Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Misunderstanding “Galatianism” has caused several problems in the Reformed church. Because circumcision is at issue in the Galatian epistle, some have fallen into thinking that ritual per se, rather than anything uniquely Mosaic or Jewish, is the object of Paul’s critique. Likewise, his polemic against “works of the law” is…
Many texts in the NT become more perspicuous if we keep in mind the possibility — and indeed ubiquity — of Gentile God-fearers in the Old Covenant. After the special covenant with Israel is set up, Gentiles are not altogether excluded from the hope of salvation. Israel’s special status in…
I was once trying to get a sermon out of Ephesians 1.12-14 and it seemed obvious that I should look for two parallel statements both ending with the phrase, “to the praise of his glory.” Paul here begins talking about two groups of people (“you” and “we”), and he later…
WHY A DENOMINATION WITH SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN ROOTS SHOULD CAREFULLY CONSIDER THE “NEW PERSPECTIVE ON PAUL” In my denomination, the PCA, we are continually haunted by the sins of our racist Southern past. It has become an annual rite at General Assembly for the issue to be addressed one way or…
Recent debates over whether or not, “justification is central” to Paul’s theology have reminded me of a sermon I once heard by a Presbyterian seminary student. This African American student challenged his audience on the sin of racism and the ways it might manifest itself among us. Like any good…
In Charles Hodge’s 1853 article, “Idea of the Church,” his stated aim is to analyze the idea of the Church proposed in the Apostles’ Creed, in which, “the Church is declared to be “the Communion of the Saints.” He writes: The conception of the Church as the communion of saints…
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INTRODUCTION Jesus comes healing, casting out demons, raising the dead, preaching the good news to the poor (Matthew 5-9), and He sends His apostles out to do the same (Matthew 10). How will Israel respond? That is the story of Matthew 11-12. THE TEXT “Now it came to pass, when…
It really happened. Some 2000 years ago, Jesus of Nazareth died on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem and was placed in a nearby tomb . On the third day after His death, women came to the tomb to dress the body and found the tomb empty, heard from angels that…
John 20:3-8: Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not…
The God of the Bible is Lord of history. He shows who He is in what He does for His people. In the Old Covenant, Yahweh was the God of the patriarchs, the God who brought Israel out of Egypt, and finally the God who brought Israel back from exile.…
In their introduction to Engaging with Barth: Contemporary Evangelical Critiques (Apollos/IVP, 2008), editors David Gibson and Daniel Strange express their appreciation for Barth’s work in “awakening a new interest in the Bible” and sparking “a massive recovery of the Reformed tradition within academic theology.” Appreciative though they are, they worry…
Patristic trinitarian theology has been seen as a symptom of the radical Hellization of the church. Barth recognized that the opposite is true: The formulations of the Trinity were designed to preserve the biblical confession that God is a personal Lord. He says, “it follows from the Trinitarian understanding of…
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