Writing for Impact: My Top Performing Articles

One of the joys of writing is seeing your work have an influence on others.  I published my first piece of online content twenty years ago on the first rendition of this website, and I've been blessed to experience a lot of that joy over the years.  When I started this blog, my goal was simply to catalogue a few of my studies in a format that I could access easily for my own reference.  That quickly morphed into sharing my work with others, and now, my articles are read by thousands of people all across the globe.  Writing has become a great responsibility but also one of my greatest joys.

Over the past twenty years, I've had the opportunity to make small but significant contributions in four fields of study, theology, history, law, and medicine.  To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of my website, I've put together a collection of my most memorable and, hopefully, my most impactful articles.

The Minimalist Messiah - This article was initially written as an assignment in my pursuit of a master's degree.  It answers the question, What is the minimum that one must believe in order to be a Christian?  This eventually became a chapter in my book The Founders and the Myth of Theistic Rationalism.

Bibles and Plowboys - My response to Nathan Deatrick's article on the readability of the KJV has received a lot of attention, and it prompted me to write my series refuting Mark Ward's "false friends" argument.

We the People - One of the things I discovered in my study of American history was the belief among the founders that Israel had a republican form of government.  I turned to my Bible to test this belief and found it to be true.  This article contains my analysis of the form of government that God established for His chosen people.

What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality - This is one of the most impactful studies that I've ever published.  It has been shared thousands of times on various social media platforms, and it has withstood the test of time.  This article has been fully vetted by various fact checkers, and it is accepted by the platform algorithms in spite of presenting the truth about the sin of homosexuality.

Predestination in the Bible - I have argued against Calvinism ever since I first learned of it as a teenager.  This article examines all of the biblical references to predestination and explains why those passages do not mean what Calvinists claim they mean.

What Are the Pillars of the Earth Mentioned in the Bible? - This is my most popular article by far.  Month after month, it receives more views than any other page on my website.

James, Paul, and Abraham: What Does It Mean To Be Justified? - I wrote this article in answer to the claim that the second chapter of James teaches the necessity of adding good works to our faith to obtain final salvation.

Thou Shalt Not Oppress the Stranger: A Review of "The Immigration Crisis" by James Hoffmeier - Hoffmeier's book on immigration is considered by many to be the seminal work on the view that the Old Testament recognized different classes of immigrants.  I reviewed his book and pointed out several flaws in his reasoning.

7 Biblical Principles About Immigration - After studying Hoffmeier's book, I looked up every occurrence of the words stranger, foreigner, and alien in the Bible.  This article is the result of that study.

Christian Voting: A Biblical Guide - I began studying biblical principles of voting during the 2012 election.  That study produced about a dozen articles and many debates over a period of eight years.  This article is the culmination of that period of intense study.

The Conversion of Benjamin Franklin - This article produced so much pushback from historians that it led me to write my book Franklin on Faith: The Definitive Guide to the Religion of the First American.  This article presents the argument that the book proves to be true: namely, that Benjamin Franklin accepted Christ as his savior in 1735 at the age of twenty-nine.

Adams, Jefferson, and the General Principles of Christianity - An analysis of the conversation between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson that culminated in Adams saying that America was founded on "the general principles of Christianity."  This article resolves the debate over what Adams meant by that phrase.

The Treaty of Tripoli - While writing my book Hidden Facts of the Founding Era, I tackled the claim that the Treaty of Tripoli proves that America did not have a Christian foundation.  I released that chapter of the book as a free preview.

Taxes, Teacups, and Tomahawks - During the Tea Party movement, I decided to study the first-hand accounts of the Boston Tea Party to find comparisons to the modern movement.  This article is a fictional letter that I wrote in 2009 to show what someone present for that first Tea Party might have said to someone asking for advice about how to follow in their footsteps.

Does Bodily Autonomy Create a Right to Abortion? - This article explains why the bodily autonomy argument for abortion is not valid under American jurisprudence.

Personhood Alabama Position Statement on IVF - I devoted an entire year to studying IVF methodologies and discovered a process that would allow IVF to be conducted in an ethical manner that did not endanger any prenatal children.  The methodology I presented in this article was adopted by the Supreme Court of Alabama in their 2024 ruling on IVF.