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.…
Showing page 234 of 309
Showing page 7 of 43
Departures are funny things in the Bible. No one ever completely leaves. Moses dies, but Joshua, a new Moses, replaces him. Elijah flies to heaven in a chariot of fire, but Elisha is left behind, filled with the spirit of Elijah. Jesus says, I am going away, and in the…
Since 1900, it’s been unavailable but before that, “Christ’s foreskin was one of the most popular relics in Christendom” (David Farley, AN Irreverent Curiosity: In Search of the Church’s Strangest Relic in Italy’s Oddest Town ) Catherine of Siena said she wore the foreskin as a wedding ring, being a…
Users of LSD during the 60s were not just out for a joy ride. They were the vanguard of a new race. Jay Stevens says ( Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream , xiii-xiv): “the hippies were an attempt to push evolution, to jump the species toward a higher…
The point has been made by many, but few have made it as concisely as Ivan Illich in Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health . Writing in the 1970s, he noted that “during the last century doctors have affected epidemics no more profoundly than did priests during earlier times. Epidemics…
We think science is objective. But scientific objectivity has a history, and is a fairly recent arrival as a scientific aspiration. Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison observe in Objectivity (17), “Objectivity has not always define science. Nor is objectivity the same as truth or certainty, and it is younger than…
American marriage is unique, argues Andrew Cherlin ( The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today , 9-10), because American marriage marries individualism and marriage: “Family life in America comprises both cultural models - marriage and individualism. Each is part of the cultural tool kit .…
Showing page 752 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
