The question of whether Christians should celebrate Christmas has been debated for centuries. Some believers embrace the holiday as a time to honor the birth of Christ, while others reject it due to its historical associations with paganism and Roman Catholic traditions. Scripture provides guidance on matters of conscience:

One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; [a]and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died [b]and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. (Romans 14:5-10)

Arguments Against Celebrating Christmas

* Pagans celebrate the winter solstice around this time of year. December 25 is not Jesus’ birthday.

* Christmas is a Roman Catholic Holiday and Catholicism is evil.

* The term Christmas is a Roman Catholic term.

* Christmas celebrations are the result of Roman Catholic syncretism.

* Mother/Child worship is at the heart of the Satanic counterfeit religion. …

Read the rest of the article here, or just listen to the podcast.

Today we begin interviews with authors for the November/December issue of FrontLine, though today’s guest, Mark Love, was writing for a section of the magazine that is not part of the theme.

I like to have authors of our regular feature pieces come on from time to time to promote those aspects of the magazine.

Every issue, in the middle of the magazine, we publish a section we call the Pastor’s Insert. There is an idea here that it is for the benefit of pastors, but really, our own church people have sometimes told me it’s the first place they turn when they get their copy of the magazine.

Mark Love wrote an article for the “Windows” feature called “Promises God Gives Us to Face Our Trials.” Mark will explain what the Windows feature is all about, but as you will note from the title, Mark is dealing with the subject of trials and suffering.

None of us are going to make it through life without suffering one way or another. You might be going through a trial right now, and if not, you know that one of these days you will be. As believers, we need to remind ourselves of the promises of God when we are in trials. Mark’s article does just that. I hope our conversation is a blessing to you.

Before we get to the interview with Mark, let me remind you that his article is available on our substack right away for paying subscribers. We have previews for everyone else. I hope you will join with us and support the ministry of the FBFI by becoming a paying subscriber.

One other thing I’d like to say, it was a blessing to talk to Mark once again. We’ve had various family connections through the years, though we’ve been separated most of the time by thousands of miles. You will hear us mention some of those connections in the conversation. It really was a blessing to me, and a ministry to my heart to talk with Mark again and talk about the many promises of God we have in our trials.

The Contents & Editorial for the November/December FrontLine:

Raising Children to be Adults in an Adolescent World [FrontLine Nov/Dec 2025] – Proclaim & Defend

The Article:

Promises God Gives Us to Face Our Trials

And yes, there continue to remain HUGE problems with Roman Catholic theology.

Just recently I heard of a conservative Baptist pastor leaving his church and turning to Catholicism. This type of move is not isolated. Many in the conservative political world are doing so with the rise of prominent cultural figures like Candace Owens, Michael Knowles, and Erika Kirk, who remain Catholic or deeply connected to the Catholic Church. While we might admire public figures for standing up for biblical morality, what a person believes about biblical salvation matters deeply as well.

But is the Catholic Church changing?

It’s all over the religious news, but the United Conference of Catholic Bishops said it best.

“While praising devotion to Mary, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith firmly rejected moves to formally proclaim Mary as “co-redemptrix” or “co-mediatrix.”

This is a change, or at least a clarification of a debate within Catholicism and I believe it is intended to satisfy the angst of those with an evangelical background who have converted to Catholicism. …

Read the rest of the article here, or just listen to the podcast.

Our November/December issue of FrontLine just came out. I’ve been busy interviewing many of our authors. We plan to start airing those interviews next week.

Today I am going back to the July/August issue to a conversation with Jaime Flack, the author of our Heart to Heart column. Jaime will describe what she does in her ministry as we begin the conversation. You will see that she has a full schedule and I thank her for taking time to talk to us.

Her article was called “You Don’t Need to Know Yourself,” which comes out of her own experience. She is a young mom and very busy in the work of her church. There is a lot of pressure in our culture for young mom’s especially to be able to “be the best” and to measure up to social expectations. Jaimie talks about some of the things that contribute to this sense in our online world and how she came to realize that more than trying to fully understand herself and be a “super-mom” she needed most of all to know the Lord and to please him.

