Gospel.com Blog

Have you ever seen an abandoned church building?

At WebUrbanist, there’s a fascinating series of photos of abandoned church buildings, in varying states of decay and ranging from the strangely beautiful to the downright depressing. Here’s a sample:

I recently took a road trip through the American midwest and saw several abandoned-looking churches (although none as photogenic as these). I don’t believe that church buildings, simple or ornate, have any special quality of “holiness,” and so seeing these images isn’t a spiritual shock.

But they do raise questions, some of them a bit sad: what happened to the people who once worshipped here? Are they happily worshiping at another church today? What caused them to leave the church—was it theological disagreement, a slow decline in membership, collapse of the local economy? What was it like to worship in these churches for the last time?

Jeff Berryman has some poignant thoughts on these images:

Two hundred years from now, or four hundred—and I know it’s not the same for a thousand reasons—but imagine someone wandering through the ruins of the place where you worship, if you do.  What, they will wonder, went on here?  What happened?  How and why did such beauty get lost?

And of course, people are churches, many abandoned and worn down, the images of these abandoned rooms images of many spirits and souls.

What about you? Do you pass churches like these in your own town? How do these images make you feel?

The word “martyr” has been in the news quite a bit over the last few years. It’s most commonly mentioned in reference to terrorism, since terrorist groups often describe suicide bombers or slain militants as martyrs.

Occasionally, one hears of Christians, Buddhists, or adherents of other religions being martyred—typically when they’re killed by an oppressive government or angry mob because of their faith. Nearly every major religion throughout history can point to martyrs who have died rather than abandon their beliefs.

But what does it really mean, theologically speaking, to be a martyr?

A new article at Answers in Genesis delves into the topic of martyrdom, and concludes that martyrdom means something different for Christians than it does for other religions. In the days of the early Christian church, martyrdom meant something more specific than the modern idea of “somebody who dies because of their beliefs.” What makes Christian martyrdom different than, say, Buddhist or Hindu martyrdom?

The article draws on the famous story of the martyrdom of Stephen, so you might want to familiarize yourself with that Bible passage before diving into the essay.

Several weeks, there was much chatter on Christian blogs and news sites about the Codex Sinaiticus, one of the earliest ancient copies of the Bible. The excitement centered around news that the Codex Sinaiticus had been put online in its entirety. (You can take a look for yourself at the Codex Sinaiticus website.)

Now that the story has had some time to settle down, the folks at the Get Religion blog are looking back and analyzing the way the Codex Sinaiticus story was reported in the media. It interesting to see a number of errors (some of them perhaps understandable, given the somewhat esoteric nature of the story) highlighted in retrospect, and there’s plenty of evidence to support Get Religion’s ongoing thesis: that when it comes to religion stories, despite its best attempts, the media often misses out on some important details.

Happy birthday, John Calvin! 500 years ago today, the famous reformer and theologian was born in France. His preaching and writing—especially his most famous work, Institutes of the Christian Religion—have had an enormous influence on Christianity through the centuries after his death.

Here are a few interesting Calvin-related resources from the Gospel.com community and around the web:

• The Wikipedia entry on John Calvin is a good place to start.
• The sovereignty of God (on which the much-debated doctrine of predestination is based) was one of the central elements of Calvin’s theology. The Christian History Institute has a nice introduction to Calvin’s thoughts on God’s sovereignty, and an excerpt from the Institutes in which Calvin lays out his thoughts on the matter.
• Much has been written about Calvin online, but if you prefer to dive right into his original writings, you might try SermonIndex’s collection of famous John Calvin sermons in MP3. (Recorded by modern preachers, of course—alas, John Calvin himself had no iPod or MP3 player.)
• And if you’re feeling really bold, you can jump into the massive Institutes of the Christian Religion itself at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Now go enjoy your weekend. And if you figure out how to fit 500 candles onto that John Calvin birthday cake you’re baking, please send us pictures…

What springs to mind when you think of Old Testament prophets? Famous names like Samuel, Jeremiah, Elijah, and Isaiah probably stand out—they certainly play a key role in the history of Israel, and in their prophecies, judgments, and calls for repentance can be found many pointers to the eventual birth and saving work of Jesus Christ.

