What Is Postmodernism?

By / Dec 10

Editor’s note: This article is part of a two-part series titled “How to Evangelize Postmodernists.” Part two is available here.

A part of every effective evangelistic strategy is rightly understanding the beliefs of those you are seeking to evangelize. Knowing what your interlocuters believe and what makes them tick, so to speak, will help you be more effective at relaying the good news of Jesus Christ. This is why missionaries seeking to reach Muslims will research Islam and the Quran, and those seeking to reach Hindus will study Hinduism and the Vedas, etc. While it is clear in Scripture that God is sovereign over salvation, we should strive to do our best to be winsome and knowledgeable about those we are seeking to reach.

Though it is not a religion per se, this is no less true for those who embrace postmodernism.  Though very few people would likely choose the label “postmodernist”[1] to describe themselves, the modern West is heavily influenced by postmodern thought. The average person on the street may not know anything about Michel Foucault and Jean-François Lyotard, but that does not mean that their ideas are not mainstream in our culture. Thus, for Christians who are trying to be faithful to reach the lost in the American context, it would be wise to learn about postmodernism so that we can more effectively engage postmodernists.

But before jumping into this topic, I want to say that there are very few original thoughts in what follows. I was greatly helped in my research by D. A. Carson[2], Douglas Groothuis[3], James Sire[4], and Sam Chan.[5] If one desires more information on postmodernism at large, all of these resources would be helpful. With that noted, let’s jump in!

What Is Postmodernism?

To rightly evangelize postmoderns, we must understand what postmodernism is. However, to understand postmodernism correctly, we must first understand what modernism is. Modernism was largely built upon the ideas of foundationalism. Foundationalism argues that knowledge is the result of understanding foundational truths that are either self-evident (those facts that are so obviously true they don’t need to be argued for or proven, i.e., the law of non-contradiction) or those that can be tested and confirmed through our senses. In other words, being rational and using logic to prove something is fundamental to foundationalism. We can make objective decisions to determine truth by using logic and reason. You may have heard the terms “rationalism” and “empiricism” before, and that is what these two “isms” are largely getting at. So, in answering the question of “How do we know something?” moderns would say, “Because our use of reason or testing/verification tells us so.”

With this in mind, let’s consider how to define postmodernism. People have differing definitions of postmodernism, and a consensus definition has not emerged. Getting a descriptive definition that is not obscure is hard to find as well. One of the easier-to-understand definitions actually comes from PBS! They define postmodernism this way: “A general and wide-ranging term which is applied to literature, art, philosophy, architecture, fiction, and cultural and literary criticism, among others. Postmodernism is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific, or objective, efforts to explain reality.”[6]

Don Carson would argue that postmodernity is largely a reaction to the epistemological certainty of modernism.[7] Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines how we know what we know. So, Carson argues that postmodernism takes great issue with how moderns are so certain that they know what they know. If you read about postmodernism more broadly, you’ll notice that most definitions argue that postmodernism is largely a critique of modernism.

What Are the Core Beliefs or Big Ideas in Postmodernism?

One of the core beliefs of postmodernism is the rejection of objective truth. Friedrich Nietzsche famously said that “God is dead.”[8] By this, Nietzsche meant that with the rise of modernism, reason, and skepticism, the traditional conception of God could not possibly be true or viable. And when God is removed from the equation, so is objective truth.

Nietzsche also pondered the essence of truth. He said, “What, then, is truth? A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms–in short, a sum of human relations, which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically…”[9] In other words, truth is not objectively there. It is described in the language in which we tell our metanarratives (more on this below), but there is nothing more truly there. If we continue to insist that we have the one true story, we are delusional. As James Sire noted commenting on Nietzsche’s thought here, “Those who hang on to their metanarrative as if it really were the master story, encompassing or explaining all other stories, are under an illusion. We can have meaning, for all these stories are more or less meaningful, but we cannot have truth.”[10] From a slightly different angle, listen to the way Douglas Groothuis describes it:

For these postmodernist thinkers, the very idea of truth has decayed and disintegrated. It is no longer something knowable by anyone who engages in the proper forms of investigation and study. Truth is not over and above us, something that can be conveyed across cultures and over time. It is inseparable from our cultural conditioning, our psychology, our race and our gender. At the end of the day, truth is simply what we, as individuals and as communities, make it to be and nothing more. Truth dissolves into a host of disconnected “truths,” all equal to each other but unrelated to one another; there is no overall, rational scheme of things.[11]

And this thought introduces another major point within postmodernism, and that is its focus on language. According to postmodernism, all language is a social or human construct. We create language systems, but language does not describe anything true necessarily. Rather, language is used for practical purposes, i.e., to get things done, and to construct “truth” for that community. Therefore, since there is no objective truth behind language, but rather pragmatism (“pragmatism” is a philosophical view that affirms theories or beliefs in terms of their practical application or their ability to get things accomplished), truth is determined by the community. If language is a communal activity and you can convince enough people to agree with you and what you say, then that is “truth” for that community.

Another focal aspect of postmodernity that is attributed to the work of Jean-Francois Lyotard, who is considered one of the founders of the movement, is an “incredulity toward metanarratives.”[12] A metanarrative is the big-picture story that defines one’s worldview. So, for Christians, we have our story which is derived from the Scriptures. Our story goes that there is a Creator God who created and sustains the world (Gen.1-2; Heb. 1:3) The disobedience of the first couple brought sin and death to His creation (Gen. 3), but He made a way for reconciliation through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son (John 3:16). And on and on. But that is our metanarrative that frames how we view all of reality.

