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We believe in the gospel. It is not just “good news”—it is the best news a human being can ever hear. It tells us about the greatest act of redemption that ever happened. The gospel addresses our biggest problem as human beings and our most tragic reality: we need the hope of the Messiah, we are separated from God because of our sin and, without rescue, we will face God’s judgment at the end of our lives. Through the good news of Jesus, God blesses us with forgiveness and present and future life in his kingdom. The gospel invites us to live as his kingdom citizens today, as we pass along the mercy and redemption and truth he gives us. And we will live in his consummated kingdom forever, fulfilling our ultimate purpose as human beings in the renewal of all things. What a privilege it is to share the gospel with others!

Yet we have noticed a trend when it comes to the gospel. It concerns us.

In many churches, we see leaders preferring acts of compassion and social service as a replacement for inviting people to embrace Jesus’ gospel. These acts are not merely a part of a holistic response to human need which includes sharing the gospel. Instead, these leaders are guiding their churches to serve the homeless, help the refugee, and meet the needs of the hurting…as the whole package. They intend to do nothing further. Caught up in an over-emphasis on social justice, they are not seeking a tasteful way or strategy to show the full love and salvation of God. The gospel story, which compels us to meet human needs, becomes eclipsed by its afterglow. 

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The book of Ezekiel is titled after the name of the prophet Ezekiel, son of Buzi who was among the exiles of Babylon. What do we know about this unusual book of prophetic signs and oracles? In this summary article, we’ll look at major questions regarding the book of Ezekiel, including its author, date, canonicity, and overview.

Since most of Ezekiel (other than 1:2-3) is in the first person, one would expect the assumption to be that Ezekiel is the author. However, Jewish tradition in the Babylonian Talmud held that the Great Synagogue led by Ezra was the compiler of the book, about a hundred years after Ezekiel’s time.

Even if compiled by later scribes, it was assumed that the book’s teachings could be traced back to a prophet named Ezekiel. That is, until liberal scholarship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries tried to divide the book up only leaving a few verses to a historical Ezekiel. However, Ezekiel shows an exceptional literary unity that even liberals recognize, and so most suggest an author that, if not Ezekiel, was at least close to Ezekiel’s time. There is no real reason why Ezekiel could not have been the author.

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If I’m honest, I sometimes feel a little embarrassed going on walks with my parents.

Why?

Well…my mom and dad…are bird watchers. Mom, Dad, I know that you’re probably reading this, so, no hard feelings, but sometimes bird watchers can look…uh, a little dorky.

I went home a few weeks ago to spend time with my family. One day, the weather was surprisingly good despite lots of recent cold weather. So, my mom, my dad, and I decided to head over to a local park to go for a stroll. My parents were fully equipped with binoculars, ready to stop and look at any and every bird we saw or heard. My dad is so good at bird watching (and listening) that he can pick out many bird species simply based on bird songs and calls. Apparently that’s a thing.[1]

And so, while I may have been a little embarrassed walking on the trail each time the binoculars came out, I do have to admit that…well, maybe my mom and dad might actually be doing a better job obeying Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount than I am.

The Sermon on the Mount is one of Jesus’ most famous teachings. It spans three chapters (5-7) of the Gospel of Matthew. In this sermon, Jesus gives his vision for the kingdom of God. It’s a summary of what it looks like for the kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.

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I was in middle school when I got my first WWJD bracelet. It was a black silicone band with white letters, and I can still remember how it felt on my wrist. I wore it every day like the moral compass that it was. Every time I was tempted to cheat on a test, I would look down and see it…What Would Jesus Do? When I saw someone sitting alone, there it was…What Would Jesus Do? When my teenage brain would snap with unreasonable anger…What Would Jesus Do?

I wore it to help me follow Jesus. But over time, something weird began to happen. The question stopped challenging me. In fact, Jesus started sounding a lot like me. He’d say what I wanted to say, avoid what I would avoid, and get mad at all the same people I wanted to get mad at.