But these oft-quoted heavy-hitters weren’t the only prophets in the Bible. In fact, there’s a large group of ancient preachers whose stories have always lived in the shadow of the so-called “major prophets” like Isaiah and Jeremiah. Some of these “minor prophets” spoke of love and forgiveness; others of justice and repentance; all burned with a desire to see God’s people brought back into a relationship with their Creator.

There are twelve minor prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habkkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malach. How many of those names do you recognize? If you can’t remember what these prophets did, don’t feel bad! This week we’ll be looking at some of these fascinating characters. To start with, here are some overviews of these prophets, and why their ministries were anything but “minor”:

• Which prophet’s name meant “wrestler”? Which prophet was married to a prostitute? Which was famously swallowed by a whale? Uplook Ministries has a helpful two-part introduction to the minor prophets. It includes a map to show you where each of the minor prophets lived, and a short paragraph with some interesting facts about each.
• Here’s another overview of the minor prophets from a Jewish perspective. This summary talks a bit more about the historical context in which these prophets delivered their messages.
• The Bible books about the minor prophets tend to be short—some just a few chapters long—so why not try reading a few of them this week? Joel, Nahum, and Habakkuk are brief and representative. As you can see, many of their prophecies are poetic calls for justice and repentance, usually (but not always) directed at Israel.

[Painting of Elijah by Antonio Cifrondi.]

The Christian church may not be the musical trendsetter that it has been in past centuries, but the church’s “cloud of witnesses” includes several of the greatest musicians who have ever lived. Today it’s appropriate to remember one of them in particular: Felix Mendelssohn, who was born 200 years ago.

Mendelssohn was a prolific composer; chances are you’d recognize several of his works today, even if you didn’t know Mendelssohn was the composer. He was an interesting character whose reputation was heavily attacked by anti-Semite critics. Here are a few places to read up on Mendelssohn and his contributions to the field of music:

• An overview of his life at Songs and Hymns, along with an MP3 of the famous hymn “Now Thank We All Our God.”
• The NPR website has a number of excellent features on Mendelssohn and his music.
• The Mendelssohn Project aims to restore Mendelssohn’s reputation and bring many of his lost works back into the public spotlight.
• The Christian History Institute relates Mendelssohn’s efforts to revive the music of Bach, another famous Christian composer.
• And lastly, an essay about the Mendelssohn family’s Jewish heritage, and the anti-Semitic efforts to erase Mendelssohn’s music from the public square during the Nazi era in Germany.

Our last post talked about the holiday that springs to most people’s minds when they think about October 31—Halloween. But Christians have another reason to celebrate today: it’s Reformation Day! If you’re not familiar with the Protestant Reformation, today’s a perfect day to read up a bit on one of the most influential events in all of church history.

Although there’s only one Reformation Day each year, the actual Reformation was spread across many years and involved many different people—theologians, preachers, writers, and everyday Christians. The Wikipedia entry provides a good rundown of the Reformation. If you want to delve more deeply into the people and events that make up the Reformation, the Christian History Institute can help:

• There’s no question that the most famous figure of the Reformation was Martin Luther, who nailed the famous 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenburg church. He’s also famous for his defiant words when charged by the Church to recant: “Here I stand; I can do no other.”
• John Calvin was another major Reformation figure. Among other things, he “reformed” the city of Geneva, Switzerland, and his ideas continue to exert a major influence on Christianity today.
• John Hus was another early reformer who challenged the sale of indulgences by the Church. His story has a grimmer ending the some of his fellow reformers: he was burned at the stake in 1415.
• John Wyclif also preached out against unscriptural practices in the 14th century church. Church authorities were so upset by his ideas that after his death, “orders were given for his writings to be destroyed, his bones exhumed and burned, and the ashes to be thrown into the nearby river”!

