Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question:
Why are Christians becoming less Christian?

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
There are many challenges facing the American church today, especially when it comes to attracting new worshippers - sloppy and unbiblical theology and doctrine (important teachings), an oppositional post-Christian culture, inconsistent and at times hostile public policy regarding religion, an erosion of societal trust in institutions in general and the church in particular (some unwarranted, some very warranted), scandal, a confusion of identity and conflation of faith and political power, competition from technology-enabled escapist entertainment and the disassociation it leads to, the prevalence of high-demand youth sports, and so on.

But if you asked me to identify the single biggest problem facing the American church today, I would not focus on any of the external issues but an internal one. In my opinion, the biggest problem in the American church today is the spiritual apathy of those who consider themselves to be Christians.

Put another way: many, many people who claim the faith don’t seem to care about their faith.

Last week, I noted that even for those Americans who consider themselves Christians, faith is becoming less important to them over time. In 2008, 16% of self-identified evangelicals described their church attendance as "seldom" or "never." In 2024, 27% said the same, reporting that they went to church less than once a year.

From the establishment of the global church at the Pentecost event in the book of Acts, attending weekly worship services has been the primary indication and practice of faithful Christians. It’s not the only indication and practice, of course, but it’s the main one. And fewer and fewer American Christians are making regular church worship a priority in their lives.

According to data from Pew Research and The Barna Group, just 25-30% of self-identified Christians in America attend church every week or nearly every week of the year. 40% attend once or twice a month. The rest is less than that. 

Barna’s study found that churchgoers born before 1946 attended, on average, 11 fewer services in 2025 than they did in 2000. Churchgoers born between 1946 and 1964 are at church 7 fewer Sundays every year. That’s between one and a half and three months of skipping church.

All together, American churchgoers average showing up only two out of every five Sundays. “Regular” now means “consistently irregular.”

If you asked American Christians if faith was the most important thing in life, most (nearly all?) would say yes. But it’s not. At least, not by the most quantifiable measure: church attendance.

To make this specific to us, by my count there are probably 345 or so people who would say that MCC is their church. So far in 2026, we've averaged about 220 in weekly attendance.

So, why is this? What’s going on?

At one level, we could point to busyness. Life is full. Weekends are crowded. Kids have games, adults have work spillover, travel is easier than ever, and everyone is tired. But busyness has always existed in one form or another. The deeper issue isn’t that we have too much to do—it’s that we have too little desire for the things of God.

Scripture speaks directly to this condition. In Revelation 2:4, Jesus says to the church in Ephesus, “You have abandoned the love you had at first.” Notice that he doesn’t accuse them of abandoning belief, but of abandoning love. Their doctrine may have been intact and their moral lives respectable, but their hearts had cooled.

This is the essence of spiritual apathy: not outright rejection of God, but a quiet drifting away from him.

The author of Hebrews warns us, “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Hebrews 2:1). Drift is subtle. It doesn’t happen all at once. No one wakes up one day and decides to stop caring about God. It happens gradually—one missed Sunday, one neglected prayer, one distracted heart at a time.

And over time, what was once central becomes peripheral.

Church attendance, then, is not just a statistic—it’s a symptom. It reveals what we truly value. We always make time for what matters most to us. When gathering with God’s people becomes optional, it’s often because God himself has become optional in our hearts.

But let’s be clear: the call to gather isn’t about checking a religious box. It’s about relationship—with God and with his people. Hebrews 10:24–25 urges us not to neglect meeting together, but to encourage one another. Why? Because we are forgetful people. We need reminding. We need strengthening. We need each other.

When we disengage from the body of Christ, we’re signaling to God and everyone (including our kids) that the thing we say is The Most Important Thing isn’t the most important thing to us, after all.
 
So what’s the solution?

It’s not guilt or shame. And it’s certainly not just trying harder. The solution is a renewed vision of Jesus Christ.

When we truly understand who Jesus is - his holiness, his grace, his sacrifice, his love - what he did for us, and why we need him, our hearts are stirred again. Apathy begins to give way to affection. Duty gives way to delight. Gathering with God’s people no longer feels like an obligation, but a privilege.

The early church in Acts 2:42–47 devoted themselves to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer—not because they had to, but because they wanted to. Their hearts had been captured by the gospel.

And that’s what we need today. Church doesn’t need to be more efficient or entertaining, we need revived hearts. We need Christians who don’t just identify with Jesus, but who are truly captivated by him.

So let me ask you, if you are a fellow believer: has your love for Christ grown cold? Have you drifted into a pattern of “consistently irregular, whenever it’s not too inconvenient and I feel like it” church attendance and service?

If so, hear the compassionate but urgent call of Christ: “Remember… repent… and do the works you did at first” (Revelation 2:5).

Come back - to his word, to his people, to worship of him, to his church.
 
Because Christianity was never meant to be a casual affiliation—it is a life of wholehearted devotion to a living savior.

And when that devotion is real, everything else begins to fall back into place.

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question:
Is America experiencing a religious revival?

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
There’s been much talk in American Christian circles the past couple years about signs of a faith revival in our country. Christian conferences, podcasts, online chatter, and pastors in the pulpit have been quick to jump on any popular and public expression of faith and worship by a decent-sized group as apparent evidence of a widespread renewed spiritual awakening, especially among young adults.

That would be great! I can’t imagine anything more wonderful! If only it were true.

The truth is that the decades-long decline in Americans’ religious affiliation and religious activity continues unabated. There’s gobs of data on this.

According to a recent Gallup poll, fewer than half of Americans say religion is “very important” in their lives. That’s down from 75% who said it was “very important” in 1952. At the same time, the percentage who say religion is “not very important” has risen from five percent 74 years ago to 28% today.

Religious affiliation and religious activity are both down. 57% of Americans say they rarely or never attend a worship service. That’s a 15% bump since 1992. And those who identify or affiliate with no religious group or tradition whatsoever - the “nones” - are at their highest recorded level ever: 24%.  

This is a trend that gets worse with each successive generation. When Baby Boomers were in early adulthood (18-30 years old), 25% were weekly church attenders, and 14% said that they never attended religious services. Now, among Gen Z (born 1997-2012), 19% attend weekly church service, and 38% never attend religious services.

Even for those who consider themselves Christians, faith is becoming less important to them over time (more on this next week). For example, In 2008, 16% of self-identified evangelicals described their church attendance as "seldom" or "never." In 2024, 27% said the same, reporting that they went to church less than once a year.

Data like this is complex, of course. There are meaningful differences here among denominations, Catholics vs. Evangelicals, racial and geographic considerations, etc. But just about any way you slice it, the news is pretty bad. The data showed a post-Covid bump in church attendance by young adults for a season, but that seems to have disappeared in the last two years.

Michael Keller says, "We are witnessing what researchers call “the largest and fastest religious shift in U.S. history,” with over 40 million adults having left church communities in the last 25 years. Today 62 percent of US adults identify as Christians, and while Pew Research polls suggest the decline may be slowing, it’s dropped 9 points since 2014, and 16 points since 2007. At the same time, a massive 75 percent of US adults aged 18–34 do not go to church regularly, a culture-shifting number unless it changes."

If you find yourself surprised by all of this, you’re not alone. A recent Pew Research study shows that a growing number of Americans - nearly a third - believe religion’s influence is on the rise in America. Sadly, they are wrong.

The fact is that Americans are becoming increasingly less religious, and church is becoming less important to people of all ages, with accelerated disinterest down the scale from older people to younger people. It’s not a pretty picture. For those of us who care about lost souls and Jesus’ “Great Commission” to make disciples - to say nothing of those of us who care about the benefits of Christian values to society at large - this is a disturbing reality.

But it is a reality. A true revival would be amazing - may the Holy Spirit fan such a flame! - but we are simply not experiencing one right now. A true revival would be miraculous, because true revivals are always (and only) miraculous. They are not our doing, but God’s. Thus, as others have written, they cannot be manufactured.

Russell Moore - editor at-large of Christianity Today - states, “ We should pray for revival. That starts with knowing what it is. Revival is not a market or an artifact. Revival cannot be controlled; it can only be received. Revival is the wind of the Spirit…Revival doesn’t start with a blueprint or, God forbid, a marketing plan, but with a state of helplessness and dependence. When God showed Ezekiel a field full of dried-out bones and said, “Son of man, can these bones live?” the prophet responded, “O Lord God, you know” (Ezek. 37:3–4). That was the right answer. And it should be ours.”

Amen.

RELATED RESOURCE
Russell Moore’s article: A Real Revival Is Not Controllable

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question:
Why do Christians oppose abortion?

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
You don’t need me to tell you that abortion is a big deal in the public discourse in America. It touches matters of life and death, freedom and responsibility, justice and compassion, politics and law. It’s also a big deal in the homes and hearts of the families who have experienced abortion - for the women who have chosen to have them, and for their loved ones. If this is part of your story, you likely know how deeply emotional and painful and difficult it was at the time and continues to be. 

All that to say, I hope my tone here is clear but not combative. I’m not looking to beat anyone over the head for their past, but I do want to offer some clarity about why Christians believe abortion is wrong. 

At the heart of the Christian faith is a simple but profound truth: every human being is made in the image of God. From the opening pages of scripture, we learn that human life is not an accident of biology but a sacred gift. To bear God’s image means that each person has inherent worth, not because of what they can do, achieve, or contribute, but simply because God is the creator and giver of life. He says it matters, so it has to matter to us. 

This conviction shapes how Christians think about the unborn. Modern science has only deepened what believers have long affirmed: from the earliest moments of development, a new human life exists with distinct DNA and a unique genetic identity. A developing body that, if not interrupted, will grow through the natural stages of human life—embryo, fetus, infant, child, adult. The unborn are not potential humans; they are humans with potential.

Some argue that personhood depends on certain abilities—self-awareness, independence, or viability outside the womb. But Christians have historically rejected the idea that value depends on capacity. A newborn cannot reason. A person in a coma cannot function independently. The elderly may lose cognitive abilities. Yet we do not measure their worth by what they can do, we protect them precisely because they are vulnerable.

The unborn child is the most vulnerable among us—hidden, voiceless, and fully dependent. Scripture consistently portrays God as the defender of the weak. To follow Christ is to care for those who cannot defend themselves. For Christians, opposing abortion does not need to be primarily about politics or culture wars, but about protecting innocent life. This is, necessarily, political and cultural. But our goal isn’t first to win elections or pass laws, but to win hearts and minds to see that life is precious and worth protecting. 

