The Whole Counsel

We’ve all experienced dark nights of the soul. We know what it feels like to swim in the waters and despair and want to give up on evangelizing a child, leading a ministry, or even progressing in the Christian life. Paul was no stranger to this reality. So what do we do when we feel the sense of losing heart creeping upon us? We can take the same path Paul took in holding firm to the glorious desc...

Study the God who gripped Augustine’s soul so completely: https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/behold-your-god-series Augustine is one of the most prolific writers of early Christianity. He is considered one of the most non-canonical theologians in history. His writings and theology are still creating ripples today. In this episode of Navigating the Classics, Dr. John Snyder and his son Andre...

Podcasts are a wonderful vehicle to convey ideas and information. But they are not perfect. Due to the limited time frame of our podcasts, we have a tendency to hit the highlights of a Scriptural passage, book, or idea and then move on. Because of this reality, we wanted to take one episode to reemphasize some key truths before we continue moving forward in our study of 2 Corinthians. The first tr...

During one of the most difficult seasons of Paul’s life and ministry he had many opportunities to despair. He had multiple chances to switch his tactics and pursue something more pragmatic. Each time he refused. We began talking about the foundation of his confidence last week, and we continue doing so this week, but with an emphasis is on the glory of the New Covenant. Whether Paul experienced en...

Paul tells the church of Corinth to follow him as he follows Christ. That would be an impossible task for us if Paul had been given special tools, a special skillset, a secret knowledge that only he could possess. Instead, he had the same Scripture, the same Holy Spirit, the same means of grace as us. As a result, when Paul commands us to follow him, we really can obey. We have the same Bible, as...

The largest biographical passage we have the Apostle Paul is found in 2 Corinthians. We are spending several weeks discussing this extended passage in our newest series, Following the Follower. Today we hone in on 2 Corinthians 2:12-13. In these short verses, John and Chuck discuss some pictures of reality that held Paul steady in times of great trial and distress. The first is the great processio...

When it comes to walking the Christian life, we can find few better examples of how close a saved sinner can walk with God than the Apostle Paul. Unlike the other Apostles, Paul did not spend years as an eyewitness to the earthly ministry of Jesus. He learned about Jesus through the Old Testament. He studied, applied, repented, and lived the gospel. This week we begin a new series of episodes focu...

We are taking a few weeks to let you know about some of the teaching material Media Gratiae has produced outside our podcasts. In previous special episodes we have highlighted Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty, Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically, and Church: Pillar and Ground of the Truth. This is our final episode highlighting these studies and we chose to end it with our latest stud...

We are taking a few weeks to let you know about some of the teaching material Media Gratiae has produced outside our podcasts. In previous special episodes we have highlighted Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty and Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically. This week we want to present you with a unique production for us. In Church: Pillar and Ground of the Truth, we created both a feature-le...

Last week we highlighted the first study Media Gratiae produced, Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically. This week we are previewing for you the sequel to that study, Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty. In this study, John Snyder spends 12 weeks teaching about the attributes of God and how we are to live upon Him. If you have been through this study before, we pray it reminds you of the gr...

Get 15% off this study for this week only: https://shop.mediagratiae.org/collections/15-off-behold-your-god-rethinking-god-biblically Over the years more and more people are discovering Media Gratiae through our various podcasts. We praise the Lord for this reality. But our podcasts are only a fraction of the work we do. Media Gratiae started over a decade ago with our flagship study, Behold Your...

It is one thing for the Christian to say I believe, my family believes, my church believes what the Bible says. That is a right and essential to the Christian life. But it is another thing to say, “I believe the Bible teaches…” And it is that second statement we want to focus on in this week’s episode. For those unaware, Media Gratiae is rooted in Reformed Baptist theology. To that end, we believe...

This week is our final episode on the realities of revival and we wanted to present to you another sermon used by God during a great time of revival. The sermon is from Hebrews 1:9. The preacher is Daniel Rowland. We chose this sermon specifically because so few people are aware of Daniel Rowland. George Whitefield went to hear Rowland and said it was like listening to the Apostle Paul teach. Rowl...

We have spent several weeks discussing the realities of revival. We have sought to share, using helps listed below, the fruits of revival, the means of revival, and more. This week John makes some concluding comments on revival. Many of his thoughts are found in the book Revival of Religion, a collection of essays from Scottish pastors serving during a time of revival. They point to three areas th...

Due to a sickness in the team, we were unable to film an episode for this week’s podcast. But this led us to a wonderful opportunity. Years ago Andrew Davies visited Christ Church New Albany. While he was here, we recorded him presenting five great sermons used during times of revival in America and England. Since we highlighted the sermons of George Whitefield, a preacher God used mightily during...

The idea that revival requires special means, special speakers, and special meetings, is often sourced in good intentions, but it comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of God’s work. When God chooses to draw close in revival, He uses the ordinary means of grace. But He seems to give an incredible and extraordinary fruit to that ordinary means. Does this mean special meetings and extra time set...

After introducing our new series last week, John and Teddy are diving deeper into the topic of revival. This week they focus on a biblical understanding of revival. Attached to a historical understanding of revival, we also must seek to study the means and results of revival. One helpful definition comes to us from Richard Owen Roberts. He defines revival as, “...an unusual manifestation of the po...

There was a time when revival was the study and focus of careful theologians. Sadly that changed around the middle of the 19th century. Since then, careful writers have allowed the theological ground of revival to become fallow. In recent years, the study of this mysterious reality has become a more common focus of reading and request of prayer. Because of this growing desire for revival, we are g...

At this time 10 years ago we had just released our flagship study, Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically. To celebrate a decade of the Lord’s blessing on this study, we are releasing the complete interviews from the project. Some men sat down with us for slightly over 30 minutes. Richard Owen Roberts gave us nearly two hours of his time. Because we have such a wealth of answers from him, we a...

This week we are continuing our celebration of 10 years of Rethinking God Biblically. Ten years ago now we had just released our flagship study, Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically. John had personally met with and been encouraged by the ministries of every contributor to the study, except one. Conrad Mbewe had been recommended to John. After investigating his ministry, John was grateful th...

Our flagship study, Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically has been released for over a decade. In that time, we have been indescribably happy to see the Lord choose to use this study in so many ways across so many lands. We never could have imagined it going as far as it has. One reason we thought it would be a small study was because so few of our contributors had recognizable names. The onl...

We have spent the last few weeks walking through principles to help us in how we can get the most out of our reading. In this episode, we share discussions we have had with friends of ours across the Christian publishing industry. In the first section, we are with David Woolin, CEO of Reformation Heritage Books. While they publish several books we highly appreciate, David points us to some works r...

Today we are releasing a new podcast that will be published every quarter. We named this new series Navigating the Classics because we want to spend time focusing on those classic works of Christianity that many find intimidating or antiquated. For our inaugural episode, John Snyder is joined by Whole Counsel regular guest Steve Crampton and his son Jamie to discuss Athanasius' On the Incarnation...

Last week we republished a discussion between John Snyder and Jeremy Walker on the first five of six principles to keep in mind if you want to get the most benefit of reading careful books this year. In this week’s episode, John and Jeremy both select six books that exemplify their approach to a balanced reading diet. Check out Jeremy's podcasts: The Heart of Spurgeon: https://podcasts.apple.com/u...

With the start of the new year, we wanted to revisit John Snyder's conversation with Jeremy Walker back in 2021 about six principles to reading well. We make through five of the principles in this episode. Next week we’ll return to give our final principle and a list of books to help get you started in this year’s reading. Check out Jeremy's podcasts: The Heart of Spurgeon: https://podcasts.apple....