Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Click HERE for part 1. III This leads to a further question. I have argued that silence cannot by itself establish a Scriptural principle, but does Scripture’s silence carry any weight in itself? Does the fact that something is unbiblical in a weak sense tell us anything at all? In…
Although nowadays gap theories are associated with dispensationalism, it was not always so. In the nineteenth century, scholars from a variety of backgrounds (Anglican, Reformed, and proto-fundamentalist) seem to have become fascinated by gaps. If you are not familiar with what I am talking about, this newsletter will acquaint you…
If the debate over Operation Rescue has proven anything, it has proven that there is absolutely no consensus among evangelicals in general, or among "reconstructionists" in particular, about how to use the Bible to judge political actions and movements. Each side of the debate claims biblical authority for its position,…
Two things I asked of Thee, Do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception and words of falsehood far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches, Feed me with the food that it my portion, Lest I be full and deny Thee, And say, "Who is the LORD?"…
Umberto Eco’s "The Name of the Rose" was certainly one of the best literary works of the past decade, though the film version hardly measured up to it. Now Eco has given us a new novel, "Foucault’s Pendulum." Like Rose, Foucault’s Pendulum reflects on the limitations of human knowledge, and…
From time to time people ask me about "interpretive maximalism." They want to know what it is, and sometimes want to know if it represents some departure from the Reformed grammatico-historical, Biblico-theological approach to the Bible. I have something of a problem with these questions, because "interpretive maximalism" is not…
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The late John Webster offers this statement about the relationship between Scripture and “dogmatic reasoning” about creation ( Christian Dogmatics , 134–5): Dogmatic reasoning is a further act of following in which, directed by the prophetic testimony and with the aid of the Spirit's sanctifying grace, theological reason endeavors to…
A nthony Kronman begins his monumental Confessions of a Born-Again Pagan with several chapters on gratitude and its shifting fortunes in Western culture. He describes the shift from a gratitude-based organization of social life to a rights-based society. Gratitude assumes that social goods come by gift, on which we have…
A haz of Judah didn't dismantle the temple, but he might as well have done. He cut up the utensils of temple worship, perhaps including the musical instruments used by the Levites (2 Chronicles 28:24). He closed the doors (28:24), which meant that the various rites of the temple ceased—lamps…
R obert Emmons's study of the “new science of gratitude” ( Thanks! ) begins with a discussion of what gratitude is and implies. To say thanks is to say “yes to life. We affirm that all things taken together, life is good and has elements that make it worth living.…
M any Reformed theologians have taught that redemption in history unfolds from a “covenant of redemption” ( pactum salutis ) between the Father and Son. As Francis Turretin defined it, the pact between the Father and the Son contains the will of the Father giving the Son as lytroten (Redeemer…
L utheran Pastor James Prothro generously allowed me to see an advance manuscript of his forthcoming Both Judge and Justifier: Biblical Legal Language and the Act of Justifying in Paul (WUNT II; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck), a revision of his Cambridge doctoral dissertation (see my summary of one of his articles…
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