There is also a moral logic at work. If it is wrong to intentionally end the life of an innocent human being, and if the unborn are innocent human beings, then intentionally ending their lives is morally serious. Christians believe that justice requires us to defend those whose lives are at risk—even when it is costly or unpopular.

But this conviction must be held together with another truth: pregnancy often unfolds in complicated and painful circumstances. Fear. Financial stress. Abandonment. Abuse. Medical uncertainty. Many women who consider abortion do so not lightly, but under immense pressure. If Christians speak only of law and never of love, we fail to reflect the heart of Christ.

Jesus was unwavering about truth, yet astonishingly tender toward those caught in sin and suffering. He did not minimize wrongdoing, but neither did he crush the broken. A truly Christian response to abortion must mirror this posture.

To women who have had abortions, hear this clearly: you are not beyond the grace of God. There is no sin so deep that the cross of Christ cannot reach it. The Bible assures us that when we confess, God is faithful to forgive and to cleanse (1st John 1:9). Many carry silent grief, regret, or shame for years. The church must not be a place of condemnation but a refuge of healing.

Opposing abortion, then, is not about declaring ourselves morally superior. It is about affirming the value of every life—born and unborn—and extending mercy to all who are hurting. It means advocating for policies and practices that support mothers: access to prenatal care, material assistance, adoption services, emotional support, and communities that walk with women through crisis/unplanned pregnancies. This is why I’m so thankful that MCC partners with the Pregnancy Resource Center in Bloomington/Normal. We are putting our money where our beliefs are. If we say we value life, we must demonstrate it not only before birth but after.

It also means cultivating a church culture where no woman feels alone. Imagine congregations where an unexpected pregnancy is met not with whispers, but with practical help. Where single mothers are honored for their courage. Where men are called to responsibility and sacrificial love. Where adoption and foster care are embraced as beautiful expressions of the gospel.

Christians oppose abortion because we believe life is sacred (Genesis 1:27, Matthew 10:31, Psalm 139:13-14), because we believe to do justice is to protect the innocent (Micah 6:8, Zechariah 7:9, Amos 5:24), and because we believe love defends the vulnerable (Isaiah 1:17). But we also believe in redemption. The same God who forms life in the womb is the God who restores shattered hearts.

In a polarized world, our tone matters. We can be firm without being harsh. Convicted without being combative. Clear without being cruel. Our ultimate aim is not to win arguments but to bear witness—to a God who creates, who loves, who forgives, and who calls us to reflect his heart. And to preserve life for as many little unborn babies as we possibly can.

May we be people who cherish every human life. May we be a community where truth and grace meet. And may our words and actions together proclaim that every person—mother, father, child, born and unborn—is precious in the sight of God and God’s people.

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question:
What does it mean to "make peace" with God?

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
Maybe you’ve heard someone in a movie say something like, “I’ve made my peace with God,” or - more as a warning - “You better make your peace with God.” That’s actually something of a biblical idea. 

Here’s the wonderful promise God makes us in Romans 5:1: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

We have “peace with God,” and we have it “through our Lord Jesus Christ.” That seems to imply that before Jesus, or without Jesus, we were not at peace with God. What’s the opposite of peace? War. Without Jesus, we are at war with God. This idea is supported just a few verses later in Romans 5:10: For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

So we are in one state or the other: we are either enemies at war with God, or we have peace with God.

That is a sobering reality. Most people do not think of themselves as being “at war” with God. We may imagine that we are neutral toward him - maybe busy or distracted, surely imperfect, but not hostile. But scripture leaves no room for neutrality (see what Jesus had to say about those who are “lukewarm”). If we are not reconciled to God through Christ, we remain estranged from him. It’s not that God has declared war on us, but that in our sin we have rebelled against his rule, resisted his authority, and preferred our own way over his. We are the aggressors in this war.

And that is where the word “justified” in Romans 5:1 becomes so precious. “Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God.” To be justified is to be declared righteous—to have our guilt removed and Christ’s righteousness credited to us. The war ends not because we negotiated a treaty or because we improved our behavior, but because Jesus bore our sin and satisfied God’s justice on the cross.

Peace with God is not a fragile ceasefire. It is not probation. It is not God reluctantly tolerating us. It is reconciliation. The hostility is gone. The debt is paid. The verdict has been rendered. We are gifted the righteousness of Christ, by Christ, through Christ, for Christ.

Notice also the certainty of Paul’s words: “We have peace.” Not “we hope to have,” not “we might have if we perform well enough.” For those who are justified by faith, peace with God is a present possession. It is an objective reality grounded in what Jesus has done, not in how we happen to feel today.

That matters, because our feelings fluctuate. Some days we feel close to God. Other days we feel ashamed, distant, or spiritually cold. But peace with God does not rise and fall with our emotions; it rests on the finished work of Christ. If you have responded to his grace with your faith, you are not God’s enemy. You are his redeemed and reconciled child.

And from that peace flows everything else. Paul says we have “gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” We are no longer standing in the courtroom awaiting condemnation. We are standing in grace. We have access—welcome, open access—into the presence of God. The one who was once our judge is now our Father.

This also means that “making peace with God” is not something we accomplish at the end of our lives by trying harder or cleaning ourselves up. Peace has already been made through Jesus Christ. The call of the gospel is not to manufacture peace, but to receive it by faith.

So the question is simple and deeply personal: Are you still trying to stand on your own record before God? Or are you standing in grace, justified through faith in Christ?

If you belong to Jesus, take comfort today. The war is over. The verdict is settled. You have peace with God.

And if you have not yet trusted in Christ, the invitation remains open. Turn to Him. Trust in his finished work. Receive the justification he freely gives.

Because through our Lord Jesus Christ, we truly—and eternally—have peace with God.

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question:
Whole households will be saved? Examining Acts 16:16-34.

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
In the book of Acts, chapter 16, the apostle Paul and his missionary companion Silas are in prison for casting out a demonic spirit and, in the words of the prosecuting authorities, “...throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice” (Acts 16:20).
 
Beaten and jailed, Paul and Silas prayed and worshiped God with singing. Here’s what happened next, starting in verse 26: Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped.

Rather than escape, though, Paul, Silas, and the other prisoners stayed put. Moved by their act of generosity and sacrifice following this supernatural, jail-breaking earthquake, the jailer is overcome with gratitude and asks the disciples: “What must I do to be saved?”
Here’s what Paul and Silas said (vs. 31-34):
 
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.

This phrase - “...you and your household” - is a source of debate, disagreement, and even division in the global church, and has been for centuries. It’s one of the reasons some denominations downplay personal salvation in favor of emphasizing familial generational faith inheritance (the idea that one can be “born into” the Christian faith, similar to how Israelites were in the Old Testament), and it’s one of the reasons some denominations “baptize” (sprinkle or dunk) infants and small children prior to their belief and confession of faith. These groups take what Paul and Silas said here to mean that the faithful expression of some has some kind of an automatic transference effect to others, even if the others aren’t themselves faithful. I think that’s incorrect.
 
By my reading - and I believe it’s accurate to say that most Bible scholars agree with this - Luke (who wrote Acts) isn’t teaching secondhand salvation. Instead, he is highlighting how the gospel moves through relationships and communities, not just isolated individuals.

In the ancient world, a “household” (Greek: oikos) was more than a nuclear family. It included spouses, children, servants, and extended dependents—a small social network bound together under one leader. When the head of a household embraced a new faith or allegiance, it often opened the door for the entire household to hear and respond. The emphasis is not involuntary, compulsory salvation (because there is no such thing!), but shared opportunity.

The very next verses support this reading. Luke tells us that Paul and Silas “spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.” The whole household hears the gospel. The whole household responds in faith. The promise of verse 31 unfolds through proclamation and personal belief, not spiritual inheritance. Each person still trusts Christ; yet they do so together.

Christianity is deeply personal, but it is never meant to be private. From the beginning, salvation spreads along relational lines—families, friendships, workplaces, neighborhoods. Jesus came to offer salvation to individuals but also to gather a people, the church. God delights in rescuing people in clusters. We see this pattern throughout Acts: Lydia’s household, Cornelius’s household, the Philippian jailer’s household. The gospel runs through the ordinary structures of daily life.

For believers today, this verse offers both comfort and calling.

The comfort is this: God cares about you and your people. When you bring your faith into your home, you are not just making an individual decision; you are creating spiritual ripples. Your prayers, your witness, and your obedience are part of God’s gracious pursuit of those around you. You cannot believe for them—but your faith places them in the stream of the gospel.

The calling is equally clear: speak the word of the Lord in your household. The jailer’s family did not absorb salvation by proximity; they heard the message. Christian homes are meant to be places where Jesus is named, scripture is opened, forgiveness is practiced, and hope is spoken aloud. We cooperate with God’s promise by making Christ visible in our shared life.

Acts 16:31 is not a shortcut around personal faith; it is a vision of communal grace. Salvation is individual, but it is designed to travel through love. The jailer’s story reminds us that when Christ enters a life, he intends to visit the whole house. And often, by his mercy, he does.

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question:
What's the problem with porn?

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
“But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” — Jesus, Matthew 5:28

Pornography - sexual pictures and videos - is basically ubiquitous today in our world of smartphones and digital tech. It’s hard enough to avoid, but most people - including many Christians according to the data - are actively seeking it out on a regular basis. Is that a bad thing? What’s the problem with porn?

As with all of these types of behavioral questions, it’s a matter of discipleship. The issue of pornography use for Christians is a question of whether it aligns with God’s design and desire for our lives and whether it draws us into or out of Christlikeness.
The witness of scripture - both the actual explicit text and the implied model for our lives - shows us that pornography use is a personal, relational, and spiritual problem. Let’s examine why.  

Pornography distorts God’s design for sex and relationships.
Porn (and not just actual pornographic websites, but movies and shows with explicit sex and nudity) tries to provide the sexual fulfillment that God says is to be found only in a marriage relationship. Images of anonymous people on our screens cannot love us, they can only distort our understanding of love and of sex’s place in a loving relationship. Biblically, love is self-giving; porn is purely consumeristic. Porn turns human beings - made in God’s image - into objects for consumption.

