Here are our print features that online readers looked at most.
Here are all of CT’s 2019 cover stories from our print issues, ranked in reverse order of which ones our online readers looked at most.
Check out our 2018 and 2017 cover story rankings, too.
Why did we turn on the Jews so quickly? And what do we do about it now?
The custom of circumcising the flesh … was given to you [Jews] as a distinguishing mark…. The purpose of this was that you and only you might suffer the afflictions that are now justly yours; that only your land be desolated, and your cities ruined by fire, that the fruits of you land be eaten by strangers before your very eyes.
—Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, A.D. 138–161
We tend to think the birth of Christ was intended to be a blessing for the whole world. No question it eventually was seen as such, and rightly so. “Peace on earth and goodwill to men,” after all. But when the wise men came from the East, they were not looking for the universal savior, but only for the “king of the Jews” (Matt. 2:2).
When the priests and teachers explained to Herod that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, they quoted this verse: “And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah … a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel” (Matt. 2:6, NLT). Not the shepherd of all people. But “for my people Israel.”
The first indication of this was noted by the angel who appeared in a dream to Joseph. After announcing that his betrothed will conceive by the Holy Spirit, the angel says, “And you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). Not all people. His people. That is, the Jews.
We might expect all that in Matthew’s gospel, which seems to have been written with a Jewish readership in mind. But not in the Gospel of Luke, who is said to have Gentiles in focus when he wrote his work. Yet we read in Luke 1:16 about an angel announcing to Zechariah the coming birth of John, who ...
As a leader of an international prison ministry, I hear stories every day of people inside prison and those released that many would consider unexpected heroes.
Who do you think of when you are asked who is a hero?
You may have responded with the name of a world leader, a movie star, Superman, Captain America, or maybe you thought of a person who saved someone in a crisis such as a police officer.
Some of us may have thought of a family member or friend.
As Christians, our heroes may be those who led us to Christ, our pastor, or others in ministry who are impacting lives. While some of these may be real-life heroes, many of the true heroes are those behind the scenes who are doing courageous acts or operating with noble character.
One such group of unexpected Christian heroes comes from an unexpected location: the prisons. While 2.1 million people are currently incarcerated in the United States, there are ministries and programs that are positively changing the lives of many inmates to become productive citizens.
Many are changing because they have accepted Jesus Christ and are now working to serve the Lord and others. Nationwide, there is a positive Christian movement afoot in the many of the prisons and these men and women are getting out and making a difference in their communities.
We have people coming out from the prison systems who are now determined to make a difference in the lives of others.
Here are a few examples of these unexpected heroes:
After years of “playing it cool” with my unbelieving friends, I can tell you: It only gets weirder to talk about faith the longer you wait.
Last January, I made an unusual resolution. On New Year’s Day, like many people, I peel the plastic off a new planner and imagine its pages filled with earnest but unlikely ambitions, from reading the Bible cover to cover to praying the Examen every night. But last year, instead of changing a daily practice, I set out to change a pattern: I would begin to speak openly about my Christian faith. Doing so would require revealing my relationship with Jesus to many people outside of my church community for the first time.
I’m a resident of the “None Zone,” a title the Pacific Northwest was given nearly two decades ago thanks to a high percentage of residents that claim no affiliation with any religion. In a 2017 Gallup poll of Washington state, 47% of American adults identified as not religious compared to 33% of the general population. Seattle, in particular, is one of many progressive American cities where the cultural narrative says Christians are an anomaly at best or anti-intellectual and backward at worst.
When I made my New Year’s resolution, I had been living in Seattle for 15 years. I knew how to walk the line. If I met a non-Christian, I’d carefully consider when to reveal that I attend church. More likely than not, I wouldn’t mention it at all. When I was in grad school during that time, a friend was flummoxed to discover my Christian faith through a blog post I’d written, since I’d only talked about my Jewish family. When I did mention my faith, I would do all I could to let people know that I’m a Christian but not that kind of Christian—one that fits an urbanite’s “straw man” stereotype of evangelicals. I wanted to be the ...
We think these articles rocked. If you missed them, check them out!
