Through the Spirit, we who believe are united to Christ and to one another in Christ’s body. Through the Spirit, we who believe enjoy a special communion with Christ and with the Father, along with everyone else who believes (2 Cor 13:14). As Paul clearly states, “For through [Christ] we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Eph 2:18). This is why Jesus had promised that in the day he would send his Spirit, “you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (Jn...

Without the work of the Holy Spirit, there would be no salvation. God the Spirit completes and perfects the plan of God the Father and the atonement of God the Son in the lives of God’s elect. The Spirit brings order to disordered souls. And he accomplishes all that he does through his sufficient Word. Don’t ever think that because the Holy Spirit no longer empowers individuals in extraordinary ways or gives direct revelation that he is no longer active in his divine work. No—without the Holy...

When we truly understand the Holy Spirit’s purpose in empowering individuals throughout history, it ought to lead us to one unmistakable conclusion: the Holy Spirit of God wants us to trust in Christ. Everything he has done to order God’s plan through special empowerment led to the Anointed One, Jesus the Messiah. The fact that the Holy Spirit empowered certain individuals in history ought not cause us to long for the same kind of empowerment; to do so is evidence that we misunderstand the...

Spirit-inspired revelation is both for the purpose of order and produced in an orderly fashion.

In ordering God’s creation, beautifying Israel’s tabernacle, and bringing life to the First Adam and the Last Adam, the Spirit perfects and completes God’s eternal plan in history.

We should expect the Spirit to normally work today in ways that bring order and completion to the plan and people of God.

Contemporary evangelicalism has been thoroughly Pentecostalized with the expectation that if the Holy Spirit is active and working, then we will witness extraordinary effects ranging from direct revelation, special gifting, and emotional euphoria. In addition to receiving new revelation from the Holy Spirit, many professing Christians today also believe that the Holy Spirit continues to gift believers with special abilities like healing and speaking in tongues.

One significant way the Pentecostalization of Evangelicalism reveals itself even among those who would claim to be cessationists is in common evangelical expectations regarding how God speaks to us and how he reveals his will to us. It is very common in modern evangelicalism, for example, to hear Christians talk about how God “spoke” to them, revealing his will in mystical ways outside his Word. Listen as Scott Aniol assesses this trend. Scott Aniol's...

If you were to ask the average Christian today what our expectation should be regarding how the Holy Spirit works, I believe most Christians would answer something like this: If the Holy Spirit is actively working, his work will be evidenced by some sort of extraordinary experience—intense feelings, inner promptings, miraculous gifts, or even visible manifestations. Listen as Scott Aniol explains where this expectation comes from. You can read an article version of this podcast here:...

One key reason Christians shy away from some of the psalms is the sometimes violent imprecatory language found in them. In this article, Scott Aniol explains that psalms like these are deeply rooted in confidence that God is the Sovereign King of Kings, and therefore to sing them helps form within us a hope-filled longing for the Return of the King.

Why is it so important to have our motivation right about how we live in society? Why is it important that we don’t try to motivate ourselves and others with grand ambitions of societal transformation?

When the prophet Isaiah “saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,” what he saw was the reality of God’s heavenly temple: “and the train of his robe filled the temple.” Heaven is a royal palace from which God sovereignly rules, but it is also a holy temple, filled with God’s glory.

“Our church’s worship is pretty formal, but I prefer Holy Spirit-led worship.” Such was the comment I overheard recently by a young evangelical describing his church’s worship service, illustrating a very common perception by many evangelicals today—if the Holy Spirit actively works in worship, the results will be something extraordinary, an experience “quenched” by too much form and order. A common perception, to be sure, but how grounded in Scripture is this expectation concerning the...

In order for worship to properly form God’s people as God has intended, every aspect of our worship—including our worship aesthetics, must be formed and shaped by the Word of God.

In contrast to the Reformed understanding of the regulative principle, Baptists have historically and theologically insisted upon New Testament warrant for both the substance and forms of church practice.

The immediate causes for Reformation in various regions, as well as what caused divisions among various Reformation figures, are diverse. However, much of what lay at the core of what both unified Reformers in their reaction against the Roman Catholic Church and what ended up dividing them in the end, involved theology and practice of worship. Yet what is remarkable is that some of the very same problems with worship that the Reformers criticized with medieval worship have appeared again in...

Believers from the earliest years of Christianity—especially those coming out of Judaism—struggled with how to understand the relationship between Israel’s worship, Christian worship, and the real worship of heaven. In fact, the confusion escalated to such a point that some apostatized from Christianity in favor of returning to the worship of their Jewish heritage. The book of Hebrews functions as the New Testament’s supreme answer to this fundamental problem, which was written specifically...

"Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” This ancient hymn captures three eras of worship: as it was in the beginning—the worship of Old Testament Israel, as it is now—the worship of New Testament Christianity, and worship in the world without end—the worship of heaven. In one sense separating worship into these three eras emphasizes their discontinuity; yet, while there are certainly...

Churches as formal, local institutions have been given a very specific, singular mission in this age, best articulated in the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19–20. You can read this article here.

It is very important that we carefully consider the central mission that Christ has given through his apostles for gathered New Testament churches. Listen as Scott Aniol discusses this topic. You can read an article version here.

Do you ever feel like everything around us is crumbling? You look around and wickedness seems to be everywhere, and you wonder: where is God in all this? And not only that, they're prospering! One of the core purposes of the psalms is to help us navigate this kind of reality, which has indeed been a reality for all of human history. Listen as Scott Aniol explains. You can read this essay here: https://g3min.org/if-the-foundations-are-destroyed-2/ Scott Aniol's...

Rick Warren is pushing the SBC to stop "bickering about secondary issues" like women pastors and focus on our mission. Is this a fair argument? Listen as Scott Aniol refutes Warren. You can read this essay here. Scott Aniol's blog: https://g3min.org/blogs/scott-aniol/ Article, audio,...

When it comes to the issue of whether or not women may preach and/or hold the office of pastor, it has become common to argue in favor of women preachers or women pastors on the basis of unclear texts of Scripture. However, several texts regarding the nature of pastoral ministry are clear. Listen as Scott Aniol explains. You can read this essay here. Scott Aniol's blog: https://g3min.org/blogs/scott-aniol/ Article, audio,...

What does it really mean to serve the Lord? Unfortunately, there is actually a lot of confusion about the proper answer to that question among evangelicals today. Some Christians believe that the only way to really serve the purposes and plans of God is what is sometimes referred to as “full time Christian service.” All other vocations are just “secular” and therefore are of lesser value. If you’re a farmer or a firefighter or a contractor or a computer programmer, those jobs are not really...