Making Sense of Syria
For some time I have thought about writing on the Syria conflict – a messy and bloody war that is as convoluted as it is heartbreaking. Now, following the Trump administration’s missile attacks, it is only more imperative that we…
Four Compelling Reasons to Study History
I’m excited that my newest article is published, for the first time, in The Old Schoolhouse, a magazine for home educators that comes out yearly in print and quarterly online. In this article, I address four reasons why history is beneficial to…
Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation
It has almost become a family tradition to read George Washington’s ‘Thanksgiving Proclamation.’ I hope that tomorrow you will take some time to read it, individually or with your family, as you celebrate God’s goodness over the past year! By…
A Visit to Wittenberg
Happy Reformation Day! Today, 499 years ago, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. This action touched off a spiral of events that led to the Protestant Reformation – a movement that placed…
Timeline: New Testament History
Without timelines, I find that it is nearly impossible to understand history. Timelines provide a reference point – a sort of framework or scaffolding – that allows visual learners like me to place events in their context. Timelines are also…
Book Review: The Great and Holy War
The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade, by Philip Jenkins, copyright 2014. ISBN 978-0-06-210509-7, 438 pages, four stars. Living in the secular west, most of the information that I encounter on the Great War…
Christian Mottos Through the Centuries
Great endeavors call for great mottos. Today we might call them slogans – though this sounds too commercial – but throughout history, they were known as ‘mottos.’ These are phrases with profound depth of meaning, capable of summarizing an entire…
The Mideast Conflict: A Basic Primer
Introduction “It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.” Yes, trying to summarize the Mideast crisis is – if not dirty, at least a difficult job – but someone’s gotta do it. You and I are living out our…
Four Facts about the Apocrypha
The CIA and the Apocrypha are similar. We know that both exist, and we know that both are important. But beyond this, most people don’t know much about either. We are in the dark, ignorant of, and perhaps a little…
Book Review: The Guns of August
The Guns of August, by Barbara W. Tuchman, copyright 1962. ISBN 978-0-38623-6, 640 pages, five stars. How could a seemingly civilized and settled world suddenly erupt into a bloody, four-year-long riot of mechanized massacre called the First World War? This…