She will do a better job of saying all that than I am, so I will just say that I very much enjoy getting to meet so many of our FrontLine authors in the podcasts, and Jaimie was no exception. I think you will enjoy hearing from her.

Before we get to the interview with Jaimie, let me remind you that her article is available on our substack right away for paying subscribers. We have previews for everyone else. I hope you will join with us and support the ministry of the FBFI by becoming a paying subscriber.

Now, for my interview with Jaimie Flack.

The Contents & Editorial for the July/August FrontLine:

Growing Fathers (FrontLine July/August 2025) – Proclaim & Defend

The Article:

You Don’t Need to Know Yourself

Photo by Leon Brooks on Pixnio

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

2 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3 and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. (Matthew 18:1-5)

As Jesus prepares in Capernaum for His final trip to Jerusalem, the disciples perceive that important things are about to happen. Like most of us do, they conveniently ignored the times that Jesus predicted He would suffer and die (Matthew 16:21, 17:9, 17:12, 17:22), in order to focus on the amazing things that they thought were about to happen.

The transfiguration, complete with appearances of Moses and Elijah got them thinking about how the Kingdom hierarchy would flesh out. These disciples were not among the ruling class of Israel but were hoping that their proximity to the Messiah would net them special positions in the Kingdom.

So, they asked the question. “Who will be the greatest in the Kingdom?”

It was a general question. We know the disciples had argued among themselves about who, among themselves, would be the greatest. But maybe here they were wondering about such lights as Moses and Elijah.

Jesus responded harshly because a harsh response was necessary. It was the wrong question.

Read the rest of the post here, or just listen to the podcast.

Today we have a unique guest, the daughter of our guest last week. If you listened to the episode with Preston Mayes, you might remember that he mentioned his daughter publishing an article in the same edition of FrontLine as his article. Well, that intrigued me as I hadn’t made the connection, so I had to check out her article and make sure we talked to her as well.

Rachel Mayes Allen wrote an article for our “Heart to Heart” feature in the September/October edition of FrontLine. Her topic was Bible memorization. She talked especially about an approach she has had over recent years. She describes her plan in the article and I had her briefly describe it on the podcast also.

Along the way, we talked about the value of memorization in general and about some of the challenges we face in making Bible memory a part of our spiritual discipline. I described a project I’m working on with a man in our church which has been a blessing to both of us.

I hope you find this session encouraging. You need more Bible in your life than you have time to receive it, but you can probably do a little bit more than you have been doing to fill your mind with God’s Word. It will stand you in good stead as you face the challenges of the world the flesh and the devil.

Before we get to the interview with Rachel, let me remind you that her article is available on our substack right away for paying subscribers. We have previews for everyone else. I hope you will join with us and support the ministry of the FBFI by becoming a paying subscriber.

You can find Rachel’s writing at her blog and in this online magazine: Commonplace (coming in 2026).

The Contents & Editorial for the Sept/Oct FrontLine:

Using Your Words: Glorifying God with Language (FrontLine)

The Article:

Hidden in My Heart - the Proclaim & Defend Podcast

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

There is a lot of talk about revival lately.

Even secular media types referred to the events surrounding Charlie Kirk’s memorial service as a “Christian revival.” However, the discussion is not new, it is just amplified in the wake of Kirk’s assassination. Young people are returning to religion in record numbers. Videos of mass baptisms abound. This phenomenon seems to be a reaction to the overbearing nature of woke thinking on people who want to live reasonable lives. Young people have especially been indoctrinated with it.

Charlie Kirk was especially adept at opposing the ravages of woke thinking on our culture, and he was especially good and explaining it on the basis of his Christian world view. People are realizing that a Christian world view is reasonable and provides the only cognitively consistent response to the insanity our country has endured—especially over the last 17 years.

