Michael J. Lilly Podcast

If you were to sit down with a modern Christian, hand them a Bible, and ask them where the story begins, almost all of them would immediately turn to Genesis 1:1. We tend to open the book, look at the physical creation of the heavens and the earth, and assume we are starting at the absolute beginning of the story. Yet, the story of God actually begins much earlier than that. We already understand...

In their video response to my article, “The House Church Myth,” Matt Dabbs and Tom Wadsworth attempt to defend the modern “organic” house church movement. They argue that the first-century church was highly informal, non-liturgical, and practically democratic, claiming that formal liturgy and hierarchy were later corruptions. To be fair, Dabbs and Wadsworth present a thoughtful pushback against ge...

We like to think we read the Bible exactly as it was written. We open the text, read the words, and assume our modern brains are perfectly capturing the original intent of the authors. But the truth is, most modern Christians read the Bible like functional atheists. We have inherited a post-modern, materialistic worldview. Because of the Enlightenment and the scientific revolution, we assume the p...

Today’s church pulpits often feel more like corporate seminar stages than sacred spaces. Many focus on polish, production, and engaging speakers. We look for someone who can keep an audience’s attention, share three relatable points, and finish on time. This focus has led to what could be called the “preacher for hire” industry. When a church loses its main teacher, it rarely looks within. Instead...

It’s incredibly common in modern church culture to hear people say that “all sin is the same to God” or “sin is just sin.” It usually comes from the good intention of emphasizing that everyone needs grace. We want to level the playing field to show that nobody is beyond the need for salvation. While the motivation behind the phrase is understandable, the theology behind it is fundamentally flawed....

Have you ever noticed how similar Matthew, Mark, and Luke are? They share a tremendous amount of material, often word-for-word. Scholars call this the “Synoptic Problem,” and they have debated for centuries about how to explain this close literary relationship. If you take a New Testament seminary class, chances are you will probably be introduced to the standard academic answer: a hypothetical do...

In modern academia, especially at the pop-level or lower tiers of textual scholarship, there is a pervasive tendency to treat textual criticism as a purely empirical science. Scholars often attempt to isolate the “original text” by treating manuscripts as detached, clinical data points, much like a forensic scientist analyzing DNA. They approach the textual tradition looking for a mathematical rec...

If you’ve spent any significant time in the pews of a traditional Church of Christ (COC), you know the rhythm of the calendar. Every December and every April, like clockwork, a familiar and predictable cadence echoes from the pulpit. It’s the season of the “anti-holiday” sermon. These sermons are built upon a specific, rigid interpretive framework historically championed by the COC: CENI (Command,...

In the countryside of Borgloon, Belgium sits an architectural piece of art commonly known as the “Invisible Church.” Made entirely out of stacked steel plates, the structure creates an optical illusion: stand in one spot, and it looks like a traditional chapel; shift your perspective slightly, and the steel seems to vanish as the building dissolves into the surrounding landscape. It’s an interesti...

Picture the early church. If you have spent any time in modern evangelical circles, the image that likely comes to mind is romantic, intimate, and decidedly “organic.” We imagine a small group of believers gathered in a cozy living room, sitting in a circle. Someone strums a lyre (or a guitar), prayers are spontaneous, and everyone shares equally as the Spirit leads. There are no clergy, no liturg...

A few months ago, I was asked as part of a group to study the topic of marriage, divorce, and remarriage, especially as it concerns the debate mentioned in the essay here. The original form of this essay was a much longer work (30-some-odd pages) defending a much different position. At a certain point, I had to stop and ask myself, “Why am I trying to jump through so many hoops to defend this posi...

In one of my courses this semester, the first assignment was to read and respond to two articles by Alexander Campbell, one of the pioneers of the Restoration Movement. The first is his “Rules of Interpretation,” chapter 33 of the larger work “ Christianity Restored ” (1835). The second is an article titled “ Bible Reading ” from the Millennial Harbinger (1839), which was Campbell’s “magazine” pro...