I eventually discovered I wasn’t following Jesus. Rather, I was following a version of Jesus I had created. With that realization, I quit wearing the bracelet. And I’ve spent the ensuing 30 years searching for a better question.

I was recently engaged in a conversation with people in my home, wrestling with this question: “How can we be sure we are loving people in the way Jesus intended for us to love them?” As that discussion unfolded, someone inevitably brought up a memory of wearing the WWJD bracelets. A spontaneous survey revealed that 19 of the 21 people present had worn a WWJD bracelet at some point in their life. And in fact, one of the men in the room was even wearing one at that very moment.

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The idea of “faithful faith” is a distinguishing mark of RENEW.org and historic Restoration Movement theology. Article 5 (Faithful Faith) of Renew’s Faith Statement for Leaders reads:

“We believe that people are saved by grace through faith. The gospel of Jesus’ kingdom calls people to both salvation and discipleship—no exceptions, no excuses. Faith is more than mere intellectual agreement or emotional warmth toward God. It is living and active; faith is surrendering our self-rule to the rule of God through Jesus in the power of the Spirit. We surrender by trusting and following Jesus as both Savior and Lord in all things. Faith includes allegiance, loyalty, and faithfulness to him.”

Someone unfamiliar with the debate may read that and ask, “As opposed to what?”

The answer is this: as opposed to a theology that proposes that Christians can live their lives with no outward indication that they are actually followers of King Jesus. That is to say, a disciple of Jesus will continue to grow in maturity into the image of Jesus throughout their lives. A “Christian” who never grows into the image of Jesus needs to ask themselves whether they have truly committed themselves to Jesus and His kingdom.

On the extreme other side of the theological fence are those that believe that salvation comes through a belief that doesn’t require faithful allegiance to King Jesus and His kingdom, and/or that they do not need to continue in faithful allegiance to remain in His kingdom.

The terms “perseverance of the saints,” “eternal security,” and “once saved, always saved” have become synonymous with the theological idea that Christians cannot apostatize and thus will be saved in the end no matter what. And while these three terms have come to be synonyms, they are originally three distinct concepts.

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One of the first things the Bible teaches us—right there in Genesis—is that God is a God of order. God separates: light from darkness, sea from sky, meaning from murk. God speaks, and the world takes shape. And when that order is rejected—as it was in Noah’s generation—judgment begins to flood in.

And then God makes Adam.

And what’s Adam’s job? He’s told to name the animals. That’s not just a fun afternoon of creative labeling. No—naming is an act of discernment. It’s how Adam participates in God’s ordering of creation. To name is to distinguish. To say, “This is not that.” And that’s the beginning of meaning. Without it, everything just melts into everything else.

And when that naming breaks down—when people stop honoring the distinctions God made—you don’t just get confusion. You get collapse.

That’s what happened in Noah’s day.

Genesis 6, the beginning of the Noah cycle, opens with a strange little passage that’s puzzled people for a long time. It talks about the Nephilim—these so-called “sons of God” who took “daughters of men” and had children with them. Some rabbis believed these “sons of God” were fallen angels. There’s even an old Jewish book called The Book of Enoch—it’s not in our Bibles, but Jude actually quotes it—that builds out that whole story.

Now, we don’t have to get lost in the weeds of exactly who the Nephilim were. Whatever the details, the message is clear: things were out of order. Boundaries were being crossed. The lines God had drawn between heaven and earth, divine and human, were being erased. That’s not how God designed things to work.

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When I was around twelve, I got swept up into a “Men’s Leadership” class at my suburban Detroit congregation. The class intended to prepare a new generation of young men to be able to lead in the worship assembly.

The problem was that we never learned how actually to lead anything.

We learned how to dress when called upon to serve. We learned what place on the front row to sit in, when to stand, and how many communion trays to take for our position. We learned to make sure our shirts were tucked in and our pants zipped before stepping up to lead a prayer. We learned how to hold doors and pass out bulletins as ushers.