And other people have their own metanarratives, whether they be naturalists who do not believe in the supernatural, Marxists who view all things from the lens of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the Muslim who believes the story of the Quran, etc. Postmodernists believe that no metanarrative is any better than any other. All these stories are equally valid for those people who believe them. If they work for these people, then they are validated and true (at least they are true for those who believe them).

But notice how this quickly leads to relativism. If your community believes that Jesus is God, well, He might be God for you and your community, but not for someone else or some other community who holds to Allah being God. No one’s story, in other words, is any more “true” than anyone else’s. We are all just playing language games, and if your story helps you live a more meaningful life, then good. But you have no business or authority in telling others that you have the one true story. Listen to how Sam Chan describes the implications of this:

In this way, postmodernity recognizes that knowledge is power. The one who gets to tell the story and impose it as a metanarrative upon others is playing a power game. In postmodernity, there is deep mistrust of organized religion, government, and other forms of established authority because that is exactly what authority figures do: they impose their metanarrative upon all peoples and use truth as a weapon to force people to conform to their metanarrative. That’s also why, in postmodernity, we employ a hermeneutic of suspicion upon a narrative or truth claim. We deconstruct the narrative or truth claim by asking, “What power game is this person playing?”[13]

As you have probably already discerned, this view is at the root of a lot of the social ideologies in our current culture like Critical Race Theory (CRT), Queer Theory, Fat Theory, etc.

Additionally, because language is viewed from this perspective, objective interpretation is also impossible. If truth is subject to the fancy of a community, then is there really a right and wrong way of interpretation? This is where the word “deconstruction” comes into the picture. As James Sire notes:

There is as well a problem with the stories themselves. How is the language in which they are expressed to be interpreted? Within the deconstructionist segment of postmodernism, the stories we tell ourselves and others do not have a determinate meaning. They are subject to normal misreading through lack of intelligence or basic background, or difference between the writer’s or speaker’s background or context and that of the reader or listener. There is an inherent indeterminacy to language itself. Stories all contain the seeds of self-contradiction. Texts and statements mean only what readers take them to mean.[14]

Therefore, when it comes to interpretation, authorial intent is often jettisoned. In other words, what the author meant when he wrote something is largely irrelevant. In fact, it’s impossible to recover what the author intended according to this view. This is because postmodernists, under the influence of one of the leaders named Jacques Derrida, adopt a form of a view called referentialism. Referentialism argues that there is no perfect correspondence between words and the meaning that they confer. Therefore, as Norman Geisler argues, “meaning…is ultimately untransferable between writer and reader.”[15] Now, as I will argue in part two, this view is ultimately self-defeating. Nonetheless, it is important to try to understand where they are coming from.

Without going into much more detail, a couple of other aspects of postmodernism that are worth mentioning are complexity and contradiction; postmoderns value that things are not always what they seem. They value complexity, and one of their adamant rejections is that things are never as clear or as simple as moderns often made it. Additionally, postmoderns value concrete experiences. They are not fond of abstract principles but prefer real-life experiences. They desire to define their own reality based on how they feel, what works, and what they think improves their (and others’) way of life.

By way of summary, postmodernism can be roughly defined by the following characteristics (other characteristics could be added, and these appear in no particular order):

  1. A critical nature towards rationalism and empiricism (logic and verification to discern truth).
  2. A rejection of absolute truth.
  3. “Truth” is determined by one’s community.
  4. Language is a social construct that is used for pragmatic purposes.
  5. A skepticism of metanarratives (no metanarrative is any better than any other).
  6. Knowledge is power (hence skepticism of those in power and controlling metanarratives).
  7. Objective interpretation is impossible.
  8. A valuing of the complex and a rejection of the simple.
  9. A valuing of the concrete and a rejection of the abstract.

__________

[1] Throughout this article, “postmodernist” and “postmoderns” will be used synonymously.

[2] D. A. Carson, The Gagging of God.

[3] Douglas Groothuis, Truth Decay.

[4] James Sire, The Universe Next Door.

[5] Sam Chan, Evangelism in a Skeptical World.

[6] https://www.pbs.org/faithandreason/gengloss/postm-body.html#:~:text=A%20general%20and%20wide%2Dranging,objective%2C%20efforts%20to%20explain%20reality.

[7] Carson, The Gagging of God, 57-64.

[8] Frederick Nietzsche’s writings, on multiple occasions, used the term “God is dead.” The first occurrence is found in The Gay Science (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2012), 156.

[9] Nietzsche, “On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense,” 47.

[10] Sire, The Universe Next Door, 211.

[11] Groothuis, Truth Decay, 20.

[12] Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 24.

[13] Chan, Evangelism in a Skeptical World, 111.

[14] Sire, The Universe Next Door, 213.

[15] Norman Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, 192.



Episode 10: Exercise

By / Dec 5

Paul said bodily exercise matters (though not as much as spiritual formation). But how can we incorporate a healthy practice of physical exercise into our lives in ways that actually affect our spiritual and emotional health? What is the purpose of regular exercise beyond concerns about body image or losing weight? How do we find the right balance? Or find time to exercise at all? In this episode, Jared Wilson and Ronnie Martin talk about our bodies as a stewardship from God and how commitment to regular exercise is a practice of wisdom.



The People’s Christ

By / Dec 4

Editor’s note: Excerpted from A Wondrous Mystery: Daily Advent Devotions by Charles H. Spurgeon © 2024 by editor Geoffrey Chang. Used with permission of New Growth Press. May not be reproduced without prior written permission. Available for purchase at newgrowthpress.com.

