If I knew I could only teach one more time, I would speak on the holiness of God. The modern American church desperately needs grounded teaching here, because theological liberalism has steadily reduced God from a transcendent reality to a malleable concept—acceptable so long as He is not defined biblically. Yet God is transcendent and unchanging, and His standard is unchanging; He is the norm that norms, the reference point by which we know truth, goodness, and beauty with certainty. In the last century the church has often syncretized with the culture, adopting what is culturally normal rather than what is biblically faithful, and the result has been the building of “high places” in our lives and congregations. These degradations are symptoms of a deeper problem: sin. At its core sin is self-idolatry, the attempt to become our own moral authori ...