The Pugnacious Pilgrim Podcast

“God is none other than the Savior of our wretchedness. So we can only know God well by knowing our iniquities… Those who have known God without knowing their wretchedness have not glorified Him, but have glorified themselves.” | Blaise Pascal Because of sin, a man will often be tempted to pursue the fleeting joy which comes from building his name and his reputation in the eyes and perception of o...

“What right do we have to make God out to be Someone other than He really is in order to make people like Him more? Honor God by declaring the truth about Him.” Jim Elliff Pilgrims, the longer deeper our culture moves into godlessness, the more desperate the need becomes for truth. The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news, for those who are willing to listen to the voice of God and acknowledge thei...

In God’s divine design, every “biological family” when converted to Christ becomes the “church in miniature”… And as these families mature and reflect the fullness of Christ, they become strong building blocks. | Gene Getz The traditional family is under attack. The disruption of the traditional "nuclear" family has been a major initiative for progressive groups like Black Lives Matter and many ot...

Latasha Morrison (a prominent antiracism author) defines racism as “a system of advantage based on race, involving cultural messages, misuse of power, and institutional bias, in addition to the racist beliefs and actions of individuals.” It is important to note that this redefinition of racism, among other things, changes the location and therefore the nature of the sin. We are no longer dealing w...

“Accountability. A word leaders start to use right before the scapegoating begins”. | Author Unknown There is a reason we hear so much about accountability in politics. It’s not because those we’ve sent to Washington, D.C. to serve us see a high value in holding themselves to the highest standards of morality and ethics. On the contrary, our representatives are frequently responsible for some of t...

Christian nationalism demands Christianity be privileged by the State and implies that to be a good American, one must be Christian. It often overlaps with and provides cover for white supremacy and racial subjugation. We reject this damaging political ideology and invite our Christian brothers and sisters to join us in opposing this threat to our faith and to our nation. | Signed: Tony Campolo -...

“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right”. | President Abraham Lincoln A nation without God is a nation without a future. More specifically, a nation without Christ is a nation with no hope; regardless how important, influential, or imperialistic that nation may be. Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples, asked him “how can we know...

Christian nationalism demands Christianity be privileged by the State and implies that to be a good American, one must be Christian. It often overlaps with and provides cover for white supremacy and racial subjugation. We reject this damaging political ideology and invite our Christian brothers and sisters to join us in opposing this threat to our faith and to our nation. | Signed: Tony Campolo -...

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” | C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory,...

Pilgrims, the bible isn’t primarily about men being masculine or women being feminine. The Bible is primarily about God. Faithful Christians, throughout the history of the church, have held to the conviction that man’s chief end is to glorify God and fully enjoy him forever. One way that this happens is when men and women live into the God-exalting and joy-invoking realities of Biblical manhood an...

“In large part the feminists have had all the victories they have had because Christians have not been thinking carefully about the issues, and we have just jumped on board with some stuff that we really never should have”. | Rebekah Merkle – Eve in Exile Pilgrims, few things cause the kind of controversy or conflicts—within Christendom today—as the theology of Biblical womanhood and the roles for...

"It is always improper to intentionally offend anyone; and if someone is offended by your actions or words, they are not necessarily right." | RJ Intindola – (Gandolfo) – 1981 Pilgrims, you have the right to be offended, or do you? American culture certainly wants you to believe you do. If anyone says or does anything that you find offensive, especially if they hold to conservative or Christian va...

"[Birth Control]...these two words sum up our whole philosophy... It means the release and cultivation of the better elements in our society, and the gradual suppression, elimination and eventual extinction, of defective stocks -- those human weeds which threaten the blooming of the finest flowers of American civilization." -- Margaret Sanger, (Founder of Planned Parenthood) "High Lights in the Hi...

As the culture war continue in America, there will be victories which Christians find to be worthy of praise. But there are people—both inside and outside the Church—who believe it is not Christlike for Christians to publicly celebrate and rejoice in these victories. What is the right course of action for a Christian to take, when something praiseworthy occurs within culture that leaves others fee...

Before heading to prison—and ultimately his execution—the Apostle Paul, Speaking to the elders of the Church in Ephesus, admonished them in this way: 26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you...

In an article written in February 1944, George Orwell said the following: "In the last analysis our only claim to victory is that if we win the war we shall tell fewer lies about it than our adversaries. The really frightening thing about totalitarianism is not that it commits "atrocities" but that it attacks the concept of objective truth; it claims to control the past as well as the future." Whe...

Weighing in on the civic virtue of Christians owning guns, Douglas Wilson said, “Gun control is something that tyrants always want. When political rulers are eager to disarm the general populace, it is not paranoia to suspect that other issues are in play. When those political rulers are overbearing, what power-grabber worth his salt wouldn’t want strict gun control? What lover of liberty would ev...

In his book, titled, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment, Tim Challies wrote, “Discernment functions as the church’s immune system, protecting the body from false teaching. When discernment is attacked and destroyed, a flood of opportunistic false teaching is waiting to attack through the weakened defenses. Nobody dies from lack of discernment or by not believing in discernment. Rather, a lack...

Hello Pilgrims and welcome back to the podcast. Compassion is one of the most effective tools in all of Evangelism. When Christians are willing to share in the burdens of others, in tangible and palpable ways, the world is invited to look at their good works and give glory to God. Jesus demonstrated compassion throughout his life and ministry. One of the clearest examples of this is when the scrib...

Hello Pilgrims and welcome back to the podcast. Shame is man's natural reaction to sin. Guilt is man's natural reaction to shame. Repentance is man's natural response to guilt. Reconciliation is God's merciful response to man's repentance. If any of these things are removed—whether it be for comfort or convenience—man's ability to be reconciled to God is mortally wounded. Pilgrims, many people tod...

Hello Pilgrims and welcome back to the podcast. In his book, The Practice of Godliness, Jerry Bridges wrote: “Both gentleness and meekness are born of power, not weakness. There is a pseudo-gentleness that is effeminate, and there is a pseudo-meekness that is cowardly. But a Christian is to be gentle and meek because those are Godlike virtues… We should never be afraid, therefore, that the gentlen...

Hello Pilgrims and welcome back to the podcast. Gene Edward Veith once said, “True Christianity…resists cultural captivity. It posits a transcendent moral law that is above and beyond human laws and customs, giving a framework by which cultures can be judged. In doing so, trans-cultural Christianity has managed to shape and transform human cultures.” Pilgrims, many of us live in a state of confusi...

Hello Pilgrims and welcome back to the podcast. We took a bit of time to talk about our bowling season and how—after 32 weeks of bowling—the only thing we really learned was that we’re not that good and pretzels cost a lot of money. With no more time to waste, moved right into the beef of our podcast; namely, a conversation on Deconstruction. Mike led the way by giving us a fair definition of what...

Hello Pilgrims and welcome back to the podcast. We then dove right into a much needed conversation in this episode as we tackled the idea of objective truth in a world where truth seems to have overstayed its welcome. First we looked at a couple of relevant examples of how dealing loose with the truth helps to shape ideological narratives and political agendas. We used these examples to make the a...

Hello Pilgrims and welcome back to the podcast. Well we’re one week into the war between Russia and Ukraine and the only thing we’ve been able to validate as truth, so far, is just how impossible it is to validate the truth. In the age of misinformation, manipulation and continually shifting moral sands, it can be increasingly difficult to walk as victors. However, that’s exactly how God wants us...