The Reformation might seem like dry and boring history at first glance—but a glance at any of the above articles shows that it was a movement based around some truly fascinating individuals whose hearts burned with a desire to see the Christian church set back on a Biblical course. Read up on some of these characters—you might find yourself with a deeper appreciation for the hard work and fearless preaching that shaped the church as it exists today!

Yesterday we posted the story of Jesus’ mountaintop transfiguration. Today, let’s follow up on the Bible’s account with a short essay about the significance of the Transfiguration. This devotional from Christian History Institute explains why the event was so important in the Gospel story:

The transfiguration is a key event in Christ’s life. It confirmed that Christ must die on the cross. Three gospel writers report it. Their simple statements have the ring of truth. Later, in one of his letters, Peter referred to the event, too, reminding his readers that he was an eyewitness to Christ’s glory that day.

The transfiguration confirmed that Jesus had God’s approval and was pure. It foreshadowed Christ’s entry (and eventually every Christian’s entry) into glory.

That essay is one of CHI’s daily stories from Christian history, which walk through the entire year’s worth of noteworthy events from Christian history.

Even if you aren’t a student of church history, you may have heard of the preacher and author Charles Spurgeon—his Morning and Evening daily devotionals have stood the test of time and remain extremely popular today.

While Spurgeon was quite serious about the Gospel message he preached, he was also known for his wit and sense of humor. While browsing through the article archives at the Evangelical Press Association website, I came across an interesting article about the great value that Spurgeon placed on humor in his life and ministry:

Spurgeon laughed as often as he could. He laughed at the ironies of life, he laughed at comical incidents, he laughed at the amusing elements of nature. He sometimes laughed at his critics. He loved to share wholesome jokes with his friends and colleagues in ministry. He was known to tell humorous stories from the pulpit. [...]

Spurgeon considered humor such an integral part of his ministry that a whole chapter in his autobiography is devoted to it. Humor permeates his sermons and writings, often woven into the fabric of his messages. It’s one reason among many why he is still so readable today.

You can get a feel for Spurgeon’s wit by reading some of the many sermons and devotionals he wrote. There’s the Morning and Evening devotional mentioned above, and if you really want to get to know your Spurgeon, there are over 700 sermons by Spurgeon awaiting your perusal over at SermonIndex.

As a quick look at the Devotionals page here on Gospel.com will show you, there are a lot of good, free online devotionals out there to pick from. Different devotionals will appeal to different people—but today, we’d like to highlight a handful of devotionals that have appealed to enough people over the years that they’re now considered classics.

Take a moment to get to know these classic devotions, all available for free online reading:

• First up is the famous My Utmost for His Highest devotional series, written by Oswald Chambers. Chambers traveled the world teaching the Bible during the early 20th century, and served as a chaplain during World War I. My Utmost is his most famous work, a collection of daily inspirational messages that’s been continually in print since 1935. You can a bit more about Chambers here, and of course you can read My Utmost for yourself at RBC Ministries’ website.
• A.W. Tozer was sometimes called a “20th century prophet”—and reading his devotional series Insight for Leaders, it’s easy to see why. His messages, intended for Christian leaders of every type, whether famous or humble, are just as relevant for today’s church and community leaders as they were when he wrote them decades ago. You can read about Tozer here, and his Insight for Leaders daily messages are online at the Literature Ministries International website.
• Charles Spurgeon is another well-known, highly influential preacher and writer who lived and ministered in 19th century Britain. His Morning and Evening devotionals are unique in that each devotional is split into two parts: one to read in the morning and the other to read at night. Wikipedia has plenty of information about Spurgeon’s life and ministry, and you can check in daily to read Morning and Evening at Answers in Genesis.

These aren’t the only “classic” devotionals out there, of course, but these three have been particularly well-regarded by Christians throughout the years. If you’ve never had the pleasure of exploring these vintage spiritual insights, take a few minutes to see why they remain popular so many years after they were first written!