Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 27:2 (Fall 2023)
Article: From The Editor’s Desk
Author: Anonymous

From The Editor’s Desk

Dear Readers,

I think it is safe to say we are living in a time marked by uncertainty and instability. The chaos of the COVID-19 years has given way to rampant disorder on the international stage and increased polarization and acrimony at home. At times, one almost feels as though he were hurtling along at a blinding rate of speed, uncontrolled and unguided, with nothing more substantial than wind resistance and gravitation to constrain his motion. Teleology is an illusion, this impulse whispers. All is tumultuous pandemonium. There is no one at the controls, and we are going to crash.

The worldview of biblical Christianity presents a very different picture. It teaches us that the engine and boxcars of historical happenings are firmly attached to the carefully laid-out railway tracks of God’s wise purposes. Thus, we will never arrive anyplace where he does not intend for us to go. When life is viewed from this vantage point, cause for alarm all but disappears. Or, to change the metaphor, it is as though we are standing on the bridge of a ship, gazing out at a tempestuous ocean raging all about us. When we fix our eyes on the seething and pulsating of the waves, it is easy to feel that we have been set utterly adrift. And yet, many fathoms below, easily overlooked and half-submerged in the sandy surface of the ocean floor, a sure and steady anchor holds our fragile vessel resolutely in place. That anchor, of course, is Christ himself (Heb 6:19), whose person and work are altogether dependable, solid, and certain, for he is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8).

To be sure, the nations rage. The darkness deepens. And all of life’s occurrences may seem, to merely physical eyes, to be nothing but shifting shadows. But to the eyes of faith, the sovereignty of an omniscient and omnisapient God banishes the darkness and grants a surety and confidence that is not easily shaken. Soli Deo gloria.

David Gunn, Ph.D.

Lead Editor