God created sex as a beautiful expression of love and unity within marriage (Genesis 2:24; Hebrews 13:4). Porn twists that good gift into something that draws pleasure away from God’s design and toward self-gratification.

When our minds are fed unrealistic and impersonal images of sex, we begin to believe a false story about what intimacy should be — one that cannot satisfy our deepest longings because it was never meant to.

Pornography warps our hearts and leads us into sin.
Jesus didn’t merely forbid the external act of adultery; he revealed the heart issue behind it. He warned that lustful intent is adultery of the heart (Matthew 5:28). This matters for how we think about pornography: it doesn’t take a physical act to break God’s moral commands — it only takes a look with lustful intent.

Viewing porn trains our hearts toward lust, selfishness, and use of another person for pleasure. Scripture speaks loudly against sexual immorality, impurity, and sensuality as “desires of the flesh” we are called to renounce (Galatians 5:19–21).

Make no mistake here: this is a core issue of obedience and holiness. Porn isn’t up for debate in the church; it’s not a matter of personal moral preference. Warning and fighting against porn isn’t the church just being annoying and judgmental - it’s totally consistent with scripture and our call to be and make disciples of Jesus.

Pornography tempts us to base our identity and satisfaction in created things rather than in the Creator. It invites us to forget that only God can ultimately satisfy our hearts.

Pornography weakens the individual and the church.
Like all sin, the effects of pornography aren’t confined to our individual lives and hearts, it hurts our relationship with each other and damages our relationship with God. No one can live in unrepentant sin and still maintain right relationship with others - even if we haven’t gotten caught and think we’re “getting away with it,” porn has a distorting effect on our brains that unavoidably alter how we view other people, and how we view ourselves as children of God.

Porn fosters dependency, secrecy, and shame. It draws believers into patterns that rob them of freedom and joy in Christ and destroys true, authentic relationships with their spouses, families, friends, and the community around them. It distorts trust, intimacy, and self-worth. It conditions the brain to seek sexual arousal in fantasy rather than true fellowship. And because it often involves the objectification of real people, it contributes to broader social harms, including exploitation and human trafficking.

Pornography is a spiritual battle.
The problem goes beyond physiology and psychology — it is a spiritual battle. The world’s allurements are presented in scripture as spiritual traps Satan uses to distract us from worshiping God (Ephesians 6:10–12). When we wrestle with lust and porn, we’re called to put on the full armor of God — not simply try harder on our own.

A 2024 study by Barna Research Group found that 78% of American men consume pornography to some extent. Sadly, that number doesn’t improve much for Christian men, 75% of whom confirm that porn use is part of their lives either habitually or occasionally. This isn’t just a problem for men, though. That same Barna study found that 44% of American women consume pornography. This is a wide-spread problem outside and inside the church. Which means, if you struggle with porn use, you are not alone.

Even if porn has brought defeat, shame, or despair, God’s love is greater still. Porn breeds darkness, yet God’s grace remains sufficient for those in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate us from his love (Rom. 8:39).

This doesn’t minimize the seriousness of sin. It means that confession brings freedom — not continued hiding. As we confess, repent, and run to Christ, we rediscover our identity not as slaves to lust, but as beloved children of God. And none of that happens on our own. Sanctification is a group project.

The journey away from porn is marked by confession, accountability, and grace-filled fellowship. This is why scripture urges us to carry one another’s burdens and to live transparently before one another (James 5:16). Porn thrives in darkness and secrecy. Bringing it into the light — in prayer, in trusted relationships, in church community — allows the light of Christ to expose and transform brokenness.

By pursuing holiness together, we help one another look away from momentary pleasures and instead fix our eyes on Jesus — the source of true satisfaction and joy. When Christ is enthroned in our hearts, the desire for anything that competes with him begins to lose its grip.

Porn is a big, big deal in our hearts, homes, and church. If you use it, I’m guessing you already know that. If you want to pursue freedom from this sin, please come talk to me or another brother or sister in Christ who can walk with you. Also, I invite you to engage with the material below. There is hope; you don’t have to live like this forever. God loves you no matter what, and he is eager to help you overcome Satan’s attacks.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. - 1st John 1:9

RELATED RESOURCES
What Porn Does to Us
Escape the "Little Hell" of Porn
The Truth about Teens and Porn
The Problem of AI Porn

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question:
What's God's will for my life?

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
Twice in the last couple weeks - and several more times in the past year and a half or so - I’ve been asked by members of our church questions that have essentially amounted to “What’s God’s will for my life?”

I think this is probably normal. Those of us who believe in God and have faith in his plan and purpose for our world and our lives are naturally drawn to think to ourselves, Ok…so what should I do? 

This pops up especially when it comes to the big decisions in life. What should I do after high school? Should I date this person? Should I marry this person? Should I pursue this career or that one? Should I switch careers? Where should I live? What church should I commit to? 

It’s natural for Christians to want to know if the decisions they make are lined up with what God would tell them to do if he spoke out loud to them about their specific situation. But usually, at least, that’s not how God chooses to work. He’s given us his Word and his Spirit to guide us, and our job is to take the wisdom and principles he has communicated to us and apply them to our lives. Rather than praying or hoping for a “sign from heaven,” discerning God’s will isn’t about finding a job or a spouse that’s stamped with divine approval, it’s about understanding who God is and who we are in him.

In an article titled The Two Missed Truths about God’s Will on his Church and Culture Blog, pastor James Emery White explains that the way many Christians pursue God’s will is mistakenly narrow. We often treat God’s guidance like a GPS: Turn left now. No—turn right. Wait for the bright neon arrow. But God rarely works like a cosmic Google Maps voice alert. Instead, He has already given us a moral compass - the Bible - that points us toward truth, holiness, and faithful living.

Here are the two truths White says most of us miss:

First, God’s will for your life is mostly moral.
God’s will isn’t first a checklist of specific life choices but a moral direction grounded in scripture. We’re to love God and neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40), flee sin, pursue righteousness, and live out the character of Christ. The Bible doesn’t leave us in gray zones on most matters of right and wrong. In many decisions we agonize over, the moral compass God has given has already spoken.

Second, there is great freedom within God’s will. 
Once we align with his moral will we are not forced into one narrow path. If our choices are legal, ethical, and don’t contradict specific things God has asked of us, we can be following “God’s will” with any number of things we do. There isn’t one perfect plan God wrote down for each of us individually that we need to decode. Instead, God gives us freedom to choose within the bounds of his moral design. Just as Adam and Eve could eat from many trees (just not THAT one), we have choice within God’s will without being outside it.

This means God’s will is not first about rare, specific directives but about faithful, obedient character. His will is revealed through his Word, and we’re free to make wise, God-honoring choices within it.

At the same time, in an article named God’s Will…Period, church planter Josh Howard invites us to go deeper - not simply to know God’s will, but to desire it. Howard points to the Lord’s Prayer, where Jesus teaches us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” When we pray this, we aren’t asking God to bless our vision for life; we are asking God to form our desires around his vision for life.

Howard suggests that the common way we pray - “God, what is your will for MY life?” - may still be self-centered. Even though it begins with God, it’s really about me. What if we instead prayed, “God, what is your will? Period.” That prayer shifts our focus from seeking personal direction to seeking alignment with God’s heart, God’s mission, and God’s kingdom.

So what does all this mean for us today? Four quick things:

1. God’s will is first moral, not mystical.
 Before you wait for a sign or spend sleepless nights asking “Which road should I take?”, ask “Am I living within the moral will God has already revealed?” Are you loving God and others? Are you honoring scripture? Are you growing in righteousness? God’s will is revealed through his Word, and his Spirit helps us apply it.

2. You are free to choose within God’s moral will.
God doesn’t constrain you to one narrow option in areas like job choices, spouses, or where you live. As long as your choices don’t contradict biblical truth, you can trust God to work through your decisions—and sometimes in spite of your decisions. Christian freedom means you can make wise, prayerful choices knowing God is faithful.

3. The question is not What do you want me to DO? but Who do you want me to BE?
God cares deeply about our character. He wants us to become more like Christ. That transformation - rooted in obedience, humility, love, and surrender - is the heart of God’s will.

4. Pray that God’s will becomes your will.
Instead of asking, “God, what do you want me to do?” ask, “God, form in me a heart that wants what you want.” Pray for God’s kingdom to come through you, and for his will to be done in your life - whether that leads you to obvious choices or silent daily faithfulness.

God’s will is not a hidden, mysterious puzzle to be solved. It is the revealed witness of a loving Father who calls you to walk with him by following his explicit instruction, then making free choices on matters that are not explicitly stated but accords with the implied principles from what is, then surrendering your desires that his will becomes your will. This is the heart of the Christian life.

God’s will for your life is to know him and make him know - that’s why it’s our mission statement at MCC. As long as you are faithful and obedient, you don’t have to wonder what God’s will is for your life - you’re already living it.  

And when it does come to specific decisions, maybe this question can be a helpful guide: Which option enables me to better serve the Lord? If that's your starting point, it's hard to go wrong.

As Jesus prayed the night before his death, “...not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Welcome to the fifth Theology Thursday Buffet! Occasionally, I’ll switch from addressing one topic in long form and instead answer several reader-submitted questions in shorter form.

If you have a topic you’d like to see included in a future Theology Thursday, please respond to this email (or any future Theology Thursday email) with your question! And don’t hesitate to ask, because if you’re curious about something, it likely means somebody else is too.

Let’s grab our plate and dive in.

What is legalism? 
Biblically, legalism is the distortion of God’s law into a system for earning righteousness rather than a guide for living in grateful response to grace. Scripture affirms that the law is good—it reveals God’s holiness and exposes sin—but it was never meant to save. Legalism begins when obedience is severed from relationship and transformed into a scoreboard of spiritual worth. Jesus confronted this in the Pharisees, who meticulously followed rules yet neglected justice, mercy, and love. Their obedience looked impressive, but it was hollow because it trusted performance instead of God.

Legalists (or, people who struggle with legalism, even if they wouldn't describe it that way) care more about control, conformity, and man-made traditions than a genuine relationship with God.

The gospel critiques legalism by re-centering righteousness in Christ, not human effort. We are justified (saved) by grace through faith, and obedience flows from that gift, not toward it. Legalism ultimately breeds pride in the “successful” and despair or even disdain for the “failing,” obscuring the freedom and joy of life in the Spirit. True holiness grows not from fear of breaking rules, but from love awakened by grace.

