Early Monday morning, July 20, 1925, Judge John T. Raulston decided to move the trial outside to a makeshift platform on the courthouse lawn. The courtroom floor had begun to crack under the weight of the crowds. By this time, the legal aspect of the trial was over; John T. Scopes would be convicted of teaching Darwinism in the public school. Clarence Darrow, however, America’s premier defense attorney and proud agnostic, had one more hand to play. Having lost the litigious battle, he focused his attention to winning the culture war. In a move to discredit his enemies, he […]

  John Venn was rector of Clapham Church from 1792 until his death and a friend of William Wilberforce, Henry Thornton, and Charles Simeon. He was also the first chairman of the Church Missionary Society and chaplain to the Clapham Sect, a community of believers who sought to encourage one another to live out vocationally the implications of the gospel of Christ.

9-week Ladies Bible Study starting Thursday, September 11 @ 10 AM & Monday, September 15 @ 7pm at the First Baptist Church of Perryville.

  At the height of the Second World War, D. Elton Trueblood, the Quaker intellectual, offered prescient insights about the decline of Western civilization. He argued that the stability through the rule of law to which America and Europe had become accustomed was a direct cultural product of Christianity. Noting that the Nazis repudiated the Christian worldview as their first order of business, Trueblood prophetically warned that the moral convictions of the West are not accidental; they are specifically derived from Christian distinctives.1 As the European Union has recently debated whether to acknowledge its cultural debt to the Church, Trueblood’s […]

 Os Guinness is an internationally renowned speaker and the author of numerous books, including Time for Truth, The Gravedigger File, and Long Journey Home. An Englishman, he was born in China and holds degrees from the universities of London and Oxford.

  A. W. Tozer served thirty-one years as the pastor of Chicago’s Southside Gospel Tabernacle (1928-1959), edited a Christian magazine, and was a prolific writer. Discerning the lack of true spiritual vitality within the Church of his day, Tozer dedicated his life’s work to calling the Church back to a radical obedience to Christ. Termed by many a “twentieth-century prophet,” his epitaph simply reads, “A Man of God.”

  A snapshot of the difference between the Western nation of Australia and Islamic Malaysia demonstrates radically different approaches to religious liberty. At face value the two nations share a number of common features. Both are medium-sized, with Australia having a population of 22 million and Malaysia 28 million. Both are multifaith societies. Australia’s 61% Christian majority sits alongside a non-religious minority of 22%, as well as smaller numbers of Buddhists (2.5%), Muslims (2.2%), Hindus (1.3%), and others. Malaysia’s 60% Muslim majority shares the country with Buddhists (19%), Christians (9%), Hindus (6%), and others. In effect, both societies are highly […]

  The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 1 Corinthians 15:26 (ESV) Supporters of euthanasia are trying to paint a rainbow on the Grim Reaper’s face. “Death [is] a friend to be welcomed,” said one, “not an enemy to be defeated.”1 To most people, that kind of reasoning sounds hopelessly artificial; and rightly so, for it is one of the oldest and deepest instincts of humankind to loathe and shrink from death. The thought of welcoming death as a cherished friend—this cruel inflictor of unending sorrow and horror in human experience—simply offends the human spirit. But destroying it? Now […]

  When Isaac Watts’ mother found some of his early verse and expressed doubt that he wrote it, the child immediately composed this acrostic for her: I  am a vile polluted lump of earth, S o I’ve continued ever since my birth; A lthough Jehovah grace does daily give me, A s sure this monster Satan will deceive me, C ome, therefore, Lord, from Satan’s claws relieve me. W ash me in Thy blood, O Christ, A nd grace Divine impart, T hen search and try the corners of my heart, T hat I in all things may be fit […]