The Whole Counsel

Death is always a difficult topic for conversation. But Archibald Alexander focuses on the reality of death in this week’s letter to those in the autumn of life. John Snyder, using Alexander’s letters helps us see what can make death particularly bitter and how to seek comfort in times of intense distress. Alexander also shares his pastoral wisdom with us regarding improper ways of dealing with th...

It is a common refrain, “That’s a young man’s work.” But the opposite is true in God’s economy. There is some work reserved for those who have had the Book of Providence (Letter One) opened to them. In this week’s episode, John Snyder is discussing Archibald Alexander’s third letter to elderly Christians focusing on the work God has laid before them. Alexander says that time seems to be going by f...

As we age, the body becomes weaker and our sense of usefulness can wane. But this is a lie of the enemy. God has given older believers a gift not available to those young in years. The Book of Providence, as Archibald Alexander coins it, is the ability to look back over years of your life and see God’s hand moving you to where you are, even before you were a Christian. In this week’s episode, John...

  This week we begin looking at the letters of Archibald Alexander to those in the autumn of their lives. We have an enemy who whispers many lies that can be effective in slowing down the Christian’s pace or cause us to turn our eyes away from Christ. One such lie is that when the body becomes frail and weak, we have nothing we can offer the local church. Nothing could be further from the truth. T...

Sign up for the giveaway here: https://www.mediagratiae.org/the-whole-counsel-giveaway Archibald Alexander was a pastor, theologian, and president of Princeton Seminary in the early-mid 1800s. He was deeply effected by the Great Awakening and was careful in his understanding and teaching of the theology of revival during his day. While there are a great many of his writings we could spend time dis...

Dan Pugh has been a friend to Media Gratiae almost from our beginning. He is an independent director and filmmaker based out of Wales in the United Kingdom. Over the last few years, Dan has produced two feature-length documentaries focusing on the theme of revival. The first, Revival: The Work of God ( https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/revival-documentary-dvd-streaming.html ) was made in part...

Last year Dr. John Snyder spent a great deal of time in his personal study on Psalm 119. In looking for helpful resources in studying this psalm, he came across a modern book called Great Spoil by a writer he was unfamiliar with, Stephen Yuille. After reading Great Spoil and finding it particularly warm, helpful, and devotional, John decided to check out more of Dr. Yuille's work and was continual...

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This week’s giveaway is a Schuyler Bible. We will be emailing the winner chosen at random to ask them their preferred translation before we order the Bible and have it shipped to them. If you would like to see Schuyler Bibles, click here: https://evangelicalbible.com Get 15% off all single Welwyn volumes by using the code WelwynMG15 at https://us.10ofthose.com/series/welwyn-commentary-series/ *Dis...

This week’s giveaway is J. C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels. Check out the end of the podcast to see how these devotional commentaries have been so beneficial in John Snyder’s life and ministry. We want to thank Banner of Truth for donating this copy. You can see the set here: https://banneroftruth.org/us/store/collected-workssets/expository-thoughts-on-the-gospels-16/ Get 15% off all...

There are questions that take only seconds to ask but years to answer. That was the case when someone on X (formerly Twitter) asked Jeremy Walker, “How long would it take to read the published sermons of Charles Spurgeon if you read at a rate of one sermon per day?” After doing the math, Jeremy concluded it would take around 10 and 1/2 years. And the decision was quickly made to begin the reading...

This week’s giveaway is a sampling of Welwyn Commentaries. You can see the volumes and sign up for the giveaway here:  https:// www.mediagratiae.org/the-whole-counsel-giveaway Get 15% off all single Welwyn volumes by using the code WelwynMG15 at https://us.10ofthose.com/series/welwyn-commentary-series/ *Discount unavailable on bundles Any piece of literature has rules around reading and interpreti...

This week’s giveaway is the Matthew Henry Commentary in one volume. Sign up here:  https:// www.mediagratiae.org/the-whole-counsel-giveaway Ron Franks joins Dr. John Snyder to discuss chapter 3 of Knowing Scripture this week. In the chapter, R. C. Sproul focuses on the practice of hermeneutics, a big word refering to the practice of interpreting the Bible. In the conversation, Ron and John discuss...

Sign up for the giveaway:  https:// www.mediagratiae.org/the-whole-counsel-giveaway Christians have the privilege and responsibility of reading Scripture for communion with God. But that responsibility is not just for the act of reading. We must also study, understand, and apply it. But who are we, the average Christian, to say we have a proper understanding of Scripture when we are reading it pri...

Sign up for the giveaway: https://www.mediagratiae.org/the-whole-counsel-giveaway Most Christians with any long-term experience in walking with Christ can sympathize with the sentiment that reading the Bible can be difficult. There are times where we open Scripture and the pages become alive and we meet with God. Other times it can feel—as sad as it is to say—boring. How do we overcome the challen...

We have been commemorating the 10th anniversary of our initial study, Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically. But many are unaware of its followup study, Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty. We wanted to take two special episodes to highlight the interviews we conducted during the production of that study. In this week’s special episode, we ask Andrew Davies, Sinclair Ferguson, and Jordan T...

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of our first study, Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically, we have spent several weeks this year releasing the complete interviews from that study. We hope those have been helpful to you. But many people are unaware of the follow-up study, Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty. Rather than releasing the full interviews, as we did with the first study, we w...

If you have been following the podcast, you know we have been releasing complete interviews from our first study, Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically. For the next two weeks, we want to release some of the content from the followup study Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty. While we get those ready for you, we wanted to present to you session one of Weight of Majesty. It’s focus is on th...

Of all the men who contributed to Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically, Mr. Richard Owen Roberts was the one who had the most influence. This was not because he was directly involved with the writing, or production of the study. It was because of his influence on Dr. John Snyder early in his life and ministry. Mr. Roberts has been a close friend and mentor of John Snyder for decades and that...

It has been 10 years since we released our first study, Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically. During the production of the study, each man was chosen by Dr. John Snyder to contribute to interview sections that conclude each video session. Of all the men chosen, Conrad Mbewe was the only one Dr. Snyder had not met previously. But we are glad Conrad was included in the study. His unique perspe...

10 years ago we released our first large study, Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically. In that study, we interviewed men such as Paul Washer, Conrad Mbewe, Andrew Davies, and more. With any project of this size, a great deal of interview material is left out due to time constraints. We wanted to take a few podcast episodes and let you see their complete answers to our questions. This week we...

This week we conclude our series on 2 Corinthians 2:12-6:10. As we have mentioned before, this passage is the longest autobiographical writing we have of Paul. He concludes this small autobiography by commending himself to the Christians of Corinth. Why? One simple answer is from the context. Paul was under attack from enemies of Christ who had infiltrated the church. His defense was not focused o...

Moving along in our series, we come to 2 Corinthians 5. In this passage, Paul describes the thoughts and ambitions that fill his soul. We often think of ambition as a negative thing, and it easily can be if it is motivated by self. But there is a holy ambition the Christian should strive for. In this week’s episode, John Snyder and Chuck Baggett discuss what this proper ambition is and how to purs...

In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul presents several parallels in the his life: Afflicted, but not crushed; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. Today, John Snyder is once again joined in the studio by Chuck Baggett as they pick up with 2 Corinthians 4:7 to explore the topic of how these parallels are applicable to every Christian. Modern Christians may not be called to suffer in the...

The Christian has been entrusted with the most important message in the history of mankind: How can man be made right with God? This question has one answer and it is a person: Jesus Christ. But Christian face a world that hates the question and the answer. Because of this reality there is constant temptation to soften the question, alter the answer, or adulterate the message in some form. The boo...