What do you think of The Chosen?
I love it! Melissa and I started watching season one in mid-2025, and we were hooked immediately in the first episode, when Jesus heals Mary of her demon-possession. His interactions with her are beautiful and moving, and we watched one or two episodes on Sunday evenings until we were totally caught up through season five.

For my money, The Chosen is the best depiction of the Jesus story and Christian art in general ever set to screen. It’s dramatic but not cheesy, well-acted but not distracting, and exceptionally well thought-through in terms of how it portrays its characters and storylines. When an episode is presenting a scene directly from scripture, it is faithful to the text and does not deviate from the scriptural message and its meaning. When an episode is presenting a scene not directly from scripture, it makes only reasonable and defensible choices . In terms of artistic license, the show adds things to scripture but does not change scripture, if that makes sense. It necessarily creates fictionalized backstories and motives for its characters that the Bible doesn’t explicitly include, but they are all plausible, and they do a great deal to enhance our appreciation for scripture and understanding of these characters as real people with real lives, real sins, real desires, real relationships, and real hope for a real savior.
 
The actor who plays Jesus is, in particular, outstanding. His rendering of the Messiah is pitch-perfect, in my opinion. Kind, tender, firm, wise, joyful, burdened, strong, prayerful, obedient, human, divine. Really, really good stuff.

I’m a big fan of The Chosen. If you can go into it knowing that some stuff is directly from scripture and some isn’t, and learn to know and consider the difference, then I can’t recommend it highly enough. It might just make you love your Jesus more than you did before.
 
What does the “glory” of God mean in Psalm 19:1, John 1:14, elsewhere?
There are dozens of verses in the Bible that reference the “glory” of God, but none offer a specific definition. Thus, “glory” has become one of those terms we use a lot without always knowing quite what we mean by it.

In his book Garden City, John Mark Comer describes the glory of God not as a vague radiance but as God’s presence and character made tangible in the world. Glory is what happens when God’s goodness, beauty, power, and love are put on display through creation and human vocation. Humanity was designed to partner with God so that the earth would become a place filled with his glory, reflecting who he is. When people image God well—working, creating, ruling with love—God’s invisible nature becomes visible, like light filling a room. This is the goal of the biblical story from Genesis onward itself.

So, as a means of summary, I think we can understand God’s glory to mean three primary things: God’s perfect nature and character, God’s personal presence and works, and God’s worth and majesty as recognized and proclaimed by his creatures.

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question:
What's the deal with speaking in tongues?

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
The New Testament describes a mysterious and often controversial spiritual gift: speaking in tongues. For some Christians it is a treasured expression of intimacy with God; for others it is a source of confusion or concern, even derision by those who oppose it of those who practice it. Any conversation about tongues must begin with clarity, humility, and charity. Faithful believers have landed in different places on this issue, and my aim is not to mock but to shepherd hearts toward Christ.

Biblically, speaking in tongues refers to Spirit-enabled speech that is not learned through ordinary means. In Acts 2, the apostles experience a supernatural phenomenon where, depending which scholar you read, they either speak in recognizable human languages they had never studied, proclaiming the works of God to an international crowd, or they speak in some kind of language no one recognizes. In 1 Corinthians 12–14, Paul addresses another form of tongues in the gathered church—speech directed toward God that requires interpretation to edify others. At minimum, tongues function in scripture as a sign of the Spirit’s power and a reminder that the gospel crosses every cultural boundary.

Historically, the practice is most associated with Pentecostal and charismatic traditions. Classical Pentecostal churches often view tongues as the initial physical evidence of Spirit baptism - meaning, it is expected or even required in order to consider one’s conversion and faith legitimate. Many Charismatic believers within broader evangelical or mainline denominations see it as one gift among many, available but not required. These movements have emphasized expectancy for the supernatural work of the Spirit, prayerful dependence, and vibrant, expressive worship. Even those who question tongues - like most of us in Restoration Movement churches such as MCC - should acknowledge the genuine and laudable zeal for God that often accompanies these traditions.

I personally maintain something of a “soft-cessationist” view of miraculous gifts. In other words, I generally believe that the miraculous gifts - humans administering physical healing, prophecy (depending on how it’s defined), and speaking in tongues - ceased with the final revelation of God’s word in scripture and the closing of the New Testament canon. I say I am a “soft” cessationist because it’s not something I draw a hard line on, there is plenty of evidence and examples that would seem to potentially contradict my position, and while I think the biblical and real-life witness is stronger on the cessationist side (as opposed to the continuationist side, which would argue that the miraculous gifts administered by the first generation of Jesus’s apostles continues today) I don’t believe it’s a slam-dunk case. I’m open to being wrong on this, but in general I’m skeptical of the claims of Spirit-empowered human-administered miracles today.
 
A soft-cessationist perspective affirms that God is free and powerful while also suggesting that certain miraculous sign gifts, including tongues, were uniquely concentrated in the apostolic era. The purpose of these gifts, according to this view, was to authenticate the message of the apostles and establish the early church on a firm foundation (Ephesians 2:20). Once that foundation was laid and the New Testament witness completed, the ordinary pattern of Christian life shifted toward preaching, sacrament (baptism, communion), and faithful discipleship rather than ongoing signs and wonders as normative expectations.

From this standpoint, concern about modern tongues is not rooted in fear of the Spirit but in love for the church. Paul repeatedly emphasizes that spiritual gifts exist to build others up (1 Corinthians 14:12). When tongues become a badge of spiritual status, a source of division, or a private experience detached from intelligible truth, they risk undermining the very unity they were meant to serve. A soft-cessationist devotional posture asks: does this practice consistently produce clearer understanding of Christ, deeper obedience to scripture, and greater love for neighbor?

There is also a pastoral caution about the human heart. Christians are always tempted to chase dramatic experiences as shortcuts to assurance. Tongues, when elevated as proof of maturity, can unintentionally shift confidence away from the finished work of Christ and toward a particular manifestation. The New Testament, however, anchors assurance in the gospel: Christ crucified and risen, trusted by faith. The quiet fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, and the rest - receives far more emphasis than any spectacular gift.

A soft-cessationist does not need to declare that every reported instance of tongues is fraudulent or demonic. Rather, the claim is more modest: scripture does not require us to seek this gift, and wisdom urges caution about practices that easily outpace clear biblical instruction. God has already given the church everything necessary for life and godliness through his Word. The Spirit’s primary work today is to illuminate that Word, conform believers to Christ, and empower ordinary faithfulness.

Our opportunity and call, then, is not to hunger for a particular experience but to hunger for God himself. Pray boldly. Worship passionately. Serve obediently. But measure spiritual vitality not by ecstatic speech, but by a life increasingly shaped like Jesus. The greatest miracle is not that a believer might speak in an unknown tongue, but that sinners are forgiven, hearts are renewed, and a people are formed who love God and one another in the everyday language of gospel grace.

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question: 
Her desire will be for her husband? What is Genesis 3:16 getting at?

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
The second half of Genesis chapter 3 presents us with one of the Bible’s most sobering moments—the pronouncement of consequences following humanity’s rebellion. Adam and Eve sin by disobeying God, and they introduce a myriad of consequences for themselves and the whole world by doing so. One of them is a bit of an odd statement we get from God in Genesis 3:16, when God says to the woman: “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” 

Maybe we don’t love that “rule over you” language, but isn’t it good for a wife’s desire to be for her husband? What’s going on here?

For centuries, readers have wrestled with what exactly this “desire” bit means. Faithful Christians have offered several thoughtful interpretations, and it’s worth looking at them together to see if we can arrive at a reasonable conclusion. 

One common interpretation understands “desire” as relational or emotional longing. In this reading, the woman’s desire is her deep yearning for her husband—for intimacy, security, partnership, or affirmation. After the fall, this desire becomes complicated: the relationship that was created for mutuality (Genesis 2:18–25) is now marked by imbalance. The woman longs for closeness, but instead experiences domination. This reading highlights how sin fractures even our best loves, turning interdependence into competition.

A second interpretive option sees “desire” as sexual desire. In this view, the text acknowledges that sexual longing remains strong, even as the relational harmony of marriage is disrupted. The tragedy is not desire itself—since sexuality was God’s good gift in creation—but that desire now exists alongside power struggles and broken trust. Desire is not sinful, but sin distorts desire and corrupts intimacy. 

A third interpretation, often discussed in biblical scholarship, connects Genesis 3:16 with Genesis 4:7, where God tells Cain, “Sin’s desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” The Hebrew word for “desire” (teshuqah) appears only a few times in the Old Testament, and this parallel suggests a definition of desire that means to control or master, not just to want. From this angle, the woman’s desire is not simply longing but a grasping for power in response to her husband’s rule. The verse then describes a tragic cycle: domination answered by resistance, neither reflecting God’s original design. Importantly, this interpretation does not prescribe male rule; it describes the relational damage caused by sin.

A fourth interpretation sees the phrase as describing disordered dependence. The woman turns toward her husband for what only God can fully provide—identity, worth, safety—while the husband responds not with loving leadership but with subjugation. Both spouses are diminished. This reading resonates deeply with lived experience and with the broader biblical story, which consistently calls God’s people back to restored relationships marked by love, sacrifice, and mutual honor.

What unites these interpretations is a shared conviction: Genesis 3:16 isn’t prescribing how to behave in relationships, but is describing how we often do behave in relationships due to our sin. It names the brokenness sin introduces; it does not celebrate it. The good news of scripture is that this is not the final word. In Christ, the curse is confronted and healing begins. The New Testament’s vision of marriage—mutual submission, self-giving love, and shared inheritance in Christ (Ephesians 5:21; Galatians 3:28)—points us forward.

Genesis 3:16 invites lament, honesty, and hope. It tells the truth about broken relationships, while reminding us that God is still at work, patiently restoring what was lost.

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Series: Creation to Covenant - Genesis 1-11
Sermon: The Promise - Genesis 9:8-17 (2.8.26)
Watch the message HERE. 

After the flood recedes, God speaks before humanity has much to say at all. The ground is still damp with judgment. The memory of loss is fresh. But instead of beginning with conditions or warnings, God begins with a promise.

