September 2026
Podcasts
In his sermon on Acts 19, Pastor Bob mentioned the presence of skeptics. Thankfully, by God’s grace, some skeptics are brought to faith in Jesus. One former skeptic is Charles Murray, a political scientist and author of the socially provocative books Losing Ground (1984) and The Bell Curve (1994). His latest book called Taking Religion Seriously chronicles his conversion. You can listen to him share about his conversion and some of the things that finally persuaded him of the truth of Christianity on a recent podcast episode of Uncommon Knowledge.
The spring discipleship hour class (One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic: The Attributes of the Church) and the recent class to kick off the fall (A Brief History of Presbyterianism) both touched on the topic of church unity. In light of Jesus’ prayer for the oneness of his church (see John 17:22-23), it’s important to reflect on what that means and what it calls the church to do, especially the endlessly splintered Protestants. For further reflections on the topic, check out a recent episode on the Mere Fidelity podcast called Divided We Stand: On Denominations. It features a healthy back-and-forth discussion with strong points met with strong counterpoints, all in a respectful tone worthy of imitation.
Articles
In late August as college students were returning to campus, the Alcuin Study Center invited me to give a brief presentation on what it means to be a Christian in the classroom. Should being a Christian make a difference in how one approaches his or her studies? If so, what does being a faithful Christian student look like? During my presentation, I encouraged Christian students to adopt three postures in the classroom. You can read about them in this essay based on my talk.
Near the end of my recent Sunday morning class on the history of the PCA, I mentioned one of the long-standing issues in the denomination since its founding in 1973: how the PCA as a confessionally Reformed Presbyterian denomination relates to the broader American evangelical church. To explore this relationship further, you can read an article by theology professor Richard Lints who addressed this very topic in a recent article for Modern Reformation.
“Reformed and Evangelical? Evangelical Influences on the Presbyterian Church in America”
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? Tertullian (full name Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus)
When? Tertullian was born around AD160 and died around 225
Where? Tertullian served in the city of Carthage in north Africa (modern day Tunisia)
What did he do? Details about Tertullian’s life can be sketched only in broad outline. It appears that he enjoyed a solid education and may have practiced law at some point. He had a wife but remained a widower after her death. There is no record of children. He was converted to Christianity sometime in his late 30s. After his conversion, he served the church in Carthage as a gifted teacher and a capable apologist. It’s debated whether he held office in the church. He is rare among the early church fathers in that he wrote in Latin, the language of the western part of the Roman Empire. He produced a large body of writings, many of which survive today though much has unfortunately been lost. Despite what’s been lost, his surviving literary output surpasses any other Christian writer before the fourth century. His apologetic writings defend Christians against pagan slander. He often argued that Christians deserved to be protected by the Roman authorities rather than persecuted by them since they were required by God to respect civil authority and because they lived as model citizens who upheld the ancient Roman virtues of loyalty and chastity better than anyone else. He also refuted Gnostic teachings, for example in his works Against Marcion. Perhaps his most important and abiding contribution is in the area of Trinitarian theology. Tertullian was the first to employ the Latin term trinitas in his work Against Praxeus arguing that God is three persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – in one substance. It is said that Tertullian had an unyielding personality and his writing often took a confrontational and biting tone against his opponents (and also sometimes against women). It is often asserted that Tertullian later drifted into Montanism – a charismatic sect that believed in new prophetic revelations – though his exact relationship with the Montanists isn’t altogether clear. Some suggest his affiliation is probably best understood as being an adherent in its North African expression but that he remained a doctrinally faithful and committed member of the orthodox church. Still, Montanism and some of Tertullian’s teachings were later denounced by the church as heretical.
Why should we know about him? Tertullian is regarded as the main figure in the formation and expression of Christian doctrine in the Western church. His ideas and expressions influenced later theologians such as Athanasius and Augustine, and his Trinitarian formulation is preserved in the creeds adopted by the Councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon. He had an overriding concern for the holiness and purity of the church. He encouraged a lifestyle of rigorous self-denial so that if believers were thrown to the lions they would be prepared to remain faithful to Christ. He is known for the statement: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
Works? A two-volume set of the Complete Works of Tertullian is available for purchase. Many of his writings are also included in volumes 3 and 4 of The Ante-Nicene Fathers, which are available online at The Christian Classics Ethereal Library for free. Books about Tertullian are scarce, but (the expensive) Tertullian, First Theologian of the West by Eric Osborn may be the best introduction to his life and his abiding contributions to the church.
Theolingo: Building Your Theological Vocabulary
Theolingo aims to help you expand your learning of important theological terms. This month’s word is liturgy.
The word liturgy comes from a Greek term (λειτουργία; leitourgia) that refers literally to a public work or public service. In ancient Greek city states it described service done for the benefit of the wider community. The term is used in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) to describe the service of the priests and Levites in relation to the worship of God’s people. Its main use today is in connection to the worship of the church. More specifically, liturgy has come to refer to the format or order of public worship.
Distinctions are often made between “liturgical” and “free” forms of worship, but every public worship service adopts some kind of liturgy whether intentionally and unintentionally. For this reason, the terms “high” and “low” are often used. High liturgical forms, such as those found in Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and most Lutheran churches, are thoroughly planned, intentionally sequenced, and carefully structured with a high degree of predictability, set forms, and ritual. Low liturgies, such as those in Pentecostal churches, have very little planned structure and place a great deal of emphasis on spontaneity. Many liturgical traditions land somewhere in between, with most Baptist and non-denominational churches tilted toward the lower end and Reformed Presbyterian churches tilted toward the higher end. Most Reformed Presbyterians, for example, have a rather firmly set structure due to adherence to the regulative principle of worship (limiting themselves to those elements of worship prescribed in Scripture) while maintaining a certain degree of flexibility, such as spontaneous, non-scripted prayers.
Quotes
Tertullian criticized the moral laxity in the church of his day. It’s hard to imagine he wouldn’t do the same today. You can detect his concern for moral resolve in this quote:
“You can judge the quality of their faith from the way they behave. Discipline is an index to doctrine.” – Tertullian
As a defender of the Christian faith, Tertullian appealed to the historic nature of the church’s claims. On at least one occasion he reminds his readers that the darkness descending upon Jesus at the time of the crucifixion was a matter of historical record in their own annals:
“In the same hour, too, the light of day was withdrawn, when the sun at the very time was in his meridian blaze. Those who were not aware that this had been predicted about Christ, no doubt thought it an eclipse. You yourselves have the account of the world-portent still in your archives.” – Tertullian, The Apology
I’m getting ready to teach a class on embracing our true identity in Christ. How do we know what our true identity is? Counterintuitively, we cannot trust ourselves to answer that question because of the impact of the fall. We need God and his word to tell us who we truly are. Terry Johnson in his book Who Am I? What the Bible Teaches About Christian Identity stresses this point:
“My fallen nature asserting itself in a fallen world means I cannot trust my mind, my emotions, or my volition … Because we are vulnerable to deception … We cannot trust our own fallen and corrupt judgment. Yet this is exactly what we are prone to do. We are tempted to believe what we feel, what we sense, what we perceive about ourselves cannot be wrong and must be right. Our real selves, we think, our authentic selves are what we conceive ourselves to be. On the contrary, if I truly know myself, I know that I am an unreliable mess of error and misperception.” – Terry Johnson
Final Thought
Fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a storng mnid. Popele wtih an ineigtlience lveel aobve namrol cna raed wrods whtiout hvaing teh ltteers in teh crocret oedrr. In fcat, olny teh fsrit adn teh lsat letetrs nedes to be in pclae, tehn yuor brian wlil tkae crae of teh rset.
