Posts with the category “theology”

IntroductionIn our recent sermon entitled “Whiteness is not the unforgivable sin,”  we defined blasphemy against the Spirit, AKA the unforgivable sin, as attributing to Satan the work of the Spirit. W...  Read More

IntroductionThe key to defining legalism is patience. To merely call it salvation by works is like saying a poisoned well is simply water. Technically true, perhaps, but missing what makes it deadly. ...  Read More

IntroductionConsider, if you will, the most audacious of theological propositions: that the Almighty Himself operates in the grand theater of redemptive history as Warrior-King par excellence. The Mos...  Read More

He makes a pit, digging it out,    and falls into the hole that he has made. (Psalm 7:15)The PitPsalm 7:15 describes a situation where a person falls into a trap they set for someone else. The pit is ...  Read More

IntroductionThe problem is murmured in its various forms within the Christian world. The state university, once a civic institution devoted to the dissemination of knowledge, now labors under the weig...  Read More

Human work doesn’t begin with God’s curse upon it but with God’s creative energy. Work is not a punishment for sin, but a noble calling.[1] Since work is God’s assignment given to people, work is part...  Read More

IntroductionSomethings appears to be good at the beginning, only to find out that everything isn’t so good at the end. That about sums up the complicated place of Balaam in the Bible. Consider three l...  Read More

IntroductionThere is a distinction between temptation and sin. Temptation is an invitation to sin that comes in the form of an external suggestion or an internal desire. First John 2:16 says, “For all...  Read More

IntroductionSome deaths are described as “natural.” But this is like saying that darkness is wholesome. Christ’s death reminds us that it's not death that is natural. It’s natural when the Son obeys t...  Read More

IntroductionThe problem with the gospel-centered movement is that it lathers people up with the suds of grace and then sends “believers” away still dirty; almost like they haven’t been cleaned; almost...  Read More

IntroductionThe difference between sinful and righteous division needs careful explanation. It is the kind of distinction that, if ignored, can lead one to amputate a limb for a paper cut or keep gang...  Read More

IntroductionFor the Bible reader to continue cultivating the patience of Bible study, he must take very careful note of not just the celebrated passages but also the overlooked objects of Scripture. S...  Read More

The Abrahamic Covenant has to do with nation and place. But also the Abrahamic covenant contains an essentially spiritual nature, so much so that it was not fundamentally a covenant with a nation, the...  Read More

Mark 9:24, “I believe; help my unbelief.” The boy’s father affirms two things. He believes. He doesn’t believe. There seems to be no contradiction between (A) the father’s affirmation of faith; and (B...  Read More

IntroductionChristians these days are always complaining about how American politics needs serious reform. History gives little hope that convulsive struggles among the principalities and powers ameli...  Read More

IntroductionVideo games are the magical invention of an imaginary world. To play the game is to conquer a pretend planet. All power in that world is just one click away.  You see what isn’t real and b...  Read More

IntroductionJob 5:17 says “Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.” Learning to receive the Lord’s discipline (Heb. 12:3-11) as a blessing i...  Read More

IntroductionAt Harvard College in the eighteenth century, hell was the first doctrine discarded. It was an offense to rationalism that a loving God sends people to hell. They didn’t pretend the Bible ...  Read More

The Sanhedrin had been crowned, anointed, and named the official power brokers of Israel. When the rogue rabbi from Nazareth showed up, they claimed the right to kill him, as much as a Scot has a righ...  Read More

The StoryAbsalom, David’s third son, is a character painted in the vivid and tragic hues of Scripture. He is introduced as a man of striking appearance, a veritable Adonis born in Hebron to Maacah (2 ...  Read More

The StoryBible readers are well-acquainted with the luminous figures of the Old Testament: the first Adam, the venerable Abraham, and the illustrious Patriarchs, not forgetting the liberating Moses, t...  Read More

IntroductionThe thesis statement of this essay, laconically stated in the title, is derived from Romans 1:18-21.“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousnes...  Read More

Our first parents, being seduced by the subtlety and temptations of Satan, sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin God was pleased, according to His wise and holy counsel, to permit, havi...  Read More

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,the Only Begotten Son of God,born of the Father before all ages.God from God, Light from Light,true God from true God,begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Fat...  Read More

IntroductionThere is a need for careful distinction between tradition and traditionalism. The word “tradition” appears six times in Mark 7:1-23. Jesus is teaching about what healthy tradition looks li...  Read More

1.    False