~

“I have exalted one chosen from the people.” Psalm 89:19

Our Savior Jesus Christ, I say, was chosen out of the people; but this merely respects his manhood. As “very God of very God” he was not chosen out of the people; for there was none save him. He was his Father’s only-begotten Son, “begotten of the Father before all worlds.”1 He was God’s fellow, co-equal, and co-eternal. Consequently, when we speak of Jesus as being chosen out of the people, we must speak of him as a man. We are, I conceive, too forgetful of the real manhood of our Redeemer, for a man he was to all intents and purposes, and I love to sing,

A Man there was, a real Man,

Who once on Calvary died

He was not man and God amalgamated—the two natures suffered no confusion—he was very God, without the diminution of his essence or attributes; and he was equally, verily, and truly, man.2 It is as a man I speak of Jesus this morning; and it rejoices my heart when I can view the human side of that glorious miracle of incarnation, and can deal with Jesus Christ as my brother—inhabitant of the same mortality, wrestler with the same pains and ills, companion in the march of life, and, for a little while, a fellow-sleeper in the cold chamber of death.

We have had many complaints this week, and for some weeks past, in the newspapers, concerning the upper-class families. We are governed—and, according to the firm belief of a great many of us, very badly governed—by certain aristocratic families. We are not governed by men chosen out of the people, as we ought to be; and this is a fundamental wrong in our government—that our rulers, even when elected by us, can scarcely ever be elected from us. Families, where certainly there is not a monopoly of intelligence or prudence, seems to have a patent for promotion; while a man, a commoner, a tradesman, of however good sense, cannot rise to the government. I am no politician, and I am about to preach no political sermon; but I must express my sympathy with the people, and my joy that we, as Christians, are governed by “one chosen from the people.” Jesus Christ is the people’s man; he is the people’s friend—aye, one of themselves. Though he sits high on his Father’s throne, he was “one chosen from the people.” Christ is not to be called the aristocrat’s Christ, he is not the noble’s Christ, he is not the king’s Christ; but he is “one chosen from the people.” It is this thought which cheers the hearts of the people, and ought to bind their souls in unity to Christ, and the holy faith of which he is the Founder and Perfecter (Hebrews 12:2).

Christ, by his very birth, was one of the people. True, he was born of a royal ancestry. Mary and Joseph were both of them descendants of a kingly race, but the glory had departed. A stranger sat on the throne of Judah, while the lawful heir grasped the hammer and the plane. Mark well the place of his nativity. Born in a stable—cradled in a manger where the horned oxen fed—his only bed was their fodder, and his slumbers were often broken by their lowings. He might be a prince by birth; but certainly he had not a princely retinue to wait upon him. He was not clad in purple garments, neither wrapped in embroidered clothing; the halls of kings were not trodden by his feet, the marble palaces of monarchs were not honored by his infant smiles.

Take notice of the visitors who came around his cradle. The shepherds came first of all. We never find that they lost their way. No, God guides the shepherds, and he did direct the wise men too, but they lost their way. It often happens, that while shepherds find Christ, wise men miss him. But, however, both of them came, the magi and the shepherds; both knelt round that manger, to show us that Christ was the Christ of all men; that he was not merely the Christ of the magi, but that he was the Christ of the shepherds—that he was not merely the Savior of the peasant shepherd, but also the Savior of the learned, for

None are excluded hence, but those

Who do themselves exclude;

Welcome the learned and polite,

The ignorant and rude.

Christ was chosen out of the people—that he might know our wants and sympathize with us. You know the old tale, that one half the world does not know how the other half lives, and that is very true. I believe some of the rich have no notion whatever of what the distress of the poor is. They have no idea of what it is to labor for their daily food. They have a very faint conception of what a rise in the price of bread means. They do not know anything about it; and when we put men in power who never were of the people, they do not understand the art of governing us. But our great and glorious Jesus Christ is one chosen out of the people, and therefore he knows our wants.

My brother Christian, there is no place where you can go, where Christ has not been before, sinful places alone excepted. In the dark valley of the shadow of death you may see his bloody footsteps—footprints marked with gore; ay, and even at the deep waters of the swelling Jordan, you will, when you come hard by the side, say “There are the footprints of a man: whose are they?” Stooping down, you will discern a nail-mark, and will say “Those are the footsteps of the blessed Jesus.” He has been before you; he has smoothed the way; he has entered the grave, that he might make the tomb the royal bedchamber of the ransomed race, the closet where they lay aside the garments of labor, to put on the vestments of eternal rest. In all places wherever we go, the angel of the covenant has been our forerunner. Each burden we have to carry, has once been laid on the shoulders of Immanuel.

__________

  1. Taken from the Nicene Creed
  2. Taken from the Chalcedonian Definition


Episode 292: Gospel Moms

By / Dec 4

On this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared talks with author Emily Jensen about her new book with Laura Wifler, *Gospel Mom,* and about the ins and outs of gospel-centered motherhood.



2024 For the Church Book Awards

By / Dec 2

A good book timely placed in the right hands can change the course of a life and ministry. At For the Church, we believe in the ministry of good books for the sake of the Church—which is why we’re excited to present to you the 2024 For the Church Book Awards. For our eighth annual FTC Book Awards, members of our FTC council, editorial staff, and seminary community chose two books—a winner and a runner-up—to honor and to recommend to you for the way they impacted them personally and/or offered a significant contribution to the Church and her pursuit of a gospel-centered life and ministry.

Congratulations to this year’s winners of the 2024 For the Church Book Awards!