However, a return to religion in a culture is not necessarily revival. It could be just a cultural rebalancing, even if many of those are turning to true faith in Jesus Christ. In the worst case, a “Christian revival” can be an emotional social contagion in the same way that transgenderism has been over the last decade—albeit a good and much less destructive one.

It all depends on how we want to define the word revival.

…

Read the rest of the article here, or just listen to the podcast.

We are talking about the September/October edition of FrontLine with some of our authors. The subject of this edition was “Using Your Words: Glorifying God with Language.” The issue hit on various aspects of things we say, good and bad, and what the Christian perspective should be.

Today’s discussion is with Preston Mayes, who teaches at Central Baptist Seminary in Minneapolis. His subject was gossip. We spend most of our time wrestling with a definition of gossip and why we as humans like gossip so much. I think I took us on a little rabbit trail a bit as I likened the interest in gossip with our preoccupation with the sensational and negative in news stories. I think there is some relationship, but perhaps more than we could solve in a short conversation.

Another aspect of gossip (or potential gossip) is what to do with negative personal information about someone that comes our way. Sometimes it does need to be passed on, but passed on to someone who is responsible to bring a solution to the situation. It isn’t any good to chatter about it with our friends, but it might be something we need to share with an appropriate authority.

All of this can be challenging to sort out, but we do have some conversation along that line as well.

One last thing, at the end of the interview, you will hear that Preston was pleased to have his daughter publish an article in the same edition of the magazine. That was kind of a neat little feature and Lord willing we will publish an interview with her next week.

Before we get to the interview with Preston, let me remind you that his article is available on our substack right away for paying subscribers. We have previews for everyone else. I hope you will join with us and support the ministry of the FBFI by becoming a paying subscriber.

The Contents & Editorial for the Sept/Oct FrontLine:

Using Your Words: Glorifying God with Language (FrontLine)

The Article:

Let the Fire Die - by Foundations Baptist Fellowship

Peter Thiel and New York Times editor, Ross Douthat, differ about the nature of the Antichrist.

Yep. It’s true. People in the business and media mainstream are now talking about the Antichrist—and they are talking about it seriously, not just in some derogatory manner.

Peter Thiel is giving lectures about the rise of the Anti-Christ in this century, and it is related to AI, luddites, and global domination—and you might be surprised about what he is saying.

Read the rest of this post here, or just listen to the podcast.

We’re discussing the September-October issue of Frontline, which had the theme, “Using Your Words: Glorifying God with Language.” This issue of the magazine is full of helpful articles and we will be talking to a few of our authors to give you a bit more than they had time for in the magazine.

Today’s conversation is with Mike Riley, a frequent guest on our program. He is the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Wakefield Michigan. His article this time is called, ‘Lofty Words Versus Rhetorical Excellence’

Mike’s topic is an examination of the way we speak when we are speaking for Christ. We start with the contrast between Paul and his opponents in Corinth who were aggrandizing themselves and belittling Paul. But from there we go on to talk about our own struggles with a desire for pre-eminence, a desire to be noticed. We also talk about our culture that seems to admire the noticeable, the eloquent speakers, more than they notice Christ.

These are normal human problems. I found our conversation very thought provoking. I hope it stirs you up as well. Inevitably, when we speak for Christ, we are the ones speaking, and people will notice us as well as our message. Or perhaps instead of our message. Our goal must be to make much of Christ and put him at the forefront so that people look to him rather than to ourselves in the ministry of God’s word.

Well, Mike addresses this better than I do and I will let him describe more of the subject to you.

Before we get to the interview, let me remind you that Mike’s article is available on our substack right away for paying subscribers. We have previews for everyone else. I hope you will join with us and support the ministry of the FBFI by becoming a paying subscriber.

The Contents & Editorial for the Sept/Oct FrontLine:

Using Your Words: Glorifying God with Language (FrontLine)

The Article:

Lofty Words Versus Rhetorical Excellence