The Whole Counsel

Last week we talked about the issue of biblical covenants. God reveals Himself progressively, meaning that He has revealed more of Himself and His plan of redemption by the book of 1 and 2 Samuel than He did in Exodus. The seeds are certainly contained in Exodus, and even in Genesis, but they are more developed through later passages. In 2 Samuel 7, God lays out His covenant with King David. God l...

This week, we continue our look at Isaiah’s descriptions of Immanuel. John Snyder focuses on the connection between King David of the Old Testament and the coming Messiah. Scripture offers an illustration that the Immanuel will come from the root of Jesse. But why is this important to us today? To understand this picture, we must consider the covenants God made with particular people, including Ab...

We are grateful to God for His kindness toward us over the last decade. To see a glimpse of what He has done through the work of Media Gratiae over the last 10 years, visit here and read our end-of-year ministry report: https://report.mediagratiae.org

There are many passages of Scripture where God describes Himself to us. This week we are focusing on four such descriptions of God describing the coming Immanuel in Isaiah 9. Some 700 years before the incarnation of Christ, God chooses to give royal titles to the One who would be born a King. He would be Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Have you ever stopped to con...

Last week’s episode ended on gloom and judgment. Ahaz has rejected the opportunity of God to ask for any sign of His faithfulness. Rather than obeying God in requesting that sign, Ahaz chooses to put his faith in his own plan and strategy. God’s astounding response is to give him a sign anyway, the coming of Immanuel. He also pronounces judgment on Ahaz and his kingdom in the form of Assyria. This...

This week we continue looking at descriptions of the coming Messiah in Isaiah 8. Last week we discussed how God mercifully gave the wicked King Ahaz an opportunity to ask for any sign to prove His faithfulness. Ahaz refused but God gave a sign anyway. In today’s passage, God speaks through Isaiah and pronounces the coming judgment on the people of Israel. Some of the Israelites respond to this new...

This week we begin a new series in which we examine God’s descriptions of the forthcoming Messiah in the book of Isaiah. In this inaugural episode, we are examining Isaiah 8. When we slow down and really consider what is happening, the story is shocking. A wicked king is given an opportunity by God to receive any sign or wonder, as high as heaven or low as hell. He is the only person in Scripture...

We have previously introduced you to our friend, Mr. Richard Owen Roberts. We walked through the book he assembled, Salvation in Full Color, we’ve had him on the podcast to discuss his upcoming conference (link below). But Mr. Roberts has been a part of our ministry much longer than we have been producing our podcast. When we were discussing who we would interview for our inaugural study in the ea...

In years past we have given you long lists of books we recommend to fill your next year’s reading plan. This year, our list is short. The reading, however, is not. The list is only two books and they have been available previously. However, they have recently be republished and we believe they are done so well they are worth discussing. If you already have a copy of these on your shelves, you migh...

Every quarter we give our supporters an update on what we are working on behind the scenes. Correction: This is not an end-of-the-year update. That will come later in December. In this update, we let you know about where we are in our next study, the growth of our social media platforms, Behold Your God being translated in multiple languages, the Behold Your God: Seeking Him Early resource, and mu...

In a way that only he can, John Owen ends his helpful work on the mortification of sin with two conclusions. The first contains eight preparatory points for consideration. Once considered, he gives two applications to help us make progress in mortifying our sin to the glory of Christ. This week’s episode of The Whole Counsel is bittersweet because it is the last one with Jeremy Walker. But focusin...

The battle to mortify sin can seem exhausting, discouraging, and overwhelming. But it is a battle that we as Christians will fight and, ultimately, we will win. We have promises throughout Scripture making it clear that we will shed this fallen nature. We will see God without the barrier of sin between us. Christ will conquer all the sin in our lives. But while we live and breathe and walk in this...

Having discussed the necessity of mortifying sin and the flesh, watching and praying through Christ, John Snyder and Jeremy Walker move to discuss the practical helps God provides for us in fighting sin, repenting when we fall, and seeing restoration in our communion with God. We often look for a silver bullet when it comes to difficulties of the Christian life. We want an easier way to kill sin....

