This edition is sponsored by The Pour Over
Today’s Briefing
Thousands sheltered overnight at Pepperdine University as a 3,000-acre California wildfire descended around the campus.
Joni Eareckson Tada has an idea about how to come out of despair at Christmas.
The star of Bethlehem is a zodiac killer.
A look at womanhood in the early church shows that motherhood was not a Christian’s highest calling.
A curator considers how both contemporary art and Advent make the world seem strange.
The stories behind the most famous Christmas carols.
Behind the Story
Join us tonight on YouTube at 8:00 p.m. EST for our live Christianity Today Book Awards event, featuring editor in chief Russell Moore and other CT editors.
Hear from this year’s Book of the Year winner Gavin Ortlund (What It Means to Be Protestant: The Case for an Always-Reforming Church) and Award of Merit winner Brad East (Letters to a Future Saint: Foundations of Faith for the Spiritually Hungry) about the inspiration behind their books and the big ideas that animate them as they answer questions from CT staff and subscribers.
Subscriber perk: Submit a question for Gavin or Brad, and our moderators may ask it during the event.
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This December, while the world fixates on year-end headlines and “best of” lists, thousands of Christians are finding peace in an unexpected place: their news source.
The Pour Over delivers current events with eternal perspective. Their free newsletter helps you navigate everything from politics to pop culture while keeping your eyes fixed on Christ. It’s like having a levelheaded Christian friend explain what’s happening in the world over coffee.
In Other News
- The authoritarian government of Belarus is requiring every religious organization to reregister or face liquidation. So far only one church has been approved.
- After 39 years, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has arrested a man for the 1985 murder of a Black Baptist deacon and his wife. As CT previously reported, another man spent 20 years in prison for the crime but was released after a podcast raised doubts about his guilt.
- A British soccer star is in trouble for writing “Jesus ♥ You” on his rainbow armband.
Want to be part of the next generation of global missions? Discover how indigenous missionaries with Reaching Souls International are transforming communities through the Gospel—inspiring over 1 million decisions for…
Today in Christian History
December 12, 1189: King Richard I “the Lion Hearted” leaves England on the Third Crusade to retake Jerusalem, which had fallen to Muslim general Saladin in 1187 (see issue 40: The Crusades).
in case you missed it
Advent is a time for the church to prepare to celebrate the gift of new life: Jesus, God made flesh, born of a virgin, laid in a manger. In a…
“So what are your holiday plans?” I hear that a lot in polite conversations this time of year. And invariably, after I explain that we’ll visit my husband’s parents in…
Editor’s note: All the names in the article except for Ezra Pan have been changed, as house churches are unregistered in China and Christians can face reprisals for speaking to…
Prakash Karki had every reason to be despondent. He had opened a 25-bed hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, financed by contributions to a local cooperative. But now he was in jail.…
in the magazine
As this issue hits your mailboxes after the US election and as you prepare for the holidays, it can be easy to feel lost in darkness. In this issue, you’ll read of the piercing light of Christ that illuminates the darkness of drug addiction at home and abroad, as Angela Fulton in Vietnam and Maria Baer in Portland report about Christian rehab centers. Also, Carrie McKean explores the complicated path of estrangement and Brad East explains the doctrine of providence. Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt shows us how art surprises, delights, and retools our imagination for the Incarnation, while Jeremy Treat reminds us of an ancient African bishop’s teachings about Immanuel. Finally, may you be surprised by the nearness of the “Winter Child,” whom poet Malcolm Guite guides us enticingly toward. Happy Advent and Merry Christmas.
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