It’s a miracle my faith hasn’t been totally shipwrecked. I became a Christian as the Emergent mystique was reaching its high point. Rob Bell’s NOOMA videos were all the rage, Blue Like Jazz was on everyone’s bookshelf, and Brian McLaren hadn’t completely abandoned the gospel… And as a new believer, I was immediately caught up in it, with no idea which way was up. And then I found a different sort of teacher: the guy who wasn’t afraid to tell the cold, hard truth. To get hot under the collar as he preached because he actually seemed to think the truth mattered. And I was captivated. My course, doctrinally speaking, was righted, and I was off to the races. I was growing in my faith, growing in my understanding of the Bible… but something was off. That ...

[Editor’s note: The following interview was conducted by Warren Cole Smith of World News Service and is reprinted here by permission.] Anthony Bradley is a professor at The King’s College in New York City, but his influence extends well beyond the campus there. He’s a research fellow with the Acton Institute, a regular contributor to WORLD Magazine, and the author of a number of books, including Liberating Black Theology and Keep Your Head Up: America’s New Black Christian Leaders, Social Consciousness, and the Cosby Conversation. He received his Ph.D. from Westminster Theological Seminary, and early in his career taught at a Presbyterian seminary while also serving as the director of the Francis Schaeffer Institute. I had this conversation with Bradley at his office at The King’s Co...

There’s a curious connection between Halloween and Reformation Day, and it’s more than just proximity on the calendar. Why did Martin Luther nail his famous 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church door on October 31, 1517? He was confronting two religious observances that promoted false saintliness and exploited people’s fear of judgment and purgatory.  Reformation Day Reformation Day (October 31) commemorates Luther’s posting of his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517. This act triggered the Reformation, as they were immediately translated and distributed across Germany in a matter of weeks. The Protestant Reformation was the rediscovery of the doctrine of justification—that is, salvation by grace alone (Gal. 2:21) through f...

Horatio Spafford didn’t know it, but he was about to face incredible suffering. He planned a family vacation to Europe for the fall of 1873, but a business emergency kept him from traveling with his family. Intending to join his family after he attended to the situation, he sent his wife, Anna, and their four daughters ahead of him. During his family’s voyage their ship collided with another vessel. Although Anna survived, their four daughters drowned. Inspired by this tragic event, Spafford wrote a poem, the words of which would become the lyrics to It Is Well with My Soul. Knowing the story behind the hymn sheds a whole new light on the line “when sorrows like sea billows roll.” When you face trials, are you inclined to sing “It is well, it is well with my soul,” or do you find it diffic...

It really is the struggle of struggles. It’s what we were made for, it’s what we crave, and it’s what we manage to mess up in some way almost every day. What’s the struggle? The struggle for glory. I’ve said many times that I believe the most important words in the Bible are the first four – “In the beginning, God…” – because these four thunderously important words will radically alter the way we view ourselves and our world. According to Genesis 1, everything that we experience was made by God and for God. All the little and good glories of the created world were designed to point to his magnificent, unending glory. The universe and all its inhabitants were designed to function in accordance with his glorious purpose and plan. That includes you and me. We were not made to pursue, or ...