Dr. Jason K. Allen, President of Midwestern Seminary and FTC Editor-in-Chief

Winner: The Army of God: Spurgeon’s Vision for the Church by Geoff Chang (Mentor)

“The immortal Charles Spurgeon was many things—powerful preacher, fervent evangelist, fearless apologist, prolific author, and dynamic leader all rolled into one. But at the center of his ministerial heart was, perhaps, one virtuous gifting above all else— a devoted pastor. Indeed, so many of Spurgeon’s ministry pursuits and so much of his ministry influence flowed from his primary work of shepherding the flock of God entrusted to him. Spurgeon’s heart for the local church, and the ecclesiological convictions that undergirded it, are an enduring distinctive of the great man’s ministry. That’s why the 21st century pastor will benefit from studying Spurgeon’s ecclesiological convictions and well-documented pastoral ministry. And that’s also why I’m grateful for Geoff Chang’s The Army of God: Spurgeon’s Vision for the Church, in which he sets forth, in easy-to-read format, Spurgeon’s local-church convictions and practice. I heartily commend this book to all who serve God’s people. .”

Get the book here.

Runner-Up: Mere Christian Hermeneutics: Transfiguring What It Means to Read the Bible Theologically by Kevin J. Vanhoozer (Zondervan Academic)

“Though conservative evangelicals have long affirmed the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, how to interpret Scripture remains an ongoing source of discussion and even debate. Kevin Vanhoozer’s Mere Christian Hermeneutics is a welcome contribution to this ongoing dialogue. Vanhoozer is a respected theologian and accomplished author who brings his considerable gifts to bear in this treatise on biblical interpretation. Whether you agree or disagree with Vanhoozer’s argument on reading the Bible theologically, all who seek to seriously engage the topic of biblical hermeneutics will benefit from his work.”

Get the book here.

Dr. Jason G. Duesing, Provost of Midwestern Seminary and FTC Editorial Council Member

Winner: The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien by John Hendrix (Harry N. Abrams)

This is not your typical graphic novel. Well researched and engaging, The Mythmakers tells the story of the creative imaginings that served as the bond for Lewis and Tolkien’s friendship.  Following their post-war careers in Oxford, Hendricks sheds new light on both the well known and less known aspects of the these Inklings—including even the fraying of their friendship in later years. Hendrix, a New York Times bestselling author and illustrator, serves as founding Chair of the Illustration and Visual Culture program at Washington University in St. Louis. This is a book to be read and shared—all who do will be surprised by joy.

Get the book here.

Runner-Up: Psalms in an Age of Distraction: Experiencing the Restorative Power of Biblical Poetry by Ethan C. Jones (Baker Academic)

Ethan Jones clarifies, “This is not a book about digital media.”  Indeed, it serves as a welcomed distraction from the devices that distract. This is a beautiful book about how the Psalms, as poetry, can teach, guide, shape the soul as well as shape churches. Jones, associate professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, has written articles on this idea for a few years following service as a Visting Scholar at the University of Cambridge, and I am thrilled to see it come together in book form.

Get the book here.

Camden Pulliam, Senior Vice President for Institutional Relations at Midwestern Seminary and FTC Editorial Council Member

Winner: Mere Christian Hermeneutics: Transfiguring What It Means to Read the Bible Theologically by Kevin J. Vanhoozer (Zondervan Academic)

“Most thinkers are either journalists or scholars. Journalists make complex things simple. Scholars make simple things complex. In Mere Christian Hermeneutics, Kevin Vanhoozer does both. He takes the complex biblical interpretation world and makes sense of it, while also bringing added depth and scholarship to otherwise assumed concepts (e.g. see Part 2 on defining “literal interpretation”). In this work, Vanhoozer attempts the unthinkable: a foundational hermeneutic of the Bible on which all Christians can agree. Whether he is successful, only time will tell. But in view of the fractured state of Christian hermeneutics, his attempt is welcomed with open arms. May the church and academy alike follow his lead and foster a community of readers who obey the Word unto love of God and love of neighbor.”

Get the book here.

Runner-Up: Pilgrim Prayers: Devotional Poems That Awaken Your Heart to the Goodness, Greatness, and Glory of God (Zondervan)

“While in seminary, a professor encouraged my preaching class to take up poetry to improve our preaching. Both tasks – poetry and preaching – give a sense of the significant with an eye towards style. Both tasks stir the heart and move the will. Thus, as a growing preacher myself, I was delighted to discover Tim Challies’ new book, Pilgrim Prayers. This book is filled with poem-prayers from prior generations. Each poem is accompanied with added commentary, devotional content, and Scripture reading. Whether you are a pastor hoping to improve your preaching or simply a Christ-follower looking for a new devotional, these poem-prayers will help you savor the Savior and declare his deeds. I hope you enjoy these wordy gifts as much as I have. (For a personal favorite from Challies’ selection, see “A Prayer of Confident Submission to God” authored by Christopher Newman Hall).”

Get the book here.

Jared Wilson, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry, Spurgeon College; Author in Residence, and FTC Editorial Council Member

Winner: Proclaiming Christ in a Pluralistic Age by J.I. Packer (Crossway)

“These 1978 lectures published this year for the first time stand as yet another example of the treasure the late J.I. Packer was to evangelicalism. The subjects covered—Christ’s humanity and divinity, the biblical foundations of penal substitutionary atonement, the historicity and power of Christ’s resurrection—should not be the least bit controversial in the Christian tradition, but Packer’s careful responses to the challenges to these truths (and more besides) delivered more than 40 years ago are just as relevant and vital to gospel ministry today. Few write about such depth with such clarity and humility. This book, the best I’ve read in 2024, is a beautiful refresher on gospel doctrine that will serve us all well in an age of continuing drift and distraction.”

Get the book here.

Runner-Up: A Bit of Earth: A Year in the Garden with God by Andrea Burke (Lexham Press)

“One of the greatest needs in our day of information overload is the Christian who can communicate truth in both personal and artful ways, adorning the beauty of the gospel with beautiful prose. As she reflects on her own careful cultivation of her garden in upstate New York, teacher and author (and occasional For The Church contributor) Andrea Burke’s tender and devotionally rich writing in A Bit of Earth will cultivate vital growth in your own heart. This is, quite simply, a beautiful book.”

