The Blood Thirsty Women | Pastor James Wright | TRUMPET IN THE WILDERNESS
August 29, 2026
Saturday, August 29, 2026
Controversial Hindu nationalist leader spurs protests, Mamdani denunciation ahead of NYC speech
By Associated Press
Published Aug. 28, 2026, 12:32 p.m. ET
Mamdani opposes NYC event featuring RSS leader Mohan Bhagwat
https://youtube.com/shorts/qU_8bNjLbCQ?si=Rn2NdVeAOhBuoa6n
An event Saturday in New York City, featuring the head of a Hindu nationalist group instrumental in putting India’s ruling party in power, is being met with protests, a denunciation from the city’s mayor and a call for sanctions from a US panel on religious freedom.
Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, widely considered the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is scheduled to address about 5,000 members of Indian American groups at the city’s iconic Madison Square Garden arena.
Titled “Universal Oneness Celebration,” the event is being organized by American Hindus for Engagement and Dialogue.
Published Aug. 28, 2026, 12:32 p.m. ET
Mamdani opposes NYC event featuring RSS leader Mohan Bhagwat
https://youtube.com/shorts/qU_8bNjLbCQ?si=Rn2NdVeAOhBuoa6n
An event Saturday in New York City, featuring the head of a Hindu nationalist group instrumental in putting India’s ruling party in power, is being met with protests, a denunciation from the city’s mayor and a call for sanctions from a US panel on religious freedom.
Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, widely considered the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is scheduled to address about 5,000 members of Indian American groups at the city’s iconic Madison Square Garden arena.
Titled “Universal Oneness Celebration,” the event is being organized by American Hindus for Engagement and Dialogue.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat speaks during the India International Movement to Unite Nations (IIMUN) event on Aug. 6, 2026, in Mumbai, India.AFP via Getty Images
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks at the podium during the Caribbean Heritage Reception on Aug. 28, 2026, at Gracie Mansion in Manhattan.Kevin C. Downs for NY Post
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been a polarizing figure in that country and the diaspora, emerged from the group known as RSS, a right-wing paramilitary group founded a century ago.
Critics have accused the group of promoting the political ideology of Hindutva, which means “the essence of being Hindu,” and seeks to define Indian culture and national identity in terms of Hindu values.
The party and its branches have also been accused of fostering a culture of intolerance and committing human rights violations such as mob lynchings, targeting minority places of worship and razing Muslim-owned properties with bulldozers.
This week, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani publicly declared his opposition to the event, labeling RSS ideology as exclusionary and contrary to the pluralistic views of the city.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been a polarizing figure in that country and the diaspora, emerged from the group known as RSS, a right-wing paramilitary group founded a century ago.
Critics have accused the group of promoting the political ideology of Hindutva, which means “the essence of being Hindu,” and seeks to define Indian culture and national identity in terms of Hindu values.
The party and its branches have also been accused of fostering a culture of intolerance and committing human rights violations such as mob lynchings, targeting minority places of worship and razing Muslim-owned properties with bulldozers.
This week, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani publicly declared his opposition to the event, labeling RSS ideology as exclusionary and contrary to the pluralistic views of the city.
A View of Approaching Danger
About the time that Living Temple was published, there passed before me in the night season, representations indicating that some danger was approaching, and that I must prepare for it by writing out the things God had revealed to me regarding the foundation principles of our faith. A copy of Living Temple was sent me, but it remained in my library, unread. From the light given me by the Lord, I knew that some of the sentiments advocated in the book did not bear the endorsement of God, and that they were a snare that the enemy had prepared for the last days. I thought that this would surely be discerned, and that it would not be necessary for me to say anything about it.
In the controversy that arose among our brethren regarding the teachings of this book, those in favor of giving it a wide circulation declared: “It contains the very sentiments that Sister White has been teaching.” This assertion struck right to my heart. I felt heartbroken; for I knew that this representation of the matter was not true.
Finally my son said to me, “Mother, you ought to read at least some parts of the book, that you may see whether they are in harmony with the light that God has given you.” He sat down beside me, and together we read the preface, and most of the first chapter, and also paragraphs in other chapters. As we read, I recognized the very sentiments against which I had been bidden to speak in warning during the early days of my public labors. When I first left the State of Maine, it was to go through Vermont and Massachusetts, to bear a testimony against these sentiments. Living Temple contains the alpha of these theories. I knew that the omega would follow in a little while; and I trembled for our people. I knew that I must warn our brethren and sisters not to enter into controversy over the presence and personality of God. The statements made in Living Temple in regard to this point are incorrect. The scripture used to substantiate the doctrine there set forth, is scripture misapplied.
