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Matthew

What Tune is Playing? (Matthew 11:1-19)

Matthew’s gospel is a replay of Israel’s history, and this replay occurs at two different levels. On the one hand, Jesus relives Israel’s history and does it faithfully. He is the Son, the true Israel, called out of Egypt, baptized in the sea, tempted in the wilderness. He is the…

by Peter LeithartJanuary 14, 2014
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Theopolis News

Constantine, Christendom, Christian Renewal

Trinity House President Peter Leithart will deliver two lectures at the Eighth Day Institute annual conference in Wichita, Kansas, January 16-18. The conference theme is "Constantine, Christendom, and Christian Renewal," and Dr. Leithart will be lecturing on Constantine. Dr. Leithart will preach on Sunday, January 19, at Trinity Covenant Church…

by Peter LeithartJanuary 13, 2014
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Matthew

Treasures in Matthew's Genealogy, 2

In the previous article, we considered the life of Abraham up to the birth of Isaac and the way in which his life up to that point foreshadows later redemptive history. Our reason for this consideration was at the Gospel of Matthew's behest. He pointed us in that direction. He…

by Kelly KerrJanuary 9, 2014
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Theology

The Trinity and the Nations, 3

The Spirit of Speech The last period in Israel’s history arrives almost from nowhere. The prophets appear unannounced, give short, but earth-shattering messages and then are whisked away by the Spirit (1 Kings 18:12). They do not hold high positions in Israel, but their words give them great political sway.…

by Brian MarrJanuary 7, 2014
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Theopolis News

Nevin Lectures

Trinity House Institute is delighted to announce our first annual series of Nevin Lectures. Timothy George, Dean and Professor of Church History at Beeson Divinity School, will deliver four lectures on “Sacramental Theology from a Baptist Perspective” on February 7-8, 2014 at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. More information...…

by TheopolisJanuary 2, 2014
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Revelation

Him Whom They Pierced

Revelation 1: 7 states the theme of Revelation. It is a self-standing verse, beginning and ending with “Amen” (the “Amen” at the end of verse 6 should be taken as the beginning of the statement in verse 7). A double Amen as a double witness, and it becomes a threefold…

by Peter LeithartJanuary 1, 2014

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Preparation for justification

The medieval arguments in favor of the notion of preparation for justification through created grace are founded on anthropological and cosmological claims. McGrath summarizes the Summa Fratris Alexandri , which he calls “the first systematic discussion of the nature of created grace,” as follows: “The Holy Spirit can be said…

April 27, 2006

Active and Passive

Here is a hypothesis or suspicion, not a conclusion, much less a conviction: The notion that God rewards what we do with what we have, and the notion that we are purely passive in salvation are not, as they appear, extreme opposites, but are two positions within the same framework.…

April 27, 2006

Hodge and the deliverdict

Charles Hodge doesn’t quite get to justification as deliverdict here, but he comes close: “[Paul] had just said that the believer cannot continue to serve sin. He here [in 6:7] gives the reason: for he who has died (with Christ) is justified, and therefore free from sin, free from its…

April 26, 2006

Aquinas and merit

Strict justice, Aquinas argued, is only possible between equals, and since God and man are not equals there is never strict justice in God’s dealings with us. Further, God being God, He is never put in debt to His creatures, never obligated to give anything, unless by His own prior…

April 26, 2006

Did Christ Merit Salvation?

According to Calvin, only in a qualified sense. McGrath says, “The later Franciscan school, the via moderna and the schola Augustiniana moderna regarded the ratio meriti as lying in the divine good pleasure; nothing was meritorious unless God chose to accept it as such. This teaching was extended to include…

April 26, 2006
Philosophy

Highlights of Marion, Being Given, Books 1-2

I have been greatly helped here by Cynthia Nielsen’s online summaries of Marion’s book. 1) One of Marion’s main ambitions is to move beyond the Western concern with being with its concomitant focus on the “object.” In place of “objectness,” a static notion of the things of the world, Marion…

April 26, 2006

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