Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Rounding Out the Traditional Doctrine of Justification Justification and the Church The traditional Protestant doctrine of justification fails to fully hold together the soteriological (forgiveness of sins) and the ecclesiological (covenant membership). This is part of a larger problem, of course, namely, the dichotomizing of church and salvation. Biblically and…
John Piper’s book, Counted Righteous in Christ: Should We Abandon the Imputation of Christ’s Righteousness (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2002) is, from any perspective, a passionate work. Nevertheless, I find I need to disagree with parts of it. The reason I do this is not because John Piper’s book does…
What follows is a handout for a Sunday School class I have taught recently at my church . Presbyterian doctrine teaches what the Bible says about God sovereign control over history and his unconditional choice (election) to bring some people to everlasting glory while allowing others to remain in unbelief…
“Covenantal Nomism” sounds like a description of tiny contract-loving creatures who live underground. But it is actually a recent term used to describe the pattern of religious belief and practice in first-century Palestinian Judaism. The idea is that God graciously establishes a structured relationship based on promises, a “covenant,” with…
What follows deals primarily with two essays, one by Dr. Douglas Kelly and the other by The Rev. Richard Phillips . My reason for writing this essay is that many people are confidently saying things about N. T. Wright that I believe are contrary to fact. I choose Dr. Kelly…
The Bible is often treated as a book of rules with directions for living. To some extent, that is true; but it is neither the whole truth nor the most important truth about the book. Ultimately, the Bible is a story about God and man and their reconciliation in Christ.…
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Revelation 19:6-9 Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to…
Eugene Boring reviews Herman Waetjen's Letter to the Romans in the Review of Biblical Literature (July 2015). According to Boring, Waetjen sets Paul's gospel in the context of a biblical story stretching back to Adam and including the promise to Abraham: “Adam (= humanity) was created in God’s image and…
In John's final vision (Revelation 21:9-22:5), new Jerusalem descends from heaven as a bride. Her jasper walls sparkle, the city itself is transparent gold, the foundation stones are precious gems. She is, in sum, a rich city. Within Jerusalem, there is constant light. The glory of the nations comes into…
During the gold rush of 1848, Chinese immigrants began to move into the United States in large numbers, especially in California. Between 1850 and 1882, a quarter-million immigrated, many of them working on railroads and mines, in dangerous working conditions, with little pay and few tools. During the 1860s and…
Aristide Zolberg argues that the US isn't a nation of immigrants so much as a Nation By Design . President Kennedy to the contrary: Not a nation of immigrants but a nation of some immigrants. American immigration is not a story of laissez-faire yielding to restrictionism. Openness and restriction have…
During the debates over the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), Western mounted arguments to appeal their Southern colleagues. Southerners in their turn employed the Western arguments against Chinese rights to limit the rights of Southern African Americans. Cozy bedfellows in racial politics. According to Andrew Gyory's study of the Chinese act…
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