I am compelled to speak in denial of the claim that the teachings of Living Temple can be sustained by statements from my writings. There may be in this book expressions and sentiments that are in harmony with my writings. And there may be in my writings many statements which, taken from their connection, and interpreted according to the mind of the writer of Living Temple, would seem to be in harmony with the teachings of this book. This may give apparent support to the assertion that the sentiments in Living Temple are in harmony with my writings. But God forbid that this sentiment should prevail.
Few can discern the result of entertaining the sophistries advocated by some at this time. But the Lord has lifted the curtain, and has shown me the result that would follow. The spiritualistic theories regarding the personality of God, followed to their logical conclusion, sweep away the whole Christian economy. They estimate as nothing the light that Christ came from heaven to give John to give to His people. They teach that the scenes just before us are not of sufficient importance to be given special attention. They make of no effect the truth of heavenly origin, and rob the people of God of their past experience, giving them instead a false science.
In a vision of the night I was shown distinctly that these sentiments have been looked upon by some as the grand truths that are to be brought in and made prominent at the present time. I was shown a platform, braced by solid timbers—the truths of the Word of God. Someone high in responsibility in the medical work was directing this man and that man to loosen the timbers supporting this platform. Then I heard a voice saying, “Where are the watchmen that ought to be standing on the walls of Zion? Are they asleep? This foundation was built by the Master Worker, and will stand storm and tempest. Will they permit this man to present doctrines that deny the past experience of the people of God? The time has come to take decided action.”
The enemy of souls has sought to bring in the supposition that a great reformation was to take place among Seventh-day Adventists, and that this reformation would consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith, and engaging in a process of reorganization. Were this reformation to take place, what would result? The principles of truth that God in His wisdom has given to the remnant church, would be discarded. Our religion would be changed. The fundamental principles that have sustained the work for the last fifty years would be accounted as error. A new organization would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities, and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure.
Who has authority to begin such a movement? We have our Bibles. We have our experience, attested to by the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit. We have a truth that admits of no compromise. Shall we not repudiate everything that is not in harmony with this truth?
I hesitated and delayed about the sending out of that which the Spirit of the Lord impelled me to write. I did not want to be compelled to present the misleading influence of these sophistries. But in the providence of God, the errors that have been coming in must be met.
Selected Messages Book 1, pp.202-205.
US Ambassador to the Vatican meets with Trump, Vance, Rubio
Brian Burch, co-founder of CatholicVote, is serving as the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, discussing with the U.S. political leaders this week ways to work with the Vatican on cultivating peace and religious freedom.
August 27, 2026
U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch met with President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week in Washington, D.C., according to an Aug. 27 statement from the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.
They met “to discuss how we can partner with the Holy See to promote global peace and religious freedom,” the embassy said in the statement.
Ambassador Burch meets with President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (Credit: U.S. in Holy See)
August 27, 2026
U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Brian Burch met with President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week in Washington, D.C., according to an Aug. 27 statement from the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See.
They met “to discuss how we can partner with the Holy See to promote global peace and religious freedom,” the embassy said in the statement.
Gallagher meets with Putin's advisor and strengthens his contacts with the Moscow Patriarchate
by INFOVATICANA | August 27, 2026
The representative of the Holy See discussed with Yuri Ushakov “current issues on the international agenda” and visited the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where he prayed before the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir. This Thursday, the visit focuses on the Catholic community in Russia.
The visit of Mons. Paul Richard Gallagher to Russia has included in recent hours a meeting with Yuri Ushakov, advisor to Vladimir Putin on foreign policy, and a visit to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, the main church of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Secretariat of State confirmed this Thursday Gallagher’s meeting with Ushakov, scheduled for Wednesday the 26th, and reported that both addressed “current issues on the international agenda”. No further details on the content of the conversation have been provided so far.
The meeting with one of Putin’s top advisors represents the closest contact to the Kremlin within Gallagher’s agenda during his stay in the Russian capital.
It took place after the meeting that the head of Vatican diplomacy held on Tuesday with the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov.
Read also: Gallagher to Lavrov in Moscow: “This war must end”
Gallagher visits the Cathedral of Christ the Savior
The agenda also included a new approach to the Patriarchate of Moscow, following the meeting Gallagher previously held with Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, head of external relations for the Russian Orthodox Church.
