This is a rather neutral form of…

There are several warnings—and promises!—in Scripture that can cause us to wonder if they apply to us specifically. Not a single word of Scripture was written to us in 21st-century Grand Rapids, yet it was all written for us. This means we must wrestle with a text from our modern lens of the world, including…

Last summer we explored the historical nature of our faith. As Vincent of Lérins put it, “we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all”. That sermon series focused on the Apostles’ Creed, which was an early baptismal creed used by many western churches. It, along with the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, summarizes our…

We’ve all seen them. They often begin appearing around major holidays like Christmas and Easter and like most memes they have a tiny hint of truth, some outright falsehoods, and are mostly full of facepalms of ridiculous claims. I was recently asked about this particular meme: At a quick glance the problems with the claims…