For many modern Christians, a footnote in their Bible that says “Some manuscripts read...” is just a scholarly curiosity. There is a widespread assumption that the Hebrew text used as the basis for our Old Testament translations today—the Masoretic Text—is the “original,” and that all ancient translations, such as the Greek Septuagint (LXX), are merely secondary interpretations. However, for the f...

For too long, the modern Christian experience in the public square has felt like a perpetual cross-examination. We are constantly put on the witness stand, forced to answer for the Crusades, explain the problem of evil, or defend the historical reliability of the Gospels. We have become experts at the “back foot”—always reacting, always explaining, always defending. While giving a defense is a bib...

For years, the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP, helped feed millions of struggling Americans. Its loss is more than an economic or political problem; it’s a spiritual one. The simple truth is that the Church once cared for the poor, the hungry, the widowed, and the sick. That was our calling from the beginning. But over time, we handed those ministries...

If the Book of Revelation feels confusing, one reason might be because it assumes you already know the rest of the Bible. John's vision is not an isolated prophecy dropped into the New Testament without context. It is the culmination of a story that spreads throughout the rest of Scripture. In fact, Revelation contains more allusions to the Old Testament than any other New Testament book, over 500...

Revelation is often treated like a coded message about the end of the world. But the more closely we read it, the more we realize that it's not just about future events; it's about unseen realities happening right now. John isn't just giving us a glimpse of what's to come. He's pulling back the curtain to show what has always been true: that behind the politics, persecution, and powers of this wor...

Mysterious symbols, strange creatures, and terrifying judgments make Revelation seem like a code that needs to be cracked. And for decades—maybe centuries—Christians have tried to do just that. Charts, timelines, conspiracy theories, and end-times calculators have all been used in the name of "figuring it out." But what if that's not what Revelation is for? What if we've been reading it with the w...

For many Christians, Revelation is the last book of the Bible for a reason. It's the book we avoid, the one we skip over in our reading plans, the one we associate with wild-eyed prophecy preachers and apocalyptic fiction. Dragons, beasts, and cryptic signs; Revelation has developed a reputation for confusion and controversy. But what if we've been reading it wrong? Test Everything is a reader-sup...

I’M PRESERVING THIS ORIGINAL POST, BUT MY RANKINGS HAVE BEEN UPDATED: I originally planned to do a whole series of posts reviewing different Bible translations one by one. As I started down that path, I realized that it would be a lot more fun (and more helpful) to just put them all in one place and rank them. That's what this post is about. It's a tier list of popular English Bible translations b...

Bible translation discussions can stir up surprising levels of passion, and not always in healthy ways. For many Christians, the choice of Bible translation is a deeply personal one. For others, it becomes a hill to die on. And unfortunately, those hills are often built on shallow ground. What I’d like to do is review and offer an analysis of several major English translations I’ve personally used...

You’ve probably heard someone say it before. Maybe you’ve even said it yourself: “I don’t need the Church to follow Jesus.” For many people, it sounds like freedom. It sounds authentic. Why deal with the drama of organized religion when you can just read your Bible, pray, and try to live a good life? Here’s the problem. That kind of Christianity—privatized, disconnected, and self-managed—doesn’t c...

It’s one of the most important questions in Christian theology, and it has inspired centuries of reflection, debate, and worship. Christians throughout history have offered various explanations for how the death of Christ saves us. Some emphasize justice and law, while others focus on love and transformation. Some look at the cosmic battle between good and evil, while others zoom in on the individ...

Universalism is the belief that, in the end, all people—regardless of faith, repentance, or allegiance to Christ—will ultimately be saved. It appeals to our emotions; what faithful Christian wouldn’t want everyone to be redeemed? Good theology cannot be built on sentiment alone; it must be built on truth. The truth is that the Bible does not teach universal salvation. In fact, it explicitly warns...

Of all the phrases that emerged from the Reformation, few are as moving or majestic as Soli Deo Gloria —“To God alone be the glory.” Much like Solus Christus , it seems obvious and universal. Who would deny that God deserves all glory? When we examine how churches function, Christians speak, and movements define themselves, the reality becomes more complicated. Soli Deo Gloria is a theological con...