We learned all the physical duties associated with leading, but nothing about how to lead. Consequently, when the call came asking me to lead a communion devotional a few years later…I was terrified and unprepared.

Today, as a church leader in the post-COVID era, not much of the pomp and circumstance I was taught remains. There is no need for a processional of servers when each person can just grab a “rip n’ sip” communion packet on their way to their seat. The atmosphere at our church is familial, comfortable, and relaxed.

Even so, we face the same old problem: people being asked to lead the congregation into a deep and meaningful celebration together at God’s table who have had no real training on how to do that. So, we decided to do what “worked so well” years ago when I was a kid. We had a class!

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Chip and Joanna Gaines are a husband-and-wife duo best known for their hit series Fixer Upper, where they combined home renovation with warm, family-centered storytelling to win over audiences across North America. Their shows—especially through Magnolia Network—have resonated deeply, especially with Christian viewers, offering wholesome, values-driven content that many feel comfortable watching with their families.

When the Gaineses launched their new show Back to the Frontier earlier this year, many Christians expected the same kind of faith-friendly programming the couple has long been known for. The reality series follows three modern families as they give up contemporary conveniences to live like 1880s pioneers, testing their resilience, faith, and relationships in a rugged, off-the-grid environment. So it was surprising—and for many, disappointing—when the show quietly included a same-sex couple raising twin sons as one of the families, without any theological framing, conversation, or acknowledgment that this portrayal runs counter to historic Christian teaching.

The Gaineses have never positioned themselves as preachers, but their brand and platform have long reflected traditional values that resonate with many believers. For them to normalize same-sex relationships—without clarification—feels like more than just a casting decision. It signals a growing trend in the church: drifting from biblical truth not through loud rejection, but through quiet surrender.

As someone who experiences same-sex attraction myself—and who leads a ministry that helps others navigate that reality while remaining faithful to God’s Word—I believe this moment says something important about where the church is heading. And it’s not a direction we should take lightly.

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When people spent time with Jesus, how was he able to help them? When people interacted with the Buddha, in what ways did the interaction benefit them? In this article, we will contrast the outcome of spending time with these two founders. One quick answer is that the eventual results of these interactions were heaven and nirvana, respectively. But what was the actual substance of these interactions; what was being accomplished in them?

Let us reflect on three stories about grieving women, the first two of which would go on to become esteemed nuns.[1]

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*Editor’s Note: How should Christians view masculinity? As something godly to be cultivated? As something toxic to be suppressed? John Eldredge’s 2001 New York Times bestseller Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul gave millions of young men permission to pursue adventurous, valiant masculinity. At the same time, some within evangelicalism accused the book of dangerous implications, even excusing violence and the viewing of women as commodities. In this article, Jeremy Bacon, author of Sermon on the Mount: 40 Days of Learning the Ways of the Kingdom, weighs in on what Eldredge’s landmark book says well—and what it could say better.

I read Wild at Heart shortly after it came out almost 25 years ago. I hadn’t put much thought into what it means to be a man, so Eldredge’s analysis hit me like a lightning bolt. It resonated. I did see in myself a desire to fight a battle, to live an adventure, and to love a beauty. What stunned me and took the Christian world by storm was his argument that in Christianity these impulses find their deepest fulfillment.

Now that I have sons on the cusp of manhood, I revisited the book (the expanded edition), and a lot has changed. Our old cultural scripts for masculinity and femininity are being revised. Unfortunately, the new script for women is about fifteen years ahead of the one for men. Never has masculinity been more homeless. This disorientation (“Where do we fit? What is our role?”) is causing a backlash as many men cling violently to the most oppressive and alienating features of the old model. Welcome to the age of “toxic masculinity.” Yet the counter-reaction to this backlash comes dangerously close to acting like all masculinity is toxic. You can’t tell half a society that they have no constructive role to play and expect that to end well.

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