Christianity Today’s work spans the spectrum from entertainment to small town pastorship, representing what affects our readers and writers throughout the year. If you haven’t seen these articles, we think you should. Check out our “in case you missed it” list from 2019:
“So whatever effect pornography is having, it isn’t enough to offset the effects of many other conservative Protestant lifestyle choices that are strongly associated with personal, marital, and sexual happiness. This lifestyle of chastity until marriage and commitment within marriage is still, in fact, the most strongly happiness-associated lifestyle in America today.”
Excerpt: “Instead of comfort, I have chosen to prize truth, in imitation of the two writers I admire most—Fyodor Dostoevsky and Flannery O’Connor. Both of them give the devil his due in order to save us from losing our souls.”
“Like Elijah, we may experience ministry failure, doubt our calling, or feel tempted to give up. But the Holy Spirit will never let us run so far that we are no longer in his presence. The gentle whisper of the Spirit is there—we can learn to listen and wait for it in hope.”
“Reading For the Life of the World reminds us that the church in North America (and beyond) has a dual problem with its academic theology: The academics are increasingly spending their time and energy on pursuits that do not enable the laity to see and understand more deeply the gospel of Christ and his power for their daily lives; and the laity, faced with such irrelevant output, are increasingly convinced that theology ...
Although the BGC Archives is open to the public and welcomes unexpected visitors, it remains one of Wheaton’s best-kept secrets.
Few visitors to the Wheaton College campus in Illinois—whether potential students and their families, attendees at college-sponsored events, or the general public—realize that the campus houses a storehouse of evangelical history at the Billy Graham Center Archives.
Named after pioneering 20th-century evangelist, Billy Graham, the BGC Archives was founded as a resource to pastors and evangelists, offering a glimpse into the development of evangelism methods and the figures who practiced them in North America from the mid-19th-century to the present.
Although the BGC Archives is open to the public and welcomes unexpected visitors, it remains one of Wheaton’s best-kept secrets.
If the staff of the Billy Graham Center Archives are used to hearing one response from visitors, Wheaton students, and even faculty, it’s this one: “I had no idea this was here!”
While the staff of the BGC Archives thrive on collecting and preserving pieces of evangelical history, the best parts of the job is introducing visitors to treasures from the archives vault—Corrie ten Boom’s baptismal certificate, Billy Sunday’s obituaries, Chuck Colson’s correspondence, or Kathryn Kuhlman’s photo albums are just a sampling of the unique items available to use at the BGC Archives.
During the recent GC2 Summit at the Billy Graham Center, pastor Rick Warren toured the BGC Archive and leafed through missionary martyr Jim Elliot’s journal from 1949 that contains his famous quote: “He is no fool who gives what cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
Since the Billy Graham Center opened in 1980, the BGC Archives has served evangelists, pastors, scholars, and the general public by ...
It is that time of year once again to reflect on some of the noteworthy books that have been published during 2019.
It is that time of year once again to reflect on some of the noteworthy books that have been published during 2019.
Nearly one million books of all kinds were published over the past 12 months by hundreds of different publishers. Still, with all of these publications, more than 25 percent of adults in this country recently indicated that they had not read a single book during this past year.
Perhaps from the list below, a few of these good people will find an inviting title to jump-start their reading patterns in 2020.
Similar to what we have done in this survey in previous years, we will provide a broad-brush overview of some of this year’s best Christian books, representing more than two dozen different publishers.
Frankly, publishers seemed to have released more quality works in 2019 than in recent years. It would have been quite easy to make this lengthy list even longer than is already the case. I am sure that I have missed good books deserving attention.
In addition, some reading this list will have their own preferences. Still, I trust you will find the list helpful. I have now been providing this list in some form for several years. I appreciate those who continue to encourage me to publish the list each year.
Biblical Studies
Readers will be blessed by James M. Houston’s and Bruce K. Waltke’s The Psalms as Christian Praise (Eerdmans). Profound insights may be found in Christopher J. H. Wright’s Knowing God through the Old Testament (IVP). I gladly recommend The Messianic Vision of the Pentateuch (IVP), by Kevin Chen. Kenneth A. Mathews has penned a careful exegetical study on Leviticus: Holy God, Holy People (Crossway).
Skepticism and the Problem of History: Criteria and Context in the Study of Christian ...