Get the book here.

Brett Fredenberg, Director of Marketing and Content Strategy and Managing Editor of For the Church

Winner: Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway)

“Not only is Kevin DeYoung’s recent book Daily Doctrine a bulwark of truth for pastors and ministry leaders, it was a balm for my soul as well. Time would fail to mention just how broad a landscape DeYoung covers in this guide, and for fear of leaving off such important doctrines I wouldn’t dare begin to summarize. For me, the theological precision of his work on the doctrine of Christology, his biblical and historical sourcing for the doctrine of the Trinity, and his section on salvation was worth the price of the book by themselves. Many people may ask: ‘What’s the point of theology?’ Kevin DeYoung’s book responds by modeling what Andrew Bonar knew to be true: ‘Doctrine is practical, for it is that that stirs up the heart.’ Pick up this book and you’ll find yourself returning to its contents years down the road, for your own life and the life of your people.

Get the book here.

Runner-Up: To Gaze Upon God by Samuel G. Parkison  (IVP Academic)

“Hans Boersma writes in his endorsement of Parkison’s book, ‘This is easily the best primer on the beatific vision today.” In other words, this is easily the best primer today on one of the most important doctrines for the Church. The beatific vision is the Christian’s hope of seeing God face to face—a doctrine which has been forgotten for far too long. Parkison’s book gives a comprehensive treatment of the beatific vision, from its biblical basis and historical foundation to retrieval in evangelicalism and application in the Christian life, in order to raise the Christian’s eyes to a hope far above the woes and wiles of our everyday experience. Read this book and be reminded and renewed in your hope of being with your God fully as we were always meant to be.

Get the book here.

Michaela Classen, Associate Editor at For the Church

Winner: Delighting in the Old Testament: Through Christ and For Christ by Jason DeRouchie (Crossway)

“When we behold Christ, we are transformed. In Delighting in the Old Testament, Jason DeRouchie shows us Christ throughout the pages of the Old Testament, transforming our understanding of the Old Testament to see its unified storyline that points to salvation in Jesus. DeRouchie presents a thorough, biblical case, carefully showing how the Old and New Testaments work together to proclaim Christ and are rightly understood in light of Him. DeRouchie also applies this foundation to interpret Old Testament laws and promises for believers today. Though his work is an excellent resource for students, his writing is accessible to a wide audience, with clear Scripture references and helpful graphics. Delighting in the Old Testament helps Christians read their Bible and see their Savior who loved them before the foundation of the world. In this way, the book is truly for the Church.”

Get the book here.

Runner-up: Reclaiming the “Dark Ages”: How the Gospel Shone from 500 to 1500 by Iain Wright (Christian Focus)

“In no period of history has Christ abandoned His bride. Reclaiming the Dark Ages offers a testimony to that fact. Peering into the period of our history between the early church and the Protestant Reformation, a millennium often characterized as spiritually and intellectually lost, authors Iain Wright and Yannick Imbert give us a glimpse of the light of true faith enduring over the generations. Each chapter presents a biographical sketch of 10 key figures, including Boethius, Anselm of Canterbury, and John Wycliffe, and an account of each one’s contributions to theological orthodoxy. Though some readers may benefit from additional reading to fully appreciate the theological context and controversies in each figure’s story, the book is an accessible entry point to this period of Church history and an encouraging reminder of God’s faithfulness to build His Church.”

Get the book here.

Levi Moore, Manager, Sword & Trowel Bookstore and Tomlinson Cafe

Winner: Delighting in the Old Testament: Through Christ and For Christ by Jason DeRouchie (Crossway)

“Delighting in Scripture is a wonderful privilege of the disciples of Jesus Christ. The Gospels introduce sinners to their Savior, but they do not tell the whole story as to why we need a Savior. Moreover, many Christians neglect the first thirty-nine books of the Bible. DeRouchie’s work, Delighting in the Old Testament, lays out a simple and applicable method to aid the Church in taking joy in the foundational text to the New Testament. Even in the Old Testament, Jesus is made to be central to understanding the text. As such, Jesus helps us to read well, see well, hope well, and live well. With the for the Church mission in mind, this work is designed to be used by individuals and groups alike.”

Get the book here.

Runner-Up: Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide to Systematic Theology by Kevin DeYoung (Crossway)

“People are often averse to those things that are most foreign or that appear too difficult. Though doctrine may seem dense and difficult to understand, DeYoung offers an approachable explanation of systematic theology. While this work can be read straight through or used as a small reference, it is meant to be read as part of a daily devotional that breaks down deep doctrine into a page or two and avoids using complex language. This book advances the for the Church mission in helping the layman digest doctrine in a succinct and edifying way.”

Get the book here.

Once again, we would like to extend a congratulations to the authors and publishers represented in the 2024 For the Church Book Awards. You can view previous winners of the FTC Book Awards here: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017.



Episode 9: Reading

By / Nov 28

Why should reading be a priority for every pastor? How do you incorporate the need to learn and grow this way during seasons of intense busyness and lack of margin? In this episode, Jared Wilson and Ronnie Martin resume their exploration of the pastoral wisdom practices by talking about their own reading histories and habits, and how every pastor ought to invest in his ongoing development and discipline by committing to read.



Does Original Sin Still Explain the Human Condition?

By / Nov 27

The doctrine of original sin has fallen on hard times. Celebrated as more “positive” thinking, recent pop publications like Humankind: A Hopeful History propel the sirenic melodies of innate human goodness to an ever-growing audience. The past portrayal of original sin is attributed more to the 17th-century works of Thomas Hobbes than to the Bible, and the new data reveals that we are actually our best selves when we recognize our inner goodness. To many outside the church, the man-as-moral-monster bit simply doesn’t do.

