“Man can have no other standard and signpost than things as they are and the truth which makes manifest things as they are; and there can be no higher standard than the God who is and His truth” (40). If Jesus is right, and surely he is, that we are sanctified by the truth (John 17:19), then there is no path to faithful Christian obedience and faithful cultural witness that does not begin in praise of prudence.

In Praise of Prudence: What the Cardinal Virtues Can Teach Us About the Splintering of Evangelicalism

The unsatisfying answer to the title of this post is that we don’t know as much as we would like. We know that a bishop named Nicholas existed, that he had a great influence on his homeland, and that he probably died on December 6. While we should be careful to separate fact from fiction, there are elements of the Nicholas story we can know—and what can be known is worth retelling.

One of the first things we learn about God is that he is good. “God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food.” Many of us grew up hearing this prayer at the dinner table. It’s good theology—simple and true.

It also highlights an attribute of God that is surprisingly hard to define. We think we know what it means for God to be good, until we try to explain it. Then we usually start listing other attributes (God is loving, God is gracious, God is kind) or resort to platitudes (God helps us). It takes some reflection to understand all that we mean—or should mean—when we confess that God is good.

The Kingdom story we are telling is not the story of Christ saving His people so they can transform a culture or reclaim a nation. Instead the story is of Christ so ruling over the nations of the world that the church might be built up.

In this first episode of the Clearly Reformed Podcast, Kevin reads from his recent article written for Clearly Reformed about the nature of politics in the church.

Clearly Reformed Podcast is a collection of original articles produced and read by pastor Kevin DeYoung for the ministry of Clearly Reformed. These articles are aimed at benefiting Christians with Bible truths and good theology presented clearly and applied carefully—to their lives and to the problems of our day.