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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David is frequently under threat in the Psalms, usually from enemies. In Psalm 40, though, the enemies seem to be different. “Evils beyond number have surrounded me; my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see” (v. 12). David’s own sins are his enemies, circling, setting…
Psalm 148:7-12 calls everything to praise the Yahweh, from sea monsters to children. The list has a number of interesting features. It is organized first by the zones of creation and then by the categories of created things. It begins with the sea (v. 7b), moves to the sky (v.…
The Spirit joins us to Christ so we share all His gifts. The Spirit binds us in the communion of the saints. The Spirit is the earnest of our future inheritance. He is the Spirit of salvation, the Spirit of the church, the Spirit of the future. Economy reveals ontology.…
The last of Jesus’ woes in Matthew 23 warns about the judgment coming on the scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites for their treatment of the prophets. Several notes: First, the Pharisees and scribes say that they would not have shed the blood of prophets as their fathers did (v. 30). This…
Work is worrisome. Time was, though, when you could leave the worries at the office. Not any more, Bauman says ( Collateral Damage: Social Inequalities in a Global Age , 76): “Most of us take those worries with us, in our laptops and mobile phones, wherever we go - to…
We are in the middle of a second “great transformation,” suggests Zygmunt Bauman in Collateral Damage: Social Inequalities in a Global Age (46-7). Industrialization has given way to an “experience economy.” Bauman points to a shift in the metaphors and vocabulary of management theory as evidence: “To convey the rules…
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