Gallagher visited the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, seat of Patriarch Kirill, accompanied by the Apostolic Nuncio to Russia, Mons. Giovanni d’Aniello.
The representative of the Holy See was received by Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, Vice-Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow.
During a visit lasting more than an hour, Gallagher toured the church and stopped to pray before the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, one of the Marian images most venerated by Russian Orthodox faithful.
The visit to the cathedral continued the contacts maintained in recent days between the Vatican delegation and the Patriarchate of Moscow.
This Thursday, the agenda focuses on the Catholic community
After the meetings with Russian authorities and contacts with the Patriarchate, Gallagher is dedicating this Thursday, August 27, the final part of his agenda in Moscow to the Catholic community.
The program includes a meeting with priests, religious brothers and sisters, and the celebration of Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Moscow.
Afterwards, the Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations is scheduled to meet with the Catholic bishops of Russia.
Gallagher’s visit, the first he has made to Russia since 2021, will conclude this Friday, August 28 with his return to Rome.
I Went No Contact with My Parents. I Regret It.
A therapist told me my mom and dad were causing all my problems—so I cut them off for five years.
In 2008, Christina Buttons took the advice from her therapist to cut off her parents completely. (Illustration by The Free Press)
By Christina Buttons
08.12.26 —Culture and Ideas
Book reviews, cultural critiques, essays on the zeitgeist, and profiles of the avant-garde.
“We have two adult children, a son aged 30 and a daughter aged 27. We are estranged from them both,” wrote a 60-year-old mom.
“Our oldest son, 27, has gone no contact with our entire family,” wrote a 57-year-old mom.
“It seems like she’s been influenced by the “no contact” movement too common in her generation, which rejects normal parents as toxic,” wrote yet another mom, this one 55, whose daughter doesn’t speak to her.
I’ve read so many messages from people who are desperately sad that their adult children don’t talk to them. That’s because I’m the editor of Tough Love with Abigail Shrier, our weekly advice column, so it’s my job to sort through the letters she gets. You ask: How do you rebuild a relationship with your son when you’ve been cut off? If your daughter’s decided you’re toxic, how do you cope with the pain?
At the heart of these questions is another, even deeper one: How could my own child reject me like this?
In her essay today, Christina Buttons answers that question—explaining why she went no contact with her parents for five years, at the age of 19, and why she’ll always regret it.
If you’re one of the many people who’s told us that your child isn’t speaking to you right now: This is proof that there’s always hope.
—Freya Sanders
***
KTFLive: Prisoners of Hope?
KTFLive: Prisoners of Hope?
Keep the Faith Ministry
Streamed live on Aug 1, 2026 KTF Live
The parallels between the ancient storm and the lessons for us today are striking. As we discuss this compelling topic, we will see amazing detail about how the flood occured from scripture and commonly understood science. Join us as we delve into this eye-opening subject.
Friday, August 28, 2026
Iran security chief threatens neighbors against economic measures,..
Image: Akbar Nemati from unsplash.com
Pastor Hal Mayer
Speaker / Director
Iran security chief threatens neighbors against economic measures, and other Mideast developments
Iran security chief threatens neighbors against economic measures, and other Mideast developments
Tuesday August 25th, 2026
AP News, by Angela Charlton: The new leader of Iran’s top security body is threatening neighbors against joining new U.S. efforts to squeeze Tehran’s economy. Egypt is trying to revive Iran-U.S. negotiations. And Iraq and Iran say Tehran has helped some ships carrying Iraqi oil to transit the Strait of Hormuz. France and Saudi Arabia are expected to discuss plans to bypass the waterway.
Meanwhile, Israel has carried out strikes in Syria and in Gaza.
Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East on Saturday. Full coverage can be found here.
Iran’s new top security adviser issues threats
The hard-line new leader of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council threatened Tehran’s neighbors against joining the new U.S. effort to hurt Iran’s economy, and accused the United States of increasing global nuclear insecurity with months of war.
“If (Trump) wants to do something, we will retaliate in a seismic manner,” he said in an interview with the state broadcaster that aired Saturday.
Mohsen Rezaei was named this month as part of senior appointments widely seen as hardening Tehran’s political and military stance. His interview with IRIB is his most extensive public statement since then.