In Genesis 9, God establishes a covenant not only with Noah, but with his descendants, with every living creature, and even with the earth itself. This is striking. The flood came because of human wickedness, but the covenant is not limited by human virtue. God binds himself—freely, decisively—to preserve life. He promises that never again will waters destroy everything. And then he gives a physical sign to underline his words: the rainbow in the clouds.

Notice what the rainbow is for. God says it is a sign “between me and the earth.” Whenever it appears, God promises that he will remember my covenant. That does not mean God is forgetful. It means God chooses to act consistently with his character and plan. The sign is as much about God’s declared faithfulness as it is for human reassurance. The stability of the world rests not on human goodness, but on divine resolve.

This matters because we often assume that God’s faithfulness rises and falls with our performance. When we fail, we quietly expect the sky to darken again. But Genesis 9 insists otherwise. God’s promise comes after judgment, not because humanity proved worthy, but because God is merciful. The covenant does not deny human sin; it offers grace in return.

For Christians, this covenant is the first really good news in the Bible. It’s the first of several promises God makes with his people; they differ in specifics but they all point upward toward divine righteousness and forward toward the hope of eternity. The God who promises to sustain the world is the same God who, in Christ, bears judgment himself to secure redemption. Promises made. Promises kept.

So when storms pass and rainbows appear—or when they do not—we live by this truth: God’s faithfulness does not depend on the weather of our lives. It depends on his character. And He has already spoken.TO KNOW HIM AND MAKE HIM KNOWN!

- Pastor Brady

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question: 
Does James 2:24 contradict justification by faith?

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
Perhaps aside from the divinity of Jesus, the most important doctrine in the Christian protestant tradition is justification by faith. At its center is good news for weary sinners: God declares us righteous (he saves us!) not because of what we have done, but because of what Christ has done for us. We are forgiven, accepted, and welcomed into God’s family by the free gift of grace; our unearned reward for God’s unmerited favor.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9

Yet, when they get to James 2:24 in their New Testament reading, many believers stumble. Here’s that verse: You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. That’s the ESV. The NIV softens the language here somewhat, but conveys a similar idea: You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

How do we square James’s teaching with the other places in scripture that seems to insist that we are justified by faith, not works? In addition to that Ephesians passage, there’s Romans 3:28: For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 

How can both of these things be true?

To understand James, we must first be clear about what justification is. In the Bible, justification is a legal declaration. God, the righteous judge, declares sinners to be righteous in his sight because Christ’s righteousness is credited to them. Paul explains this beautifully: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). This declaration is received by faith - by trusting in Christ, not by performing religious deeds or moral achievements.

James is not contradicting this truth; he is addressing a different problem. Paul (in Romans and Ephesians, for example) confronts people who think they can earn God’s favor by works. James confronts people who claim to have faith but show no evidence of it in their lives. When James says that a person is “justified by works,” he is not saying that works earn salvation. He is saying that genuine faith is proven - or shown to be real - by the works it produces.

Think of faith as a living thing. True faith is not mere intellectual agreement with facts about God. James reminds us that even demons “believe” that God is God, and that fact causes them to tremble (James 2:19). Saving faith involves full trust, full allegiance, and full surrender. It unites us to Christ. And because Christ is alive, faith in him cannot remain “dead” (James 2:17). Faith that doesn’t change our lives and isn’t seen lived out in our actions isn’t faith at all. In other words, real faith produces real faithfulness.
 
James illustrates this with Abraham. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). That is justification by faith. Years later, Abraham’s faith was demonstrated when he offered Isaac on the altar (Genesis 22). James says that Abraham’s faith was “completed” by his works—not because faith was lacking, but because faith reached its visible, obedient expression. Abraham’s works did not supersede faith; they revealed it.

Pastorally, this matters deeply. Many tender consciences fear that they are not doing enough to be accepted by God. If that is you, let the beautiful truth of justification by faith bring you rest. If you are trusting in Christ - if you believe and have confessed your belief, repented of your sins, and been baptized in his name - you are already accepted. God’s verdict over your life is settled. You do not work for his love; you work from it.

At the same time, James lovingly warns us against a faith that is only words. If our profession of faith never leads to repentance, love for others, generosity, or obedience, we should pause and examine our hearts. Not to despair—but to ask whether we are truly clinging to Christ or merely to an idea of him.

In the end, Paul and James stand together, guarding the gospel from opposite errors. Paul protects us from legalism; James protects us from empty belief, from fruitless faith. Together they teach us that we are justified by faith alone—but the faith that justifies is never belief alone. It is accompanied by works, not as the root of our salvation, but as its fruit.

May this truth free you from both pride and fear, leading us to a life of grateful obedience, rooted in the grace of God and confident in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Series: Creation to Covenant - Genesis 1-11
Sermon: The Flood - Genesis 5-8:22 (2.1.26)
Watch the message HERE. 

For today’s Teaching Tuesday I want to share an article on the ark and flood story someone else wrote. This is from Peter Lee at The Gospel Coalition. It’s titled Take a Closer Look at Noah’s Ark.  

TO KNOW HIM AND MAKE HIM KNOWN!

- Pastor Brady

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
The apostle Paul writes, “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). Those words feel especially heavy as we learn of the sobering realities regarding the global church described in the ACN International Religious Freedom in the World 2025 report. For millions of Christians, faithfulness to Christ comes at a profound cost.
 
The main findings in the report include:

• Nearly two-thirds of humanity - more than 5.4 billion people - live in countries where serious religious freedom oppression is a regular occurrence.  
• 24 countries are ranked in the worst category - persecution (i.e. China, India, Nigeria, and North Korea). In 75 percent of these countries (18 out of these 24), the situation has worsened in recent years. 
• 38 countries are categorized as experiencing religious discrimination, potentially affecting more than 1.3 billion people —17.3 percent of the world’s population.

Statistics are one thing, but every number represents a name, a face, a story. A family worshiping in secret. A pastor imprisoned for preaching the gospel. A believer choosing faithfulness over safety. These are not just data on a page, they are members of the family of God - our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Scripture never promises that following Jesus will be easy. In fact, Jesus tells us plainly, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). Yet he speaks those words alongside a deeper promise: “Take heart! I have overcome the world.” The suffering of the global church does not mean God is absent. It means the gospel is alive, powerful, and often resisted.

The report reminds us that authoritarian governments, religious nationalism, and extremist violence increasingly shape our world. These forces seek to control belief, silence witness, and redefine truth. But they are not new. From Pharaoh to Caesar, from prison cells to catacombs, God’s people have always lived under pressure—and the church has often grown strongest there.

For those of us who worship freely, these realities should move us to humility and responsibility. We are called not only to gratitude, but to intercession. Hebrews (13:3) urges us to “remember those in prison as if you were together with them.” Prayer for those facing persecution for the crime of following Jesus is a holy act of solidarity. When we pray, we stand beside battered believers and declare that their suffering is not forgotten, nor is it in vain.

It is also important to remember that the religious freedom we enjoy in America is not guaranteed forever, and we should not take it for granted. The faith we hold lightly today may require deeper conviction tomorrow. The witness of persecuted Christians calls us to ask: Do we know what we believe—and why? And do we have the courage to stand by our faith when it is challenged, even threatened?

Even in the darkest places, Christ is present. His church endures. His kingdom advances, often unseen. And one day, every nation, tribe, and tongue will stand together before the throne of God.

Until that day, may we pray faithfully, live boldly, and love the global body of Christ as our own.

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Series: Creation to Covenant - Genesis 1-11
Sermon: The Fall - Genesis 4 (1.25.26)
Watch the message HERE. 

Genesis 4 is often read as a grim chapter—the first murder, the first exile, the widening fracture of human sin. Yet if we read it carefully, we find not only the reality of God’s judgment, but also the quiet persistence of his grace.

Cain and Abel bring offerings to the Lord. Abel’s is accepted; Cain’s is not. Scripture does not fully explain why, but it does show us Cain’s heart in the aftermath. When Cain burns with anger, God does not strike him down. Instead, God speaks: “Sin is crouching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” This is an act of grace. God is trying to steer Cain away from the evil intentions in his heart.
 
Cain ignores the warning and murders his brother. The consequence is severe. Cain is cursed from the ground, made restless and wandering. God does not minimize the horror of Abel’s blood crying out from the soil. Divine justice is not sentimental. God names sin for what it is and responds accordingly.

Yet even here, grace reveals itself again. Cain fears that he will be killed in vengeance, but God places a mark on him—not to shame him, but to protect him. Cain lives under judgment, yes, but also under mercy. God limits violence even as he confronts it.
 
The chapter moves on, generations pass, and violence multiplies. It would be easy to think the story ends in despair. But then, almost quietly, we meet Seth. After Abel’s death and Cain’s exile, God provides another son. Eve says, “God has appointed for me another offspring.” The text presents Seth as a sign that God’s purposes are not undone by human sin. From Seth’s line comes a renewal of faith—“At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.”

Here is the hope of Genesis 4: sin is real, and so are its consequences. God does not overlook injustice or pretend rebellion doesn’t matter. But neither does he abandon humanity to its worst impulses. God warns before he judges, protects even the guilty, and provides new beginnings where loss seems final.

This story invites us to take both truths seriously. We cannot domesticate God’s holiness or soften the weight of sin. But neither should we despair when we see our failures or the brokenness of the world. The same God who curses Cain is the God who provides Seth. Judgment is real—but grace is just as persistent, quietly carrying God’s redemptive purposes forward.

Pray
God, help me heed the warnings against sin you have provided in your Word and through your Spirit. Give me the strength to confess, repent, and turn from my sin and toward you every day. Forgive me when I don’t. Produce good fruit in me, God, that draws others to your goodness. Thank you for the death of Jesus - his perfect sacrifice - so that even sinners can be in relationship with you forever. Amen.  

TO KNOW HIM AND MAKE HIM KNOWN!

- Pastor Brady

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question: 
Is eternal conscious torment biblical? What happens to those who go to hell?

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
Last month, popular Christian actor Kirk Cameron stirred up a bit of a kerfuffle when he announced that he now holds to a theological view called annihilationism. Annihilationism is the idea that those who haven’t come to saving faith in Christ Jesus will, after judgement, ultimately be destroyed or cease to exist (be "annihilated").