Richard Owen Roberts is a long-term friend of Media Gratiae. Even before Media Gratiae existed, Mr. Roberts played an important role in John Snyder's life. In this special episode, we want to introduce Mr. Roberts and International Awakening Ministries to those of you who may be unfamiliar with them. We also want to let everyone know of an upcoming conference IAM is presenting on November 27-30 at...

Robert Murray M’Cheyne described the human heart as gunpowder and temptation as a spark that will ignite the heart in sin. The most careful practice we can have is to keep our hearts damp by gazing upon Christ. In this week’s episode, John Snyder and Jeremy Walker share how Owen encourages us to keep our hearts damp by the dual command to watch and pray. What must we watch for? How must we pray? J...

We at The Whole Counsel love Puritans. We have benefited so much from their sermons, prayers, and books, it is our delight to discuss them and hopefully whet your appetite to read their words. In this new series of podcasts, Dr. John Snyder is going to walk through two books from the Puritan, John Owen, with our longtime friend Jeremy Walker. In this first episode, Jeremy and John are discussing O...

We have had 15 discussions of the Christian’s relationship to the God’s moral law in this series. If anything, we hope we have shown you this topic is important and worth a great deal of meditation. In the final conversation of this series, John Snyder and Steve Crampton ask what are the right and wrong ways of using the law. We’ve already answered the lies of antinomianism, the belief we shouldn’...

Next week we will finish our series on The Law and the Gospel. In this series we have sought to study the New Testament Christian’s relationship to God’s moral law. Before salvation, the Law could only offer condemnation. It pointed out our flaws but could provide no cure for our sin-sickness. But now, because the Christian belongs to the Kingdom of Grace, God’s moral law has become the path we wa...

This week we return to our ongoing discussion of the Christian’s relationship to both God’s Law and His grace. The emphasis this week is simply to explain what Jesus meant when He said He came to “fulfill the law.” We can understand this fulfillment in a few different ways, but Ernie Reisinger’s book offers us a great deal of help. Dr. John Snyder and Steve Crampton discuss not just how we can fin...

Regular listeners will know we have been releasing complete interviews from our production of Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically. This is to commemorate and celebrate the Lord’s kindness over the last 10 years. This week we highlight the interview with Andrew Davies, a Welsh minister who met Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and J.I Packer as a child. He also served as a pastor in New Zealand for a t...

At this time 10 years ago we were putting the final touches and beginning the process of manufacturing Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically. This study has gone much further in the last decade than we ever thought possible. But the Lord has seen fit to use it around America and outside her borders in places such as Russia, The Netherlands, South Africa, Canada, and more. Each video session o...

If you have gone through the Media Gratiae study Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty, you will know that God’s attributes include being just, good, and kind. So how can a just, good, and kind God require the adherence to a law that people may not understand or be able to follow? That is the topic of discussion this week for Dr. John Snyder and Steve Crampton. They are sharing their notes from c...

Throughout this podcast series, we have been following the flow of thought in Ernie Reisinger’s book The Law and the Gospel. In his discussion on antinomianism, Reisigner gives 20 errors connected to this heretical understanding of God’s law in the Christian life. This week, we share most of those 20 ideas and stop to discuss a few of them. To help you better keep up with the flow of ideas, we wan...

It’s been a few weeks since John Snyder and Steve Crampton came together to discuss Ernie Reisinger’s The Law and the Gospel. But this week they are back and they are tackling the topic of antinomianism. This term, which we believe to be coined by Martin Luther, describes a doctrine in which God’s Law has no place in the Christian life. Paul himself was accused of being an antinomian, as was Marty...

While we don’t typically focus on contemporary issues on the Whole Counsel, we wanted to take one episode to introduce you to an author that we trust on a topic that has become the source of unexpected confusion in many churches. Michael David Perkins, in his recently released book Dangerous Affirmations, provides a clear perspective on the recent trend of affirming “gay Christianity.” In a carefu...