Rezaei said Iran would target oil-shipping routes out of the Persian Gulf — alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz — if neighbors join what he described as the economic war against Iran. Those neighbors would be considered enemies and “we will target their interests,” he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump in the past week has vowed to increase Iran’s pain by imposing an “unprecedented” level of economic warfare and isolation. Iran has lived under sanctions for years.
The Tri-Abrahamic Dialogue on the Climate Crisis
August 11, 2026
Register for the second webinar of The Tri-Abrahamic Dialogue on the Climate Crisis: What Do Our Faiths Demand?, Sacred Guidance for a Planet in Crisis: A Call to Justice, Compassion, and Hope on Thursday, September 3 at 2:00 pm Central.
This dialogue will explore what key faith teachings and documents—including Laudato Si’, Laudate Deum, Al-Mizan: A Covenant for the Earth, and important Jewish teachings on creation and justice—can teach us about a just and faithful response to the climate crisis. The webinar seeks to foster a deeper understanding, shared moral responsibility, and collaborative action among Christians, Muslims, and Jews to address the urgent challenges facing our common home. This event is provided in partnership with the First Analysis Institute of Integrative Studies.
Speakers include:Imam Saffet Catovic
Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv.
Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin
Moderated by Erin Lothes.
Click here to register.
Posted in:
Blog, Climate Action, Community Events
Register for the second webinar of The Tri-Abrahamic Dialogue on the Climate Crisis: What Do Our Faiths Demand?, Sacred Guidance for a Planet in Crisis: A Call to Justice, Compassion, and Hope on Thursday, September 3 at 2:00 pm Central.
This dialogue will explore what key faith teachings and documents—including Laudato Si’, Laudate Deum, Al-Mizan: A Covenant for the Earth, and important Jewish teachings on creation and justice—can teach us about a just and faithful response to the climate crisis. The webinar seeks to foster a deeper understanding, shared moral responsibility, and collaborative action among Christians, Muslims, and Jews to address the urgent challenges facing our common home. This event is provided in partnership with the First Analysis Institute of Integrative Studies.
Speakers include:Imam Saffet Catovic
Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv.
Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin
Moderated by Erin Lothes.
Click here to register.
Posted in:
Blog, Climate Action, Community Events
Thursday, August 27, 2026
In Latin America, Democratic Socialists Are the Toast of the Party
The success of progressive candidates in the United States is inspiring leftists abroad struggling under pressure from the Trump administration and its allies.
Participants at the Panamerican Congress on Saturday in Montevideo, Uruguay.Credit...
By Jack Nicas
Photographs by Anita Pouchard Serra
Reporting from Montevideo, Uruguay
Aug. 27, 2026
Leer en español
Left-wing politicians from across the Western Hemisphere gathered in Uruguay this past weekend to lick their wounds from a string of election losses and strategize on how to counter growing aggression from the Trump administration.
There were ex-presidents and expected presidential contenders, national lawmakers and campaign strategists, best-selling authors and protest leaders. But perhaps the toast of the weekend — viewed by the group as the inspiration for a path forward — were the democratic socialists from the United States, fresh off their primary victories.
Darializa Avila Chevalier is a democratic socialist and candidate for the House in New York’s 13th Congressional District.
Those candidates — Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez of New York, Chris Rabb of Pennsylvania and Dr. Adam Hamawy of New Jersey — were all special guests at the Panamerican Congress in Montevideo, an annual meeting of leftist political leaders from across the Americas. (Dr. Hamawy identifies as progressive but not democratic socialist.)
They received a standing ovation, were asked for selfies and were repeatedly cited by fellow attendees as examples on how the left can succeed in the current political moment.
Claire Valdez, a democratic socialist assemblywoman and close ally of Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York, is a candidate for the House in the city’s 13th Congressional District.
Their victories “give us hope that if this can be fought from within, it can also be fought from the outside,” said Gabriel Boric, the former president of Chile, who was succeeded in March by a hard-right politician aligned with President Trump.
Mr. Boric, 40, a former protest leader, said the left had been failing to make the case to the working class that it was best positioned to help them, but the democratic socialists in the United States were showing they could.
“There is a tendency in our movement to constantly talk about the right and all the evils it represents, instead of convincing and giving hope to the people,” he said in an interview. “Now that debate is happening in the United States.”
Their victories “give us hope that if this can be fought from within, it can also be fought from the outside,” said Gabriel Boric, the former president of Chile, who was succeeded in March by a hard-right politician aligned with President Trump.
Mr. Boric, 40, a former protest leader, said the left had been failing to make the case to the working class that it was best positioned to help them, but the democratic socialists in the United States were showing they could.
