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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INTRODUCTION God is love, John says, and that love is manifested in history through the Father’s love for the Son, a love expressed in the gift of the Spirit. That eternal familial love of Father and Son in the Spirit is the source and model of all human love. THE…
Malachi 1:6-7: A son honors his father, and a servant his master Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, How have…
There is no baptism today, but this is our first service in some time without one. We have a lot of small children in this congregation, and that is a great joy and blessing. It is also a great challenge. Think ahead: What will Trinity look like in 13 years,…
Eco (in a 1981 article in The Bulletin of the Midwest MLA ) surveys the problems of sign theory. A fundamental objection to a general theory of signs is that the concept of “sign” is being used for things that are unlike: For linguistic signs that stand for the things…
Linguistic wisdom from Eco: “It is true that signs in themselves, e.g., the words of verbal language in their dictionary form, look like petrified conventions by comparison to the vitality and energy displayed by texts in their production of new sense, where they make signs interact with each other in…
INTRODUCTION Waltke points out that alternating verses of this section describe undisciplined and wayward sons and who bring evil to themselves and all those who surround them. The passages progress from the sluggard (v. 24) to the shameful son (v. 26) to the false witness (v. 28) to the brawler…
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