This article discusses the persistent conspiracy theory that the Lord Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. The author critiques the arguments of the latest proponent, Simcha Jacobovici, showing how his arguments are often from silence or unsubstantiated.

This article considers the saying, "Just ask Jesus into your heart," and why a version of it can be helpful when emphasizing a personal, heartfelt response to the gospel, but why it is problematic when implying that man initiates salvation or when setting up a culture of easy-believism.

Should transparency or vulnerability be a defining characteristic of a believer? This article considers why people say, "The Christian life is all about being transparent and vulnerable," and how it is helpful when shunning hypocrisy, yet unhelpful when it creates a culture that is more about authenticity than repentance.

This article establishes that preaching is difficult work, and is not for just anyone. It presents seven key pitfalls that preachers need to avoid.

This article considers the matter of whether a pastor should have his full sermon in front of him when he is preaching. The author provides several arguments in favour of having a detailed outline instead of a full manuscript.

This article discusses the value of 2 Corinthians 3:14 in discussions on canon. In this passage Paul understands a covenant to be something you read. In other words, covenants are written documents. Thus, this passage provides some clues about the origins of a new canon of Scripture.

This article evaluates the claim that the early church fathers regarded their own writings as inspired. It explains that they repeatedly expressed that the apostles had a distinctive authority that was higher than their own, and that inspiration-like language can be used to describe ecclesiastical authority even though such authority is subordinate to the apostles'.

This article considers the topic of submission, explaining that everyone submits to somebody. It calls specifically men to model submission, as Christ himself modelled it.

This article enters into the discussion on the so-called Gospel of Jesus' Wife and draws attention to the back side of the fragment, which has a faded Coptic script, with the spacing between the lines as greater than the spacing on the front side. The author considers how this supports the hypothesis that the fragment is a modern forgery.

This article explains that every worldview has to reckon with a key issue, that of the origins of good and evil. The author considers dualism and nihilism in this regard, before turning to Christian theism, which has argued that God originally made the world good, and evil is a subsequent corruption of a good thing.

This article stresses that there is something powerful and special about male friendships when they are centred on Christ and his kingdom.

When did we have a New Testament canon? If one is asking when we see these books, and only these books, in some sort of list, then most point to the fourth century canonical list of Athanasius. But this article shows that we have a list by Origen more than a century earlier.

Were the canonical Gospels written by anonymous individuals outside of Palestine? This article considers this claim, and argues that there are good reasons to think that the titles of the Gospels were included at a very early point.

This article addresses the perception that early Christians resisted the written word and thus the date of the canon should be pushed back. It raises and evaluates three reasons scholars adduce in this regard.

This article shows that legalism is not the same as obedience, with a view to explaining that law-keeping is not grounds for the accusation of legalism.

This article considers two criticisms against the New Testament, that it is filled with competing theologies, and was formed by the "winners" of the theological battles within early Christianity. The author shows that these critiques neither sustain evaluation, and are actually incompatible with each other.

Is it really true that Christians prior to the fourth century had no standard by which they could distinguish heresy from orthodoxy? This article offers reasons to doubt this claim. Christians would have had at least three solid guides as they navigated the doctrinal complexities of their faith: the Old Testament, core New Testament books, and the rule of faith.

This article discusses the element of optimism as key attribute for evangelists or ministers to have in their ministries.

Were the apocryphal gospels as popular and widespread as the canonical gospels? This article argues to the contrary, with three pieces of evidence: the extant manuscripts, the (in)frequency of their citation, and the way they are cited. The majority of early Christians preferred the books that are now in our New Testament canon.

What place does the imperative have in preaching? When is preaching considered moralism? This article considers the place of moral imperatives in preaching, and shows by way of examples that sometimes it is fine to take large blocks of teaching and focus on Christian morals without fear of falling prey to moralism.

Why were the Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas both included in one of the earliest complete New Testament manuscripts? This article considers this question, and argues that their inclusion was according to the standard structure of canonical lists in their time period.

Walter Bauer's book, Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity, is in many ways the basis for a common misperception about the New Testament canon, that there was very little agreement over the books that made it into the canon until the fourth or fifth century. This article evaluates that claim, showing that there is substantial evidence for widespread agreement over the core canonical books from an early time.

This article shows from the account of Abraham's setting out to sacrifice Isaac how obedience toward God can and ought to be done with hopefulness.

What are the "books" and the "parchments" to which Paul refers in 2 Timothy 4:13? This article considers the possibility that the books were the Old Testament writings, and the parchments some early Christian writings, possibly Luke's Gospel and copies of Paul's own letters. In canon discussions, this provides additional support to the idea that at a very early time, Christians thought of their religious writings in two parts.

This article shows that even though the boundaries of the canon had not solidified by AD 200, it is clear that many of the books were viewed as Scripture long before then. It offers a brief sampling of how the earliest sources used the New Testament books as Scripture, and draws some conclusions relating to the acceptance of some of the later books.

What kind of characteristics of a Facebook culture do believers need to reckon with? This article offers five, and urges us to see that technology often exacerbates the sin patterns already present in our hearts.

This article discusses how we are to diagnose the sin patterns in our life. There are two answers available, a therapeutic answer and a biblical answer.

This article challenges the thesis that only oral tradition can explain citations in the apostolic fathers, by considering a statement by Papias about the written gospels of Matthew and Mark.

Did the New Testament authors have any awareness that they were contributing to the canon of Scripture? This is a common misconception, which this article addresses by considering select passages that show the authors believed their writings were Scripture.

Many Christians are fond of the saying, "No one is more holy than anyone else." Is this biblical? This article shows that it is not by explaining that many neglect the biblical category of the righteous man, the believer who displays a consistency in walking with God.

This article discusses the contention of Roman Catholics and others that tradition is the only means by which we may know what books are in the canon of Scripture. It expresses two concerns with this, stating that while a helpful way to know which books are canonical, the consensus approach is not the only way. For the books of the Bible speak for themselves as authoritative.

This article responds to the question regarding the validity of the very existence of the New Testament canon. It shows three ways that first-century Christianity created a favourable environment for new written revelation.

In response to the notion that the term "canon" can only refer to a fixed list of books (the so-called exclusive definition), this article shows the weaknesses in this definition. It makes the case that we should not be forced to use just one single definition to appreciate the depth and complexity of canon; we need other definitions to have a voice, like the functional definition, or Kruger's ontological definition.

This article considers the charge that Christians believed the return of Christ would happen in their lifetime, and thus they would not have been interested in composing new scriptural books for the canon. The author explains that apocalyptic beliefs were not necessarily incompatible with the production of written, authoritative texts.

This article engages with the objection that Christians are arrogant on account of the absolute claims of Christianity. The article considers the meaning of Christian humility, and explains that the Christian can be humble and certain at the same time.