Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
A Study in Biblical and Practical Theology Sunday School Notes / Epiphany 2004 Introductory Note: January 6 is Epiphany in the traditional church calendar. Though Epiphany is often treated as a single day, with the Sundays following counted as “Sundays after Epiphany,” we will treat Epiphany as an extended season.…
Imagine someone from another world trying to learn to live in our society according to our customs. What if someone gave him a check for a hundred dollars for his birthday–the first check he had ever seen in his life? Would he immediately understand how a check was used? Perhaps…
According to Presbyterian doctrine, as articulated in the Westminster Confession of Faith, baptism is a baptized person’s “admission… into the visible church.” By referring to the “visible church,” the document makes clear it is referring to the present institutional Church with all her imperfections, as opposed to the future Church…
N. T. Wright claims that in the Apostle Paul’s writings “righteousness,” as it predicated of humans, denotes “covenant membership.” When he wrote this in the New Bible Dictionary edited by Sinclair Ferguson, J. I. Packer, and David Wright, no one thought this was too big a deal. However, when he…
It seems almost human nature to think that we can find something to do for God that will make Him do us favors. If we live more virtuously, or cut down on a vice or two, then God will have to reward us. But the problem with this notion is…
The First Commandment teaches us to trust in Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life. The First Commandment reads (I’m using NASB throughout): “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Obviously, trusting in someone or something else (even one’s own good works) for justification, sanctification, and eternal life”…
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A perceptive Lutheran reader asked whether I was endorsing an antinomian position in my favorable summary of Kolb’s article on Luther and Chemnitz. He pointed out that Kolb’s position relies on an illegitimate separation of God and His Law, and argued that instead the Law should be seen as an…
?And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.?E In this morning sermon, we saw how the writer of Kings highlights the authority of Elijah and His power. He speaks, and the heavens become…
So what? So what if Jeroboam made golden calves and worshiped them at Dan and Bethel? So what if the house of Jeroboam was destroyed by Baasha, and the house of Baasha destroyed by Zimri, and Zimri destroyed by Omri, and the house of Omri destroyed by Jehu? What does…
Alain de Botton notes in his book Status Anxiety that many societies see a direct relationship between reputation and self-image. If others hold me in contempt, then I must either defend myself against their contempt or accept their contemptuous assessment. Philosophy introduces a mediator, reason, which assesses and judges reputation…
I finally watched The Village . Much of it was perfectly silly. The initial explanation of the dead animals littering the village is that a coyote is on the loose, and this theory is put to rest only when it’s decided that coyotes are not big enough to leave big…
Robert Kolb offers this helpful analysis of the differences between Luther and Chemnitz on justification: “Luther understood justification as the execution of the wages of sin . . . upon sinners and their simultaneous resurrectionto new life in Jesus Christ . . . . Chemnitz did not pursue this aspect…
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