“There is a tendency in our movement to constantly talk about the right and all the evils it represents, instead of convincing and giving hope to the people,” he said in an interview. “Now that debate is happening in the United States.”
Tech billionaire Peter Thiel takes on popes, delves into end-times theology
Peter Thiel speaks with attendees at the 2022 Converge Tech Summit in Scottsdale, Ariz. (Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore)
by Brian Fraga
Staff Reporter
July 15, 2026
In the last two weeks, the billionaire venture tech capitalist Peter Thiel has accused Pope Leo XIV of being a Chinese communist agent and insinuated in the pages of a prominent interreligious journal that Pope Francis was an Antichrist figure.
Thiel, a co-founder of Palantir and PayPal who has risen to prominence as a conservative political activist, has articulated an apocalyptic worldview that he says is consistent with traditional Christian theology but that his critics say is more aligned with Cold War-era geopolitics.
His interest in end times theology was even lampooned in the recently completed 28th season of "South Park," where Thiel was portrayed as a biblical prophecy expert, equipped with his own theme song, who speaks on the end of days to an elementary school assembly.
Thiel's stated concerns that the Antichrist will be manifested by a one-world government or by Luddites who aim to stop or slow technological progress was a subtext in several provocative comments he made at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado on June 30.
As reported by CNN, Thiel delivered a series of dire warnings and predictions about the future of artificial intelligence and the West, even accusing Pope Leo XIV of inadvertently serving as a "Chinese communist agent" because of the pontiff's calls for AI to be regulated.
According to Thiel's logic, while Leo's recent encyclical on artificial intelligence, Magnifica Humanitas, may influence American policymakers, it is unlikely that Chinese leaders will heed the document's warnings.
Thiel argued that the encyclical threatens to slow down only one side of the "race between the U.S. and China" to advance AI. Leo, Thiel surmised, is thus "working for the Chinese Communists." CNN reported that the Aspen audience responded with laughter.
While it garnered chuckles, Thiel's comments about Leo revealed a Cold War mentality taken to a new intense level, said Massimo Faggioli, a theologian and church historian at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.
Hurricane Dolly? Next tropical storm developing in Atlantic with poorly timed name
Updated: Aug. 27, 2026, 6:27 a.m.
|Published: Aug. 27, 2026, 6:26 a.m.
|Published: Aug. 27, 2026, 6:26 a.m.
Dolly Parton presents the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 23rd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
By Geoff Herbert | gherbert@syracuse.com
A new tropical storm is developing in the Atlantic that could be named, unfortunately, “Hurricane Dolly.”
WCAX reports a tropical cyclone appears likely to develop in the Atlantic basin within the next few days. The weather development is being monitored as it has a “high chance” of developing into a tropical storm or hurricane within the next two to seven days.
The storm will be named Dolly as it is the next name on the 2026 list of Atlantic hurricanes. Different names are used to identify different storms during hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.
That means Tropical Storm Dolly or Hurricane Dolly could emerge less than a week after the death of Dolly Parton. The beloved country singer, actress and philanthropist died Tuesday at age 80.
“If it becomes a hurricane, it should be a category 9 to 5,” one Facebook user joked.
“She’s going after Jolene,” another commented.
“I would prefer a star be named after her so she could sparkle down on all of us,” a third wrote.
While it may seem like unfortunate timing, “Dolly” was chosen for the list of hurricane names six years ago. The World Meteorological Organization chooses the names, which are recycled every six years.
By Geoff Herbert | gherbert@syracuse.com
A new tropical storm is developing in the Atlantic that could be named, unfortunately, “Hurricane Dolly.”
WCAX reports a tropical cyclone appears likely to develop in the Atlantic basin within the next few days. The weather development is being monitored as it has a “high chance” of developing into a tropical storm or hurricane within the next two to seven days.
The storm will be named Dolly as it is the next name on the 2026 list of Atlantic hurricanes. Different names are used to identify different storms during hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.
That means Tropical Storm Dolly or Hurricane Dolly could emerge less than a week after the death of Dolly Parton. The beloved country singer, actress and philanthropist died Tuesday at age 80.
“If it becomes a hurricane, it should be a category 9 to 5,” one Facebook user joked.
“She’s going after Jolene,” another commented.
“I would prefer a star be named after her so she could sparkle down on all of us,” a third wrote.