Here are part of Cameron’s comments:
 
“Eternal judgment or eternal punishment doesn’t necessarily mean that we are being tormented and punished forever and every moment for eternity. It means that the punishment we deserve is irreversible. It’s permanent. It’s eternal. You’re dead. You’ve been destroyed. You have perished. You’re gone. And…you’re never coming back.”

Annihilationism differs from the idea of eternal conscious torment (ECT), which is the view held by the majority of Christians historically. ECT holds that those who haven’t come to saving faith in Christ Jesus will, after judgement, be subjected to never-ending suffering. ECT posits that souls in hell are fully aware of their existence and continuously experience physical and mental anguish with no hope of relief or end. This punishment is seen as a permanent, irrevocable separation from God's mercy and presence.

The alternative idea of annihilationism is a “great relief” to him, Cameron said, because “I don’t want to believe in conscious eternal torment for anybody, no matter how wicked they are.” He said, “If the scriptures taught it, I would believe it, because this is the Word of God. But if it doesn’t teach that, we are severely misrepresenting the character of God.”

I am sympathetic to Cameron’s point here; I don’t want to believe in something as terrible as eternal conscious torment, either. But I agree with Cameron that we aren’t to rely on what we want to be true, but what the witness of the Bible reveals to us is true. If the Bible points to ECT as the fate of the damned, we can’t just create a different theological position because it makes it feel better.
 
So, the question is, does the Bible teach ECT?

Few doctrines are as sobering—or as emotionally difficult—as the Christian teaching of hell. We rightly struggle emotionally and even logically with the idea of some kind of permanently terrible existence where lost souls experience the constant harsh reality of their rejection of God, with no possible relief.  

We recoil at the thought of everlasting judgment because we sense the weight of it. But, doctrine is not shaped by what feels bearable, but by what God has revealed. And scripture, read carefully and humbly, consistently presents final judgment as conscious, eternal, and just.

Jesus himself speaks most clearly and most frequently about hell. In Matthew 25:46, he draws a direct parallel: “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” The same Greek adjective for “eternal” —aiōnios—describes both destinies. If eternal life is unending, then eternal punishment must be as well. To argue that one is everlasting while the other is temporary fractures the symmetry of Jesus’ teaching.

Likewise, Jesus describes hell as a place “where the worms that eat you do not die, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48, echoing Isaiah 66:24). This imagery does not point to an eventual extinction, but of ongoing affliction.

The book of Revelation reinforces this. Revelation 14:11 speaks of those under judgment: “...the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” Revelation 20:15 places those not found in the book of life into that same lake of fire. The language is explicit, repetitive, and intentionally eternal.

Annihilationists often argue that words like “death,” “destruction,” and “perish” imply cessation of existence. But in scripture, these terms frequently describe ruin rather than non-being. The “lost” sheep in Luke 15 still exists. The “perishing” wineskins are not annihilated but rendered useless. Most significantly, scripture speaks of a “second death” (Revelation 20:14), which—paradoxically—occurs after resurrection. This is not the end of being, but the final state of separation from the life-giving presence of God.

At root, eternal punishment reflects the nature of sin itself. Sin is not merely the breaking of rules; it is cosmic rebellion against an infinitely holy God. The seriousness of an offense is measured not only by duration, but by the dignity of the one offended. A moment of treason against a king carries consequences far beyond the moment itself. Persistent, unrepentant rejection of God results in a settled condition—one scripture portrays as fixed (Luke 16:26).

This doctrine is not given to satisfy curiosity or stoke fear. It is given to awaken hearts. God “takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezekiel 33:11), and he has gone to unfathomable lengths to rescue sinners. The cross stands at the center of this teaching. ECT shows us not that God is cruel, but that sin is deadly and grace is costly. If judgment were ultimately trivial or temporary, the atonement - Christ’s saving work on the cross - would be diminished. But because hell is real and eternal, the gospel is urgent and glorious.

We do not maintain our belief about hell with glee, but with tears—and with hope - for the same scriptures that warn of eternal judgment also proclaim an eternal Savior, who bore wrath so that all who trust in him might never taste it.

Related resources: 
What does the Bible say about hell?
Hell as endless punishment
Why hell is integral to the gospel

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Series: Creation to Covenant - Genesis 1-11
Sermon: The Fall - Genesis 3 (1.18.26)
Watch the message HERE. 

Several years ago, Tullian Tchividjian committed the sin of adultery. While always terrible, Tullian’s sin was particularly devastating because he was the pastor of a church, Coral Ridge Presbyterian in Fort Lauderdale, Florida - a large and impactful congregation with thousands of people affected by his bad choices, to say nothing of his wife and three children. To pile on the ripple effects even more, Tullian is a grandson of Billy Graham, so this was a big, big story when it broke.

A few weeks ago, famous Christian author and speaker Philip Yancey publicly confessed his own sin of adultery. In a post of Facebook, Tullian - who has repented and is now pastoring another church - wrote this about Yancey:


Martin Luther once preached, "I beg you, join us truly great and hardboiled sinners so that you do not diminish Christ for us, who is not a Savior for imaginary or trivial sins but rather for real sins - not only small ones but great ones. You must get used to the fact that Christ is a real Savior and you are a real sinner. God does not play games or indulge in make-believe. It was no joke that he sent us his Son and gave him up for us."

We are victims of The Fall and contributors to it. But those in Christ will not remain fallen. Creation will not always groan. The cross is bloody and the tomb is empty. By grace, our sins - our real sins; our specific sins - have been forgiven. Through faith, we have been saved.

Christ Jesus has crushed the head of the devil serpent.  

TO KNOW HIM AND MAKE HIM KNOWN!

- Pastor Brady

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
In his short but provocative book Stop Reading the News, writer Rolf Dobelli makes a simple but challenging claim: constant news consumption is not making us wiser, better informed, or more engaged—it’s making us anxious, distracted, and spiritually thin.

Due to social media and the 24-hour news cycle, the amount of information we now know about people and events we have no personal or geographical connection to is overwhelming and bad for us. We were never intended to constantly worry about things halfway across the world we cannot influence or control; yet we do, and it’s harming our mental health, our relationships, and our view of the world in a way that previous generations didn’t have to contend with on anything close to the level we do.

Dobelli isn’t saying that we should ignore the world or stop caring about what happens beyond our own lives. Rather, he’s asking us to be honest about what the modern news cycle actually does to us.

The first part of his argument is this: the algorithms and news shows elevate what is unusual, dramatic, and alarming, not what is meaningful or enduring. Planes that land safely don’t make headlines. Acts of quiet faithfulness don’t trend. There’s not more scandal and corruption and awfulness than before, it’s just that we’re much more aware of it now.

For example, America is a much, much safer country in terms of violence and crime than it was 50 years ago (the U.S. averaged one bombing every four days in the 1970s!), but surveys and polls show that most people think the opposite is true. Our media consumption has severely distorted our perception of reality.

As Dobelli puts, “The news is to the mind what sugar is to the body.” Meaning, it’s immediately stimulating, briefly satisfying, and ultimately unhealthy in large doses. Over time, this steady diet trains our minds to live in a state of low-grade fear and outrage. We begin to feel like the world is always on the brink of collapse—even when, statistically, many things are improving. The result is not wisdom, but worry.

Second, Dobelli challenges the idea that staying “up to date” makes us better thinkers or better citizens. Most daily news, he argues, has very little long-term relevance. Tomorrow’s headlines replace today’s, and last month’s breaking news is soon forgotten. We spend hours absorbing fragments of information that don’t help us make better decisions, love our neighbors more deeply, or grow in Christlike character. To put it directly, following the news incessantly is spiritually de-forming.  

This kind of shallow information also crowds out deeper thinking. When we’re constantly interrupted by alerts and headlines, we lose the ability to read, reflect, and pray attentively. Dobelli notes that the news trains us to skim rather than contemplate, react rather than discern.

Third, he points out that news consumption often gives us the illusion of action. We feel informed, even morally engaged, simply by knowing what’s wrong in the world, or making a post about it on Facebook. But knowing is not the same as doing. In fact, the flood of information can leave us feeling overwhelmed and powerless—aware of many problems, but equipped to address none of them well.

Dobelli’s proposal is surprisingly practical: stop consuming daily news altogether, or at least dramatically reduce it. Replace it with things that actually shape wisdom—books, long-form writing, thoughtful conversations, and focused work. Pay attention to what directly affects your responsibilities and relationships, and let go of the rest.

For Christians, this message ought to resonate deeply. Scripture calls us to be “watchful” and “sober-minded,” not perpetually alarmed. It invites us to fix our minds on what is true, honorable, and lasting. Dobelli isn’t offering a spiritual rule, but his insight echoes an old truth: what we give our attention to shapes who we become.

In a world that profits from our distraction, choosing less noise may be an act of faith in that it causes us to more fully place our trust in God. The Bible calls Jesus the “rock” of our foundation - everything else is sinking sand.

P.S. If reduced news consumption appeals to you, I recommend subscribing to The Pour Over. It’s a news email that hits your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and highlights the most important national and international news, while offering a short Christian perspective on what’s going on. It’s calm, non-sensationalist, and less biased and partisan than any other news source I’m aware of. The Pour Over compiles just three or four of the most relevant stories each email, rather than the hectic feeds of endless “news” we get everywhere else. And it’s free! I’ve been a subscriber for a couple years now, and really like it.
 
TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Series: Creation to Covenant - Genesis 1-11
Sermon: Right Relationship - Genesis 2:7-9, 15-25 (1.11.26)
Watch the message HERE. 

“Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” That’s how the second chapter of Genesis concludes, after telling us how God created the first man and first woman and made them for each other. Before sinning against God, before hiding from God, before the shame of their choice to rebel forced God to banish them from their garden paradise, Adam and Eve were fully spiritually, emotionally, and physically, exposed before God and each other - just as life and relationships were designed to be.

Most scholars agree that Genesis 2:25 is not primarily about sexuality. Nakedness here symbolizes complete openness and vulnerability. To feel “no shame” means Adam and Eve experienced no fear of being exploited or judged, no need to hide or protect themselves, and no anxiety about how the other would respond. Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann describes this as a state of unbroken trust- nothing to conceal, nothing to defend.

Wouldn’t that be nice? This kind of relational openness is how God intended humans to be together. The first couple stood before God, before one another, and within creation without masks or defenses. They were fully known and fully loved. God made human beings for that kind of right relationship.

