This is an excerpt from Chapter 6 in Sinner Saint: A Surprising Primer to the Christian Life (1517 Publishing, 2025). Sinner Saint is available today from 1517 Publishing.
On its journey from Byzantium to Constantinople to Istanbul, this special place helps us understand the broader arc of Christian history, which goes on until Christ's return.
We needn’t fear statistics and studies as palm readings into a certain future. God is God, and his Spirit is alive through his Word.

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This article is part of Stephen Paulson’s series on the Psalms.
The mere fact of “having faith” or saying that “you believe” is not as important as in what or in whom your faith rests.
True religion or true faith is heavenly. It understands that mankind’s only hope has to come from outside of itself.
The central message of Christianity is not a worldview, a way of life, or a program for personal or societal change; it is a person and the message of the cross.
This article is part of Stephen Paulson’s series on the Psalms.
Despite the best efforts of that council to silence Jesus of Nazareth and his message, it wasn't enough. Jesus was alive.
What a small thing in the big picture to give his head for the Head of the Church who would give his life for John and all sinners.
Nature ends in stinging judgment from its Creator.
As both law and gospel are proclaimed, judgment and deliverance are miraculously pronounced over the hearer.
The point of Revelation is to reveal consolation in Jesus, not to revel in chaos and confusion.
This is an edited excerpt from Addendum A, “The Church Year,” On Any Given Sunday: The Story of Christ in the Divine Service, written by Michael Berg (1517 Publishing, 2023), pgs. 113-120.
In Christ, this world’s never-children are his always-children, because he isn’t a God of death, after all.