1. All Day and All of the Night. In this episode of Banned Books, we discuss Advent and the second coming of Jesus Christ while reading a sermon by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Along the way, we talk about the symbols and meaning of Christmas, how preaching a biblical sermon doesn’t mean it’s a gospel sermon, and why that matters, all with an extra echo for dramatic effect.
  2. The New Jerusalem comes down.
  3. Today on the Christian History Almanac, we look at an exemplary Puritan: Richard Baxter.
  4. Mary hears the word of God and then waits on the Word of God to be born from her womb.
  5. The wicked and arrogant think they can prey upon the poor with impunity. Not so. Chad meditates on God hiding himself, it seems especially in times of trouble. Lament, interrogation of God and David’s frustration help us to see that though the work dis full injustice, God is closer than we think, and God invites us to cry and complain to Him. Izzi Ray sings “Why”
  6. Today on the Christian History Almanac, we head back to 1965 and the death of Christendom (sort of).
  7. Suffering so you don’t become faithless.
  8. Today on the Christian History Almanac, we head back to Egypt, to modern Nigeria and the martyrdom of Elijah Yisa.
  9. Nearly two decades ago, Pope Benedict XVI (formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) delivered what is often called the Regensburg lecture. Though it was meant to rekindle the relationship between faith and reason (or science and theology) in higher education, much of the world—or at least the Muslim majority world—got distracted by a brief reference he made to a fifteenth-century dialogue about Islam, its theological voluntarism, and the consequences of such a view of God.
  10. Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, 2023; the bloody conflict leaves some Christians asking theological questions about the modern state of Israel.