Author: Shalem John

At Christmas, the Hephzibah House on the Upper West Side looks like something out of a movie. The first level of the historic brownstone has a cozy parlor with a Christmas tree, fireplace, twinkle lights, garland running up the wooden banister to the bedrooms upstairs, and warm smells of baked goods and brewing coffee coming from the kitchen. Back in the 1920s, this was a Christian boarding house for women in New York City, where the women lived, ate, and studied the Bible together. Today it’s a Christian guest house, no longer offering long-term boarding, though photos from those days…

Twenty-five 12 and 13-year-old boys and their fathers huddled around a bonfire on a 64-degree November night in Nairobi, Kenya. They warmed themselves, ate goat meat, talked, and laughed. Their fathers prayed for them and offered them advice, readying their sons for a coming-of-age ceremony the next day. For the previous ten days, the boys had stayed together at East Africa School of Theology, Buruburu, preparing to “graduate” into manhood. As part of that preparation, a doctor came to the campus to complete their circumcisions—a long standing Kenyan rite of passage. Program organizers then spent days teaching the boys about…

Christian doctrines are like the foundation of a building. The foundation must be very strong and laid on solid rock for stability of the building. In the same manner, Christianity will become very strong, churches will grow and believers will be very faithful when their doctrine is sound and strong. The doctrine of the church also must be founded on the solid rock of Jesus Christ and on the Word of God. Careful study of the Scriptures reveals the following two facts about doctrine. First, doctrine refers to the content of the teaching. In this context it refers to the…