However, there are also others operating within Christian culture who would say a traditional doctrine of original sin is missing the point of the Bible’s message about God’s love and grace.

So, is Christianity’s teaching about sin merely a vestige of times gone by? Is it necessary to the Bible’s message of salvation? Is there a connection between Adam’s sin and my spiritual condition? Does our theology of sin fit with a modern view of the origins of humanity?

The challenge of answering such relevant questions is the breadth of ground they cover—church history, systematic theology, biblical exegesis, philosophy, and now even genetics. However, we are not starting from the ground up in constructing our thoughts about original sin. Christians have been asking similar questions for millennia, and we are stepping into a long stream of holy reflection on what it means to be a human being in a post-Fall world—albeit, now in the 21st century.

What Is Original Sin? 

Throughout the history of the Church, there has been considerable agreement over the doctrine of universal sin. Sometimes, this concept can be confused with original sin. However, while related, the two concepts are distinct. Universal sin affirms, with passages like Romans 3:23, that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (ESV), that there is no human being that does not sin—thus, the universal aspect of the doctrine. Sometimes confusion can arise because passages that support universal sinfulness are used as proof texts for original sin (for example, Isa. 64:6). However, many Christians from various denominations would follow the clear teaching of the apostle Paul in affirming the universal impact of sin on humanity.

However, the reality of universal sin raises another question: How does sin spread universally to all humanity? This is the question the doctrine of original sin seeks to answer. What is the mechanism by which sin invades the world? A traditional understanding of the doctrine of original sin states that Adam and Eve’s transgression had a direct impact on the human race so that all of their children—as their progeny—received a fallen nature, characterized by both separation from God and a corrupted moral state. Generally, discussions of original sin begin their reflection by highlighting the writings of Augustine, who argued fervently for original sin during the fourth century A.D. in response to the optimistic anthropology of his opponent Pelagius. Recently, the argument has been made that original sin is more an Augustinian doctrine than a biblical one. Scholars propose that the church’s embrace of original sin is merely one more example of dogma directing exegesis—the church decides on its theology and then makes the Bible fit into the mold. Anyone familiar with Church history knows that such concerns are not without validity, but accusations claiming the Bible doesn’t teach original sin are inaccurate.

Origins and Original Sin

In reflecting on the Bible’s answer to how sin invades humanity, our thoughts naturally drift to the story of our first parents, Adam and Eve. Genesis 3 records how sin entered into the good world that God created, and while there is no explicit statement about how sin will be passed on to other humans, the narrative of chapters 4–11 reveals that the sin of Adam and Eve leaves an indelible stain on their progeny. Sin spreads quickly and severely. When humanity first chafes at the expressed will of God, the rebellion looks like eating a piece of fruit. However, only one generation later, the crime committed is taking the life of a fellow image-bearer. This pattern in the early chapters of the Bible continues until the narrator writes in Genesis 6:5, “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (ESV). The tidal wave of sin that overtakes humanity in these early chapters is woven together with the genealogy of Genesis 5, which demonstrates that human life is getting shorter as sin spreads—lining up with the Pauline teaching thousands of years later: Sin leads to death.

The rapid spread of sin, rebellion, disregard for God’s image, and evil in the world rightly causes us to ask: What happened to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3? Traditionally, proponents of original sin have used the language of a fallen nature to describe the impact sin had on humanity. But some critics of the doctrine have argued that a fallen nature creates problems for Christology. If human nature is now a fallen nature that brings with it moral corruption and guilt, then how can Jesus be truly human (with a fallen nature), and yet truly sinless? If He doesn’t assume a fallen nature, then how can He redeem that which He doesn’t take on?  While much reflection has been spent trying to understand the relationship between the human will and human nature, one need not assert a metaphysically transformed fallen nature in the Garden to affirm original sin. The ensuing state of moral corruption and sin that will infect every offspring of the couple flows from their spiritual, relational, and covenantal separation from the life-giving God who created them.

The punishment described in chapter 3 affirms that both the man and the woman will continue their God-given roles in the world (that is, working the soil and bearing children), but because of their sinful rebellion, these tasks will be burdensome, and eventually deadly. Later reference to the image of God in humanity (Gen. 9:6) indicates that people did not cease to be divine image bearers because of the first sin. Adam and Eve did not physically change because of sin; instead, their moral constitution was forever altered because of the severed relationship with their Creator. The narrative of Genesis 3 indicates that death entered the world because of sin and because Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden of Eden (that is, the presence of God and His provision for life in the Tree of Life). In the Garden story, death is characterized by physical mortality and separation from the life-giving Creator God.

The Old Testament and Original Sin

In agreement with some opponents of original sin, Genesis 3 does not explicitly teach that all of Adam’s children biologically inherit his sinful, fallen condition. However, the passage does teach that after the Fall the way of humans being in the world is forever redefined by mortality and separation from God—two realities that continually surface throughout the Old Testament. In Leviticus, Israel is instructed that sacrifice—that is, death—is needed to atone for the sins of the people: Sin leads to death. However, many sacrifices and ritual practices were conducted simply to address the human condition. To be a human being is to be unclean and in need of purification. Yet, even while Israel had these ritual rules to follow in order to experience God’s presence and live in relationship with Him, they repeatedly rebelled against God, worshipped idols, and committed moral atrocities revealing that the poison of sin still ran through God’s people—to the extent that Jeremiah says it is more likely for a leopard to change its spots than for Israel, who was accustomed to evil, to do good (Jer. 13:23).

Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than where the great dynastic leader David confesses in Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was brough forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” David’s words are often cited as a proof text for original sin, and they are often criticized as such as well. As a poetic reflection on his own wicked deeds toward Uriah and Bathsheba, David’s words come to us through the figurative and emotive style of poetic sorrow. While Psalm 51:5 does not necessarily prove original sin, it ably demonstrates the impact sin and wickedness continue to have on God’s chosen people—even His chosen king! The message of Psalm 51 lines up well with another Davidic psalm reflecting on the impact of sin on humanity: “They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one” (Ps. 14:3, ESV). Sin has impacted the human condition deeply and holistically. The Old Testament reveals a people who not only sin (that is, do the wrong thing), but who are a sinful people who need a circumcised heart (Deut. 30:6), a heart of flesh (Ezek. 11:19), a new heart (Ezek. 36:26), and the law of God inscribed on their heart (Jer. 31:33). Israel’s problem was the human problem—a sinful, corrupt heart that requires divine attention.

During the Second Temple period, Jewish writers espoused a view similar to original sin. Commenting on the impact of Adam’s sin on the rest of humanity, 2 Esdras 3:21–22 reads, “For the first Adam, burdened with an evil heart, transgressed and was overcome, as were also all who were descended from him. Thus, the disease become permanent; the law was in the hearts of the people along with the evil root; but what was good departed, and the evil remained.” As this passage reflects on God’s interaction with Israel in exile, it reveals that early Jews perceived the perennial sin problem that plagued their nation as rooted in the transgression of Adam.

The New Testament and Original Sin

In the Gospels, Jesus speaks clearly to the impact of sin on the human heart. In John 8:34 sin is compared to slavery, not merely committing a wrong action. One is under the power of sin and must be set free. And earlier in John 6:44, Jesus stated that “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (ESV). The consequence of original sin is a humanity that exists in perpetual enmity with God and, therefore, cannot on their own account or in their own moral ability draw near to God. Furthermore, Jesus clearly taught that the root of sin lies in the heart of human beings. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus drives His listeners to realize that the law not only exposes wrong behaviors but wrong desires. Or, as He would later say in Matthew, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matt. 15:19, ESV). As the seat of the will and desire, the heart is what must be transformed, and yet it is the one thing God’s people are powerless to do—God must act.

While the Gospels point to the heart as the root of the problem of sin, the most robust discussion of original sin is found in the Pauline Epistles. In one of the clearest depictions of the fallen condition of humanity, Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, saying:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Paul’s assessment of the Ephesian Christians before God “made them alive” in Christ was that they were spiritually dead, enslaved to the power of evil in the world, and were by nature children of wrath. According to our natural condition as descendants of Adam (not necessarily a “fallen nature”), we are born into the world hostile to God and therefore “children of wrath,” experiencing alienation from God, powerless to come to God in our own strength, nor desiring to because of our corrupt hearts.

Ephesians 2 provides a clear depiction of the fallen condition of humanity apart from the grace-filled saving work of God, but Romans 5:12 is the locus classicus for discussions about original sin. In this chapter, Paul seeks to expand on his argument in the earlier chapters of Romans by describing the universal impact of the work of Christ, as compared to the universal reality of sin and death in the world. So, while Romans 5:12 is relevant to the discussion of original sin, and I believe supports it, Romans 5:12–19 is not primarily about the mechanism of the spread of sin. Verse 12 reads, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (ESV). Douglas Moo helpfully highlights the structure and logic of the passage:

A Sin came into the world through Adam

B With sin came death

B’ Death spread to all people

A’ Because all people sinned (Moo, Romans, NIVAC, 181)

The sin of Adam is the vehicle that brings sin and death into the world, and the post-Fall reality of death spreads to all of Adam’s children “because all sin.” Some critics of original sin have argued that this passage doesn’t speak to the origins of sin at all, but only to the spread of death through sin. And, as an isolated text, it could be argued that is the case. However, it is only six verses later where Paul elaborates on his comparison between Adam and Christ and writes, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men” (Rom. 5:18, ESV). It is not a misreading of Paul to see in Romans 5 an assertion about the spread of sin to humanity through the sin of Adam.

Augustine and many “realist” interpreters since the fourth century have argued that the propagation of sin occurs because Adam’s progeny is truly in him seminally at the time of his transgression, so humanity literally sins with Adam. Others have argued more convincingly that Paul’s emphasis in Romans 5 is to present Adam as a covenantal representative that stands to shape the spiritual destiny of all who follow, in a similar way that Christ represents a new humanity for those who unite with Him by faith. In explaining the unique representative role played by both Adam and Christ, Herman Bavinck writes, “They have the human race not behind them but before them; they do not spring from it but give rise to it; they are not sustained by it but themselves sustain it; they are not the product of humankind, but are, each in his own way, the beginning and root of it, the heads of all humanity” (Reformed Dogmatics, III:106). The trespass of Adam invariably impacted all humanity by bringing about the spiritual separation between God and man that would usher in an era of mortality. It is only when the New Adam arises to establish a new humanity that the power of sin and death are overcome by the grace and mercy of God.

Conclusion

Is there one biblical passage that we can point to that clearly sets out the details of exactly how Adam’s sin impacts the rest of humanity? No, there is not. Just like we might say there is no verse in the Bible that explicitly states the doctrine of the Trinity. The formation of Christian doctrine consists of both analysis and synthesis. We always want our textual analysis to read various passages well and within their own context, but we also want to aptly synthesize the biblical text in our understanding of “what the Bible teaches.”

