My Journal
Authority Is God’s Idea — Not Man’s
One of the most misunderstood aspects of Christianity—especially for soldiers—is authority. Modern culture tends to treat authority as a necessary evil at best, and a moral threat at worst. Power is assumed to corrupt. Hierarchy is assumed to oppress. Obedience is assumed to diminish moral...
Why the Church Sounds Confused About War
For many soldiers, the deepest frustration with the Church is not hostility—it is vagueness. When questions about war, violence, obedience, and moral responsibility are raised, the answers often feel thin, emotional, or evasive. Sermons drift toward abstractions. Conversations turn quickly toward...
The Lie That Soldiers and Christians Are Opposites
One of the most common ideas soldiers absorb—often without ever being told directly—is that Christianity and military service stand on opposite moral ground. Christianity, they are told, is about love, gentleness, forgiveness, and peace. Soldiering, by contrast, is about force, obedience,...
Why the Book: If You Are in the Armed Forces, This Is What The Bible Says About War Obedience and Conscience
I did not grow up reading the Bible. I grew up hearing about it. Like many soldiers, my understanding of Christianity came mostly through sermons, conversations, and cultural assumptions rather than through sustained, careful reading of Scripture itself. I knew the stories people tend to repeat. I...
Why “Judge Not” Is Quoted but Rarely Understood
There are few sentences in the Bible that travel as widely as “Judge not.” You can hear it in coffee shops, online debates, family gatherings, and even from people who would never claim to believe anything else Scripture says. It is a kind of conversational trump card. Once those two words are...
Judging vs. Passing Judgment
If the confusion surrounding “judge not” begins with language, it grows because two very different actions travel under the same word. We use the single term “judging” to describe both the healthy act of discernment and the damaging habit of condemnation, and then we are surprised when...
The Speck and the Log
Few images in Scripture are as disarming as Jesus’ picture of a man with a plank sticking out of his eye trying to perform delicate eye surgery on someone else. It is intentionally ridiculous. You can almost see the scene—someone squinting, wobbling, unable to see clearly, insisting on helping...
Testing Everything
One of the quiet assumptions of our age is that love requires silence. If you truly care about people, we are told, you will not question their choices, beliefs, or values. You will celebrate them. You will affirm them. You will “let people live their truth.” Anything less is presumed to be...
When Questions Feel Like Attacks
We live in a time when questions often sound louder than answers. Not because they are shouted, but because they are immediately treated as hostile. Simply asking, “How do you know that?” or “What do you mean by that?” can feel, in our cultural climate, like an attack. Instead of being received as...
C. J. Bartels
MoFB FounderA first-generation American, Chris has flown helicopters in Korea, Europe, and throughout the Middle East. While in China, he met his wife’s parents, and then 12 months later, while in Germany, met their daughter, now a mom to their four wonderful children. Since then he has built a house that he and his family live in, recorded music that didn’t sell very well, gone fishing with friends for weeks at a time that are still friends, and tried a whole lot of other endeavors that didn’t always go as planned.
Thank you for stopping by Matter Of Fact Books!
Matter Of Fact Books
Click image to find out more.
Matter Of Fact Books
Our books are priced to sell and change lives.