While it may seem like unfortunate timing, “Dolly” was chosen for the list of hurricane names six years ago. The World Meteorological Organization chooses the names, which are recycled every six years.
The Gospel We Forgot
iStock/artplus
The world needs formed, not just informed, believers.
07/21/26
John StonestreetandS. Michael Craven
In many churches, Christianity has been reduced, not necessarily to something false or heretical, but to something much smaller than it is.
Even our understanding of the church’s mission—to exalt Christ, edify believers, and evangelize the lost—are understood in ways that confine Christianity. Worship only happens on Sunday mornings. Discipleship is the acquisition of biblical knowledge or the process of becoming more moral. Evangelism is about securing decisions for Christ.
These are all good things but not the whole story. That’s why Christianity is often highly visible inside the church but largely absent from where people spend most of their lives. When faith is separated from work, worship is disconnected from vocation, discipleship unrelated to culture, and salvation irrelevant to the wider world, Christianity has been privatized.
This would have puzzled the earliest Christians. The New Testament authors constantly present Christ as not only the Savior of souls but as the Lord of heaven and earth. The Apostle Paul declared that all things were created through Him and for Him, and that in Him all things hold together. Christ’s reign extends over every square inch of reality.
If that’s true, then worship cannot be confined to a sanctuary. Worship is how we conduct our business, raise our children, care for our neighbors, create art, pursue justice, engage politics, and steward any part of creation. To exalt Christ is to live under His lordship wherever He has placed us. To disciple believers is about more than knowing Bible facts. It is about transformation.
Paul urged believers to not be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. That kind of formation reshapes not only what we think about the Bible but how we understand reality itself. It teaches us to see the world through the lens of God’s Kingdom, and to see God’s Kingdom as the reality about the world we live in.
This kind of formation is desperately needed today. After all, we’re all being discipled by something. Something is forming our loves, our habits, and our assumptions. If these things are not being shaped by the Holy Spirit through Scripture, it is being shaped by the surrounding culture. A Christian who understands justification but thinks about sexuality, identity, work, technology, politics, or human flourishing in essentially secular terms has not yet been fully formed. The Church’s task is to cultivate believers whose entire lives bear witness to the reality that Jesus Christ is Lord.
In the same way, evangelism is not a single transaction. Jesus did not command His followers to make converts. He commanded them to make disciples, teaching them to obey everything He had commanded.
The world needs formed, not just informed, believers.
07/21/26
John StonestreetandS. Michael Craven
In many churches, Christianity has been reduced, not necessarily to something false or heretical, but to something much smaller than it is.
Even our understanding of the church’s mission—to exalt Christ, edify believers, and evangelize the lost—are understood in ways that confine Christianity. Worship only happens on Sunday mornings. Discipleship is the acquisition of biblical knowledge or the process of becoming more moral. Evangelism is about securing decisions for Christ.
These are all good things but not the whole story. That’s why Christianity is often highly visible inside the church but largely absent from where people spend most of their lives. When faith is separated from work, worship is disconnected from vocation, discipleship unrelated to culture, and salvation irrelevant to the wider world, Christianity has been privatized.
This would have puzzled the earliest Christians. The New Testament authors constantly present Christ as not only the Savior of souls but as the Lord of heaven and earth. The Apostle Paul declared that all things were created through Him and for Him, and that in Him all things hold together. Christ’s reign extends over every square inch of reality.
If that’s true, then worship cannot be confined to a sanctuary. Worship is how we conduct our business, raise our children, care for our neighbors, create art, pursue justice, engage politics, and steward any part of creation. To exalt Christ is to live under His lordship wherever He has placed us. To disciple believers is about more than knowing Bible facts. It is about transformation.
Paul urged believers to not be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. That kind of formation reshapes not only what we think about the Bible but how we understand reality itself. It teaches us to see the world through the lens of God’s Kingdom, and to see God’s Kingdom as the reality about the world we live in.
This kind of formation is desperately needed today. After all, we’re all being discipled by something. Something is forming our loves, our habits, and our assumptions. If these things are not being shaped by the Holy Spirit through Scripture, it is being shaped by the surrounding culture. A Christian who understands justification but thinks about sexuality, identity, work, technology, politics, or human flourishing in essentially secular terms has not yet been fully formed. The Church’s task is to cultivate believers whose entire lives bear witness to the reality that Jesus Christ is Lord.
In the same way, evangelism is not a single transaction. Jesus did not command His followers to make converts. He commanded them to make disciples, teaching them to obey everything He had commanded.
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