Is the doctrine of original sin an antiquated idea that Christians need to wake up and abandon? No. It is a biblical truth that describes the reality that human beings are not sinners because they sin; instead, they sin because they are sinners. And for sinners, while original sin is not necessarily “good news,” the reality of mankind’s inability to save himself truthfully guides us more and more into the beauty of the gospel and the saving grace of God.



Episode 291: Anticipating Advent

By / Nov 27

Every year the Christmas holiday seems to creep up and then speed past. How can we make the most out of the Christmas holiday season? In this episode of the FTC Podcast, Jared Wilson and Ross Ferguson discuss the importance of Advent and how our participation in this anticipation can help us enjoy Christmas more than we’d expected.



Interlude: Wisdom Practices of Pastor’s Wives

By / Nov 21

In this special episode of The Heart of Pastoring, Becky Wilson and Melissa Martin join their husbands to talk about some important rhythms for healthy marriages and healthy ministry partnerships between pastors and their wives. What should pastors know about their wives’ unique perspectives on ministry? What will bless the heart of the pastor’s wife? And how can the pastoral marriage be a source of joy and endurance in the ongoing wisdom practices of the pastor?



The Mystery of Godliness

By / Nov 20

Editor’s note: Excerpted from A Wondrous Mystery: Daily Advent Devotions by Charles H. Spurgeon © 2024 by editor Geoffrey Chang. Used with permission of New Growth Press. May not be reproduced without prior written permission. Available for purchase at newgrowthpress.com.

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Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh. 1 Timothy 3:16

“God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16 KJV). I believe that our version is the correct one, but the fiercest battles have been held over this sentence. It is asserted that the word Theos is a corruption for Os, so that, instead of reading “God was manifest in the flesh,” we should read, “who was manifest in the flesh.”

There is very little occasion for fighting about this matter, for if the text does not say “God was manifest in the flesh,” who does it say was manifest in the flesh? Either a man, or an angel, or a devil. Does it tell us that a man was manifest in the flesh? Assuredly that cannot be its teaching, for every man is manifest in the flesh, and there is no sense whatever in making such a statement concerning any mere man, and then calling it a mystery. Was it an angel, then? But what angel was ever manifest in the flesh? And if he were, would it be at all a mystery that he should be “seen by angels” (1 Timothy 3:16)? Is it a wonder for an angel to see an angel? Can it be that the devil was manifest in the flesh? If so, he has been “taken up in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16) which, let us hope, is not the case.

Well, if it was neither a man, nor an angel, nor a devil, who was manifest in the flesh, then surely, he must have been God; and so, if the word be not there, the sense must be there, or else nonsense. We believe that, if criticism should grind the text in a mill, it would get out of it no more and no less than the sense expressed by our grand old version. God himself was manifest in the flesh. What a mystery is this! A mystery of mysteries! God the invisible was manifest; God the spiritual dwelt in flesh; God the infinite, uncontained, boundless, was manifest in the flesh. What infinite leagues our thought must traverse between Godhead self-existent, and, therefore, full of power and self-sufficiency, before we have descended to the far-down level of poor flesh, which is as grass at its best, and dust in its essence! Where find we a greater contrast than between God and flesh, and yet the two are blended in the incarnation of the Savior. God was manifest in the flesh; truly God, not God humanized, but God as God. He was manifest in real flesh; not in manhood deified and made superhuman, but in actual flesh.

Oh joy! there sitteth in our flesh,

Upon a throne of light,

One of a human mother born,

In perfect Godhead bright!

For ever God, for ever man,

My Jesus shall endure;

And fix’d on Him, my hope remains

Eternally secure.

Matchless truth, let the church never fail to set it forth, for it is essential to the world’s salvation that this doctrine of the incarnation be made fully known.

O my brethren, since it is “great indeed,” let us sit down and feed upon it. What a miracle of condescension is here, that God should manifest himself in flesh. It needs not so much to be preached upon as to be pondered in the heart. It needs that you sit down in quiet, and consider how he who made you became like you, he who is your God became your brother man. He who is adored of angels once lay in a manger; he who feeds all living things hungered and was athirst; he who oversees all worlds as God, was, as a man, made to sleep, to suffer, and to die like yourselves. This is a statement not easily to be believed. If he had not been beheld by many witnesses, so that men handled him, looked upon him, and heard him speak, it would be a thing not readily to be accepted, that so divine a person should be manifest in flesh. It is a wonder of condescension!

And it is a marvel, too, of benediction, for God’s manifestation in human flesh conveys a thousand blessings to us. Bethlehem’s star is the morning star of hope to believers. Now man is nearest to God. Never was God manifest in angel nature, but he is manifest in flesh. Now, between poor puny man that is born of a woman, and the infinite God, there is a bond of union of the most wonderful kind. God and man in one person is the Lord Jesus Christ! This brings our manhood near to God, and by so doing it ennobles our nature, it lifts us up from the dunghill and sets us among princes; while at the same time it enriches us by endowing our manhood with all the glory of Christ Jesus in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Lift up your eyes, you down-trodden sons of man! If you be men, you have a brotherhood with Christ, and Christ is God. O you who have begun to despise yourselves and think that you are merely sent to be drudges upon earth, and slaves of sin! Lift up your heads and look for redemption in the Son of Man, who has broken the captives’ bonds. If you be believers in the Christ of God, then are you also the children of God, and if children then heirs—heirs of God—joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

What a fullness of consolation there is in this truth, as well as of benediction; for if the Son of God be man, then he understands me and will have a fellow feeling for me. He knows my unfitness to worship sometimes—he knows my tendencies to grow weary and dull my pains, my trials, and my griefs:

He knows what fierce temptations mean,

For he has felt the same.

Man, truly man, yet sitting at the right hand of the Father, you, O Savior, are the delight of my soul. Is there not the richest comfort in this for you, the people of God?