Cody Cook's Blog

There are lots of debates about spiritual gifts: do they persist today? Are they supernatural or natural in origin? Did New Testament prophets give perfect divine revelation, or were they just teachers or pastors? Are tongues human languages or angelic utterances?

But all of these debates are essentially moot—meaningless. Why? Because spiritual gifts don’t matter… if…

This is a sermon that I preached at a Brethren in Christ church on 9/27/2026. The discussion time that followed has been edited out for the privacy of the congregation.

MP3:
http://www.cantus-firmus.com/Audio/20260928-WhySpiritualGiftsDontMatter.mp3

In November, we will learn whether Buckeye Republicans have been sufficiently persuaded by a more tolerant vision of the fusion of faith and freedom… READ MORE.

“Can we be made right by the law, or are we made right through Christ? That question sits at the center of this episode, but it does not stay small for long. Before long, Craig and Cody Cook are walking through Galatians, spiritual powers, Paul’s strange and beautiful logic, and the way modern Christians often ask Paul questions Paul may not have been trying to answer.”

Listen here: https://www.thebadroman.com/show-notes/episode-159

Show notes:
In this episode I talk with Cody Cook about his new book Delivered from This Present Evil Age where he argues that Galatians 4:1-7 portrays Christ defeating the spiritual powers which enslave humanity and inaugurating a new creation in which ethnic, national, and political divisions are abolished through Jesus. He discusses the influence of the apocalyptic school of Pauline interpretation on his work, the importance of Paul’s opening statement in Galatians 1:3-4 that Jesus has “rescued us from this present evil age”, the wider context of Galatians, and how the stoicheia enslaved humanity before Christ. He then explains the dynamics of Galatians 4:1-7, the inauguration of the new creation, and its impact on Christian identity, revealing that Paul is effectively undercutting nationalism, ethnic divisions, and political identities. We then have a conversation about our differing interpretations of the Paul within Judaism and apocalyptic schools of Pauline interpretation and how we understand the role of the Law in the new creation.

Download MP3:
https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-245-galatians-41-7-and-deliverance-from-this-evil-age-with-cody-cook/

A conversation about Paul’s apocalyptic political theology and my book Delivered from the Evil Age of the Present with Nick Quient.

When you’re a libertarian Christian, you keep a number of Scriptures on your theological Rolodex. We love to talk about 1 Samuel 8, where Israel asks God for a king and He responds by chastising them for their lack of faithfulness. Revelation and Daniel have lots of great passages about Jesus coming to destroy all empires at the end of the age that serve to salve the longsuffering libertarian. Acts 5:29 is short and sweet–it’s better to obey God rather than men. I probably quote Luke 4:6-7 the most. That’s the one where Satan offers Jesus the kingdoms of the world on the basis that Satan is actually the one who directs the rulers of nations.

But we also have passages we get tired of responding to…

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“Thomas Sowell cuts through the two extremes here: “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.” If we are to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, we must follow his advice. The dangers of both credulous embrace and reactionary rejection of new technology raise the need for a third way. And despite their caricature as eschewers of all innovation, Amish communities approach technology in precisely the way Sowell suggests.”

Read the rest of my piece at https://ifstudies.org/blog/a-third-way-what-we-can-learn-from-the-amish-approach-to-tech