Our theme in Sunday’s sermon was that God created us for right relationship - with him, with each other, and with the world he made.

First, we were made for right relationship with God. In the garden, God walks with his people. There is no distance, no guilt, no need to perform or pretend. Adam and Eve don’t strive for God’s approval; they live fully confident that they already have it. Genesis 2 reminds us that intimacy with God is not something we earn—it is something we were created to enjoy. Even now, God’s desire is not mere obedience, but closeness. He invites us to come honestly, trusting that we are seen and loved.

Second, we were made for right relationship with each other. “No shame” means no fear of rejection, no competition, no blame. Adam and Eve relate in trust and mutual delight. This is God’s vision for human community. Relationships marked by grace, truth, and vulnerability reflect the heart of the Creator. Though sin fractures our relationships, the gospel moves us back toward this garden-shaped way of living: confessing, forgiving, and loving one another deeply.

Finally, we were made for right relationship with the world God made. Humanity is placed within creation to tend it, enjoy it, and care for it. When our relationships are rightly ordered—with God and each other—we also learn to live rightly within the world, not as consumers or conquerors, but as faithful stewards.

Genesis 2:25 shows us what was, and points us toward what God is restoring. As I said on Sunday, the Garden of Eden isn’t just a story about our past, it’s an invitation to our future. In Christ, shame is covered, relationships are healed, and communion with God is re-established.

As you move through today, listen for God’s gentle invitation back to right relationship—to walk with him, love others well, and receive the world as his good gift.

TO KNOW HIM AND MAKE HIM KNOWN!

- Pastor Brady

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
I can't recall where I came across this, but I like it. It's called The Christlike Creed: The Definition of a Maturing Disciple. How well does this describe you? What can you do in 2026 so that it better describes you in 2027?

THE CHRISTLIKE CREED

I am a forgiven and loved child of God.
I have been reborn in the image of Christ.
I have the Spirit of God dwelling in me.

I am a member of God’s family.
I have spiritual gifts for blessing this family.
My destiny is the community of love with God and His people.

I need the Father’s Spirit and grace to become Christlike.
I need the support of God’s family in order to grow.
I need to pray and absorb Scripture to follow Jesus.

I commit to loving and trusting God with my whole self.
I commit to setting my mind and heart on Jesus and things above.
I commit to trusting the Bible.

I commit to acknowledging and turning away from my sins.
I commit to loving and forgiving all people, including enemies.
I commit to accepting God’s healing for my shame.

I commit to surrendering to God’s will in all things.
I commit to pursuing honesty, humility, and holiness.
I commit to trusting Jesus even when life is dark or painful.

I commit to being a channel of God’s kingdom coming to earth.
I commit to walking in the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit.
I commit to blessing those in my care.

I commit to exercising discernment in all matters.
I commit to speaking words of encouragement and blessing.
I commit to building godly friendships.

I joyfully look forward to seeing Jesus in the new creation.
And being completely Christformed and rewarded.
And united in love with God and his people.
 
TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Series: Creation to Covenant - Genesis 1-11
Sermon: In His Image - Genesis 1:1-2:3 (1.4.26)
Watch the messages HERE. 

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void…” (Genesis 1:1–2).

The Hebrew words translated “formless and void” are tohu and bohu. They describe chaos, emptiness, disorder—something uninhabitable and unfinished. Before light, before land, before life itself, scripture shows us a world that is confused and unshaped.
It is into that chaos that God speaks.

Day by day, God brings order out of disorder. He separates light from darkness, waters from land, day from night. He fills what is empty and gives purpose where there was none. Again and again, God looks at what he has made and declares it “good.” Creation is not rushed; it is intentional. God forms, then fills. He brings structure, then meaning.

God is still doing that same work today. In you, if you’ll let him.
 
Many of us carry areas of tohu and bohu in our own lives—relationships that feel fractured, habits that feel unmanageable, seasons that feel confusing or empty. Sometimes we look at our inner chaos and wonder if anything good can come from it. Genesis reminds us that chaos is not a barrier to God’s work; it is often the starting point.

God does not abandon the formless and void. He enters it. His Spirit hovers over the waters, present before anything looks fixed or finished. And he begins, patiently and powerfully, to create.

If your life feels unsettled right now, take heart. God is not done. The same voice that spoke light into darkness is still speaking—bringing clarity, healing, and direction. His work in us is often gradual, sometimes messy, but always purposeful. He is forming us and filling us, shaping us into people who reflect his goodness.

Where you see chaos, God sees potential. Where you see emptiness, God sees room to create. Trust the Creator who brings beauty from tohu and bohu—and is faithfully doing so in you.

TO KNOW HIM AND MAKE HIM KNOWN!

- Pastor Brady

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
The gospel accounts of Matthew and Luke both teach us that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, and the church has broadly affirmed this as a historical event (meaning, the Bible isn’t using poetic or metaphorical language here, this is something that actually happened) for some-2,000 years since. But why does it matter? What difference does it make that the incarnation (the Son of God entering into humanity) is the result of Holy Spirit-powered conception and not traditional sexual union? 

The virgin birth matters for at least five important reasons. 

First, the virgin birth functions as a sign of divine initiative. Salvation is something God begins, not humanity. Jesus’ conception is not the result of human doing; it is a supernatural act of God. In his book What Christians Ought to Believe, Bible scholar Mike Bird highlights that the incarnation does not arise from human effort but from God stepping into history by his own power. This matters for how we think about and understand the purpose of the incarnation in the first place. The virgin birth at the beginning of Jesus’ earthly life and the resurrection and ascension at its end constitute a coherent proclamation that God’s work of salvation is, from start to finish, not a result of human achievement, but a gift of grace alone, “...so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:9). 

Second, the virgin birth serves to affirm the true identity of Jesus. Christians confess that Jesus is both fully God and fully man - one person with two natures. The virgin conception bears witness to this union. Born of Mary, he is truly human; conceived by the Holy Spirit, he is truly divine. The virgin birth does not create Jesus’ divinity - he is eternally divine - yet it publicly signals that this child was not merely another human who would become a prophet. The baby in Mary’s womb, then the manger, then the man on the cross, is the incarnation of the eternal Son of God.

Third, the virgin birth stresses that Jesus comes as the new creation. Just as God breathed life into Adam at the beginning, so the Spirit brings about a new humanity in Christ. Bird points out that early Christians saw and emphasized Jesus’ birth as the dawn of new creation life. The virgin conception is the Spirit’s creative act, announcing that through Jesus, God the Father is remaking the world. This resonates with the theological themes of regeneration and renewal, where salvation is not merely forgiveness but the beginning of new creation. As Romans 6:4 says: We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Fourth, the virgin birth underlines that Christ-as-human is untouched by the fall in Genesis 3. You can read more about the doctrine of original sin HERE, but regardless of how you understand the Bible’s presentation of human nature, inherited guilt, and the world’s fallen status, that Jesus was conceived outside of a traditional relational union between husband and wife gives us confidence that he is not marred by the moral corruption ushered into the world by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when they chose to reject God’s design for their life and give in to the serpent’s temptation. The virginal conception serves as a theological signpost that Jesus stands apart from Adam’s fallen line even as he becomes fully human to redeem it. Jesus is thus uniquely holy, not in a way that distances him from humanity, but in a way that equips him to save humanity.

Fifth, and finally, the virgin birth affirms the reliability of scripture and the unity of God’s plan. The virgin birth is implied in the Old Testament as early as Genesis 3:15, which promised that "the offspring” of the woman would be the victor over Satan and sin. The prophet Isaiah foretold this event expressly: “…the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Immanuel means “God with us.” Matthew 1:22-23 confirms that this prophecy was fulfilled in Mary. She is also called a “virgin” in Luke 1:27. So, the gospels portray Jesus’ conception and birth as a real historical miracle rooted in Old Testament expectation and fulfilled that first Christmas night. For Christians who uphold biblical reliability and authority, the virgin birth strengthens trust that God acts in history and keeps his promises.

Related resources: 
God's Power or Human Violence? The Meaning of the Virgin Birth
The Virgin Birth is More than an Incredible Occurrence
 
TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Series: Marvel (Advent 2025)
Sermon: The Marvel of the Shepherds - Luke 2:8-20 (12.14.25)
Watch the messages HERE. 

This is the poem Dad (Robert Cremeens) read during service yesterday. I love it very much, and wanted to share it with you again. It was written by Richard Wilbur and published in 1961. The poem is titled A Christmas Hymn:  

A stable-lamp is lighted
Whose glow shall wake the sky;
The stars shall bend their voices,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry,
And straw like gold shall shine;
A barn shall harbor heaven,
A stall become a shrine.

This child through David’s city
Shall ride in triumph by;
The palm shall strew its branches,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry,
Though heavy, dull, and dumb,
And lie within the roadway
To pave his kingdom come.

Yet he shall be forsaken,
And yielded up to die;
The sky shall groan and darken,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry
For stony hearts of men:
God’s blood upon the spearhead,
God’s love refused again.

But now, as at the ending,
The low is lifted high;
The stars shall bend their voices,
And every stone shall cry.
And every stone shall cry
In praises of the child
By whose descent among us
The worlds are reconciled.

TO KNOW HIM AND MAKE HIM KNOWN!

- Pastor Brady

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
During the Christmas season, our minds are rightly turned toward the person of Jesus. We think about who he is, why he came, and what he did. One of the things he did, according to his own words, was “fulfill” the law. What did he mean by that, and why does it matter for us today?

Let’s start with the text. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes a remarkable declaration: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). For centuries, Christians have wrestled with what exactly Jesus meant. Did he set the law aside? Did he replace it? Or did he complete something that the law began? Understanding this aspect of Christ’s mission helps us grasp both the unity of scripture and the nature of the gospel.

First, we need to be on the same page regarding what Jesus was referring to when he said “the Law or the Prophets.” With this language, Jesus was using a common Jewish expression that referred to the entire Hebrew scriptures - what we Christians now call the Old Testament.

Specifically, “The Law” references the Torah, the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. We generally believe Moses wrote the majority of these books. Their content includes the creation story, God’s adoption of Israel as his special, chosen people to live in the way he designed and desires all humans to live and to serve as recipients of and an example for his love, his covenant promise to save the faithful, and instructions for worship, sacrifice, and daily life. 

