April 2026
Podcasts
I recently finished teaching a seven-week class at the Alcuin Study Center called The Life of Jesus: Salvation in Six Acts, covering his birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and second coming. But perhaps you or some people you know wonder how much we can really know about the life of Jesus. Is there strong historical evidence outside the Bible that Jesus of Nazareth existed? Can we have confidence that the Bible is a faithful record of the things he said and did? A 2023 episode from the Think Biblically podcast explores these important questions and offers some valuable answers.
It’s hard for most of us to say we’re sorry. And when we do, it can be hard for us to say it well. Face it: some ways of apologizing are better – and more biblical – than others. Check out a recent podcast from Counseling Talk that contains some helpful tips on apologizing well – something we all need to do more often than we care to admit.
Articles
Having just celebrated Missions Sunday, learn about how some Iranian Christians are viewing the present conflict as a ministry opportunity and how we can be praying for them.
“How Iranian Believers Are Sharing the Gospel During War”
Contentment isn’t something that just randomly “happens” to us. It’s something to be cultivated, something that can be learned as Paul indicates in Philippians 4:11-12. How can we do that? One way is by being more attentive to and thankful for the goodness of God that surrounds us every moment. Or as Justin Poythress (a former member of the Central Indiana Presbytery and current pastor and author) puts it, “Embrace Your Life by Enjoying Quiddity.” To find out what he means, read his recent article.
“Embrace Your Life by Enjoying Quiddity”
6W Chronicles: Brief Profiles in Church History
As a way to introduce readers to some influential figures in the church’s past, the 6W Chronicles briefly address six questions: Who? When? Where? What did they do? Why should we know about them? What works can I reference by or about them?
Who? William Tyndale
When? Tyndale was born around 1494 and died in 1536.
Where? He was born in Gloucestershire, England but spent crucial years in Europe.
What did he do? Exactlyfive hundred years ago in 1526, William Tyndale translated and published the first printed New Testament in the English language. In his time, the only Bible translation available in English was the hand-copied Wycliffe Bible, translated from the Latin Vulgate rather than the original Greek and Hebrew, and with minimal circulation due to the fact that, after Wycliffe, the church in England had banned English translations of the Bible. In 1519, just a few years before Tyndale’s translation appeared amidst rising tensions due to the Protestant Reformation, church authorities had executed a woman and six men for teaching their children the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Apostles’ Creed in English. Due to this threat and a lack of funding support, Tyndale left England to continue his translation efforts, landing first in Germany and eventually in Antwerp. In May 1935, while working on translating the Old Testament, he was betrayed by a man named Henry Phillips and handed over to authorities. After being confined in the Castle of Vilvoorde for almost 18 months, on October 6, 1536, Tyndale was publicly strangled then burned at the stake. While Tyndale was imprisoned, however, Miles Coverdale, a friend and supporter, finished the work and published the whole Bible in English, which was largely the work of Tyndale. By 1539, the tide had changed: every parish church in England was required to make an English translation of the Bible available to its members.
Why should we know about him? William Tyndale is widely recognized as “the father of the English Bible.” Indeed, anyone who reads the Bible in English owes him a debt of gratitude. The King James Bible, appearing over 75 years later in 1611 retained more than 80 percent of Tyndale’s wording. More than 75 percent of Tyndale’s word selections still appeared in the Revised Standard Version of 1952! He coined terms such as atonement and scapegoat. It is claimed that religious discussion and doctrinal formulation in English-speaking countries, and even the English language as a whole, is spoken with Tyndale’s accent.
Works? In addition to translating, Tyndale also wrote a number of books. The most well-known are The Parable of the Wicked Mammon (on justification by faith alone) and The Obedience of a Christian Man (on obeying civil authority). If you’re looking for a biography about Tyndale’s life and work, check out the 2013 volume by David Teems titled Tyndale: The Man Who Gave God an English Voice.
Theolingo: Building Your Theological Vocabulary
Theolingo aims to help you expand your learning of important theological terms. This month’s term is canon.
What does a weapon of warfare that launches heavy iron balls into enemy ships and strongholds have to do with the Bible? Not much. It’s the canon of Scripture, not the cannon. The term canon comes from a Greek term (κανον) which referred to a rod (often with a series of markings) used as a rule for measuring. The canon has come to refer to the list of books received by the church as the authoritative rule or standard for faith and life.
There is widespread agreement that the Christian canon consists of at least 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches recognize the additional books of the Apocrypha, a collection of writings surfacing around the second and third centuries BC, as canonical, and thus as authoritative sources for establishing doctrine. While not entirely dismissing some value in them, Protestants do not regard the books of the Apocrypha, sometimes referred to as deuterocanonical (“second canon”), as divinely inspired or authoritative.
Despite what critics often claim, other than disputes about a few writings eventually included and excluded from the New Testament and disagreements about the Apocrypha, there was little debate about what books should be recognized and received by the church as canonical. The four gospels and the letters of Paul seem to have been adopted promptly and widely by the early church. Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, and Revelation (each for various reasons) were slower to be adopted but were all eventually recognized as canonical. The Didache, The Shepherd of Hermes, and the Epistle of Barnabas each enjoyed some regional acceptance but were eventually excluded.
Quotes
Only one complete copy of the 1526 edition of Tyndale’s New Testament in English survives. It is on display as part of a Bible collection in Stuttgart, Germany. See if you can decipher Tyndale’s English translation of Romans 12:1-2:
“I beseeche you therefore brethren by the mercifulness of God, that ye make youre bodyes a quicke sacrifise, holy and acceptable unto God which is youre resonable servynge off God. And fassion note youre selves lyke unto this worlde. But be ye chaunged [in youre shape] by the renuynge of youre wittes that ye may fele what thynge that good, that aceptable and perfaicte will of God is.”
In light of New Life’s Missions Sunday celebrated on April 12, reflect on these words:
“If there be anything about which we cannot tolerate lukewarmness, it is in the matter of sending the gospel to a dying world.” – Charles Spurgeon
Final Thought
What I if told you …
You the read first line wrong?
Same the with second line.
And also the third.
