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Carl F. H. Henry and An Air Assault from a Persistent Widow
Carl Ferdinand Howard Henry was born to immigrant parents in January 1913 in Long Island, New York. In the recent years following the celebration of the centennial of Henry’s birth, thankfully many are...
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'For the Church' as a Means to the End at the End
“I am glad that you are here with me,” said Frodo. ‘Here at the end of all things, Sam.”[1] I never expected to get an ecclesiology and eschatology lesson from the concluding chapters of Tolkien’s The...
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Learning in War Time
In 1939, C. S. Lewis delivered an address entitled, “Learning in War-Time”[1] to encourage those to persevere in their studies at the advent of World War II. As I read through his comments I was struck...
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Light and Fellowship in The Darkness
There is a moment in J. R. R. Tolkien’s trilogy where his fellowship is faced with the daunting task of traversing the underground mines of Moria. Once a noble and industrious empire of dwarves, Moria...
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Meditating on the 9th Commandment with Martin Luther
In 1535, the man who cut Martin Luther’s hair told the reformer of his struggles with prayer. Luther, ever the shepherd, wrote a little booklet to help him and others called A Simple Way to Pray. Near...
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The Age of the Earth
Recently, Baptist Press asked me questions related to an article by Justin Taylor of Crossway on the age of the earth that has generated some discussion among evangelicals. Published at his blog at The...
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The Gospel On A Houseboat
In the shadow of the Himalayas, amid much cultural chaos, there rests a houseboat. Though modest and rustic, for a few more days this boat ferries a brotherhood of young men brining a powerful light of...
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The Most Important Word I Learned in Seminary
“People thought Tolkien was joking when he later said that he wrote The Lord of the Rings to bring into being a world that might contain [his] Elvish greeting .... The remark is witty – but also...
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Throwing Our Hats Over the Wall
Irish writer Frank O’Connor told the story of two boys standing beside a tall orchard wall launching a small, felt, round object up in the air like a Frisbee. If you had been there to see them, it...
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Why Study the Doctrine of the Church?
In the nineteenth century, leading Southern Baptist theologian J. L. Dagg wrote this with regard to the relationship of ecclesiology to other doctrines: Church order and the ceremonials of religion,...
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A Welcomed Eucatastrophe
In 1938, J. R. R. Tolkien published a landmark essay, perhaps his most foundational, “On Fairy-Stories.”[1] In it, while seeking to defend the goodness of Happy Endings, he coined the term...
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“Born Again” – First A Verb Before An Adjective
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Pet...
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For Other Churches, Baptists Assert a High View of a Low and Free Church
"Yes, by all means, let us maintain, undergird, and strengthen our precious Baptist distinctives … but let us do this not so that people will say how great the Baptists are but rather what a great...
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How Beautiful Are The Adverbs When They Preach Good News
The students in my classes know that I don’t like adverbs. Or, I should say, the over reliance on adverbs. In academic writing, they are a quick shortcut to the expression of thoughts but do not often*...
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Reader, If You Seek A Monument, Look Around
Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice — Epitaph of Christopher Wren, 1723, St. Paul’s Cathedral Twelve years after the completion of the beautiful and historic St. Paul’s Cathedral in London,...
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The Picture of Hope in Suffering
The year 2016 marked the centennial anniversary of America’s National Park Service. In celebration of the anniversary, a particular issue of National Geographic contained some amazing photos of several...
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Who Are The 'Nations'?
In the culture of American sports one often hears of a team’s fan base described as a “nation.” Hence, there are websites and apparel designed for the “Yankees Nation” and the “Aggie Nation.” The use...
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Why Every Christian Should Read Mere Christianity
C.S. Lewis loved old books. In a short piece he wrote to introduce Athanasius’s On the Incarnation to a modern audience, he admonished that Christians who only read new books are joining “at eleven...
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The Most Important Discovery I Learned in Seminary
Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is one of the greatest novels, and for good reason. Melville writes in such a way that you have to stop just to marvel at the way he crafts a sentence. Even Pulitzer-Prize...
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The Silver Chair and the Solas
C. S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair begins just like the three preceding Narnia books.[1] Following a suspenseful event, children in England find themselves transported to the magical land through an...
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Don’t You Stir A Step
One week, I was traveling to California for some meetings related to my work at Midwestern Seminary. As I was born in the Golden State, I always enjoyed returning there. In particular, I’ve been...
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Glorify God: the Shared Task of Churches & Seminaries
The apostle Peter explains in 1 Peter 4:7 that "the end of all things is at hand" and by that he means he and his readers were living in the last days before the return of Jesus. Since that time until...
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On First Looking into Spurgeon’s Sermons
In 1816, poet John Keats wrote a sonnet to describe the delight and awe he experienced when reading the works of Homer in English for the first time. While Keats knew Latin, he did not know Greek and...
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Thankfulness Always: Reflections on Five Years as Provost
Author's Note: August 1, 2019 marked my anniversary of service at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Spurgeon College. At our annual faculty workshop, President Jason K. Allen asked me to take...
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The Wittenberg Door of American Evangelical Missions
In the summer of 1806, several dedicated young men attending the Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, began to gather regularly to pray and read reports of the burgeoning work of Andrew...
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The Christian, Art, and Rediscovering John the Baptist
One of the more memorable experiences I have had in an art museum occurred seven years ago. My doctoral supervisor, and then colleague, invited me and one of his soon-to-graduate PhD students[1] to the...
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The Poetry of Earth is Never Dead
In my house, my children have started calling me The Lorax as I like nature, the outdoors, trees, and often lead my children in their direction. The Lorax, of course, is a famous Dr. Seuss character...
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The Theological Educator as Sherpa
In 1943, C. S. Lewis gave three lectures in Durham later published in one volume as The Abolition of Man.[1] The first of these lectures he titled “Men Without Chests,” aimed as a critique of a recent...
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Packer’s Dusty Puritan Discovery Still Guides and Helps
During J. I. Packer’s second year of undergraduate studies at Oxford, he was invited to serve as the junior librarian at the Christian Union student organization. Having been converted only a year...
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The Most Important Discipline I Learned in Seminary
A while ago, I preached a message in Midwestern Chapel I called “The Most Important Doctrine I Learned in Seminary” and building from Hebrews 2:17 talked about central and vital role the doctrine of...
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A Fisherman in Ireland: The Enduring Relevance of Patrick
For evangelicals, the enduring relevance of Patrick of Ireland (c. 390–460) lies in a sacrificial heart motivated by the Great Commission and burdened for the lost. Christianity likely arrived in...
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Friendship to the Nth Power
“We are your friends, Frodo.” -J. R. R. Tolkien[1] “Christ, who said to the disciples, ‘Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,’ can truly say to every group of Christian friends ‘You have not...
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Shepherding College Students Called to Ministry in the Midst of a Pandemic
And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say,...
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