When we hear the word “law,” we think mostly of rules and regulations, but the Old Testament Law was more comprehensive than that - it was the core of God’s revelation and the heart of Israel’s spiritual and cultural identity.

And by “the prophets,” Jesus is referring to the long list of prophetic (foretelling, warning) writings in the Old Testament, including the major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekial, Daniel) and the twelve minor prophets (Hosea through Malachi).

These prophetic books recount Israel’s history, call the people back to faithfulness, articulate the consequences of disobedience, and point forward to God’s future redemption—including the coming of the Messiah.

Together, “the Law and the Prophets” really means the whole scripture - the whole scripture available to Jesus and his fellow Jews at that time, anyway, which is our Old Testament. When it also included the Old Testament historical writings (which Jesus may have also implied by using this shorthand), saying “the Law and the Prophets” functionally meant “everything God has revealed up to this point.” 

From that starting point, we can understand Jesus’ meaning in Matthew 5:17 to be, in essence, “I’m not here to do away with God’s design and desire; I am the perfect fulfillment of it.” 

In saying this, Jesus is claiming that he completes the story the scriptures tell, that he embodies the hopes and promises found throughout the Old Testament, and that he is the true meaning toward which all of scripture points. In short, he is the climax and culmination of God the Father’s grand narrative of redeeming the world and offering a path for reconciled relationship with him. Jesus doesn’t reject “the law and the prophets” God gave the people of Israel - he is their intended goal. 

With this new understanding, read Matthew 5:17 again: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” 

Five quick points here: 

First, “fulfill” does not mean “discard.” Jesus is clear: His mission wasn’t to nullify God’s commands. The law revealed God’s holy character, exposed human sin, and set Israel apart. These purposes weren’t mistakes or temporary glitches in God’s plan; they were foundational for his plan. Jesus didn’t come to erase the foundation but to build upon it in a way no one else could.

Second, Jesus fulfilled the law by perfectly obeying it. Where Israel failed, Jesus succeeded. Every command, every moral requirement, every obligation - he kept them all without sin. His flawless obedience makes him the true and better Israel, the faithful Son who does what God’s people never could. This means he didn’t just teach the law, he embodied it and modeled it perfectly.

Third, Jesus fulfilled the law by bringing its types and shadows to completion. The sacrificial system, the priesthood, the temple—all of these were signposts pointing forward. The blood of lambs hinted at a greater Lamb. The high priest symbolized a greater Mediator. The temple previewed a greater dwelling of God with humanity. Jesus is the substance behind every Old Testament symbol. When he came, these (fore)shadows revealed their final destination.

Fourth, Jesus fulfilled the law by revealing its fullest meaning. In Matthew 5, he repeatedly says, “You have heard… but I say to you.” He isn’t revising the law but unveiling its true depth. The law was never only about external behavior, it aimed at a transformed heart. Jesus shows that anger is the seed of murder, lust the seed of adultery, etc. In him, the law becomes not just a rulebook but a mirror reflecting God’s own righteousness.

Fifth, Jesus fulfills the law by forming a new covenant people empowered to live it out. Through his death and resurrection, baptized believers receive the Holy Spirit, who writes God’s law on their hearts. We don’t obey to earn God’s love, we obey because we already have it through Christ.

Jesus didn’t abolish the law. He fulfilled it - he filled it full - by completing its story, keeping its commands, revealing its depth, and accomplishing its goal. In him, the law becomes not a burden, but a big, beautiful arrow pointing us to the grace and glory of God.
 
TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
The word “heresy” can sound scary or threatening, conjuring up images of governments or churches burning heretics at the stake hundreds of years ago. Or it can seem irrelevant, like something belonging to dusty church history textbooks, as if all the serious controversies of faith have been ironed out. 

But understanding what heresy is (and identifying common heresies) is important for Christians in order to properly know what they believe and why (that’s why one of MCC’s core values is theological thoroughness) and avoid the pitfalls of bad theology that cause us to miss important aspects of God and our faith. 

To start, a definition: one way of defining “heresy” is a belief or teaching that contradicts the core truths and doctrines of the Christian faith. 

There are two critical components of this definition we have to hit on. 

First, it’s a belief or teaching that contradicts the core truths and doctrines of the Christian faith. Heresies aren’t variations or slightly different ways of looking at or emphasizing the central components of the faith, it is a belief or teaching that contradicts - it opposes, or denies, something that the Christian faith would not be the Christian faith without. 

Second, it’s a belief or teaching that contradicts the core truths and doctrines of the Christian faith. Heresies deny things that are essential to what Christianity is. They are big, egregious misunderstandings or false teachings about big, vitally important matters of the character of God and his plan for salvation and redemption. Heresy distorts the gospel and endangers spiritual wellbeing. Paul warns the Galatians about “a different gospel” (Gal. 1:6–9), and Jude urges believers “to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). The apostles expected the church to guard the integrity of the gospel.

Pastor and author Eugene Peterson said heresy is “a lie about God,” and that “it is wicked to tell a person a lie about God because, if we come to believe the wrong things about God, we will think the wrong things about ourselves, and we will live meanly or badly.” If that’s right, and I think it is, then false teaching isn’t just a theoretical error - it shapes how we live, how we imagine ourselves, how we treat others, our future hope, everything. 

Peterson argues that we are free in Christ, but that freedom isn’t license — it comes with a deep responsibility. Part of that responsibility is guarding how we think about God. Heresy, then, is a threat to this freedom: it misleads, enslaves, and distorts.

So, we aren’t talking about mere theological disagreements (even significant ones!) or denominational differences (even significant ones!) here. Heresies are smaller and bigger than that; they are smaller in that they are limited to a much narrower category of error, and they are bigger in that they constitute the top tier, A1, most crucial and necessary aspects of what it means to claim Christianity as true and meaningful in any real sense.

Understanding heresy matters because truth matters. The early church spent centuries wrestling with distorted teachings, not out of a desire for control, but out of a pastoral concern: false teaching leads people away from the true God and the salvation he offers in Christ. People’s souls are on the line, so nothing matters more than getting the most important things right.
 
Here are some examples of disputed matters that are not heresies: 

• The literary understanding of the creation account in Genesis and the age of the earth. Christians have long disagreed about a “literal” 24-hour, seven-day creation and the means by which God brought about this world. Denying that God created the universe is a heresy, but disagreeing about this matter of biblical interpretation and how he created it is not. 

• Continuationism vs. cessationism. In the Bible we read of the earliest Christian disciples performing miraculous deeds for the glory of Christ - speaking in tongues, physically healing people, and prophesying. Do those spiritual gifts continue today (continuationism), or did they cease with the death of that first generation of Jesus-followers and the closing of the biblical canon (cessationism)? Brothers and sisters in Christ can disagree on this and still worship together, even in the same church. 

• Premillennialism vs. amillennialism vs. postmillennialism. How Jesus will return and what will happen when he does is a matter of dispute amongst Christians between and within various denominations and traditions (even, dare I say, within Minier Christian Church!). It always has been. But, the key is to believe that Christ will return; bodily, personally, and triumphantly, to judge the living and the dead and put the final stamp on his victory over Satan and usher in the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21:1). 

These topics, and others, are important - I have opinions on them! - but notice what each of these three examples have in common: regardless of which position you take, the character of God isn’t impugned and his plan and path of salvation isn’t negated. Therefore, we’re not dealing with heresy.   

Here are some examples of actual heresies: 

• Denying that God is triune. The doctrine of the trinity is core and essential to understanding the character and activity of God. Read more about that HERE. Groups such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Unitarians reject the historic Christian doctrine of the trinity. When we get God wrong, we get everything else wrong. 

• Denying that full and simultaneous divinity and humanity of Christ. Jesus, in the flesh, fully God and fully human. 

• Denying justification by faith. God saves those who say yes to his free offer of grace. This heresy has two angles: 1) We cannot earn our salvation by being “good enough” or just kind-sorta believing, vaguely, that God exists. We have to respond the way he asks us to respond, in faith: believe, confess, repent, be baptized, follow faithfully. 2) Faith is a necessary requirement for salvation. The belief that all people will be saved regardless of faith in Christ - often called “universalism” - contradicts Jesus’ own teaching (John 14:6) and undermines the urgency of the gospel.

• Denying the authority of scripture. We may disagree about what it says at times, and we may be confused about what it says in part, but we must believe that its truths accurately reflect reality and therefore its commands and expectations for our lives are authoritative. In other words, obeying God is required, and obedience to God looks like abiding by the teachings and modeling of scripture. When scripture is treated as optional, outdated, or merely symbolic, the result is a Christianity re-imagined rather than revealed. Rejecting the authority of the Bible is usually the first step toward heresy.

• One more: prosperity theology. Promising health, wealth, and success as guaranteed outcomes of faith, the “prosperity gospel” twists biblical hope into worldly ambition. It redefines God as a means to personal gain and diminishes the centrality of the cross.

Now, notice what each of these have in common: they all meet our definition of heresy as a belief or teaching that contradicts the core truths and doctrines of the Christian faith. They tell lies about God.

Heresy is not a hobbyhorse for theologians; it’s a shepherding concern for every Christian. Knowing the truth helps us recognize counterfeits. Clarity about doctrine protects the church, strengthens faith, and preserves the gospel for future generations.

Ultimately, guarding against heresy isn’t about winning arguments - it’s about knowing and loving the God who has made himself known in Jesus Christ and has given us his Spirit in part to help us discern and practice the truth.

There’s one additional piece to hit on for a proper definition of heresy: heresy persists in deliberate opposition to biblical teaching and historic Christian consensus. Meaning, heresy isn’t an honest mistake that is repented of once brought to light, it’s the refusal to be corrected by scripture and the church. This is important. If I get something wrong in a sermon - even something essential - and am approached for correction by the elders/church members/whomever, and then the next week I go up and apologize for my mistake and clarify the true and accurate teaching, I have not committed heresy. Or, maybe I have committed heresy, but I am not a heretic. Does that make sense? Real heresy indicates a staunch insistence on non-biblical, anti-gospel, God-distorting teaching and beliefs. One-time, honest mistakes don’t qualify. Thank goodness!

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. - 2nd Peter 2:1-3

Take heresy seriously, your soul depends on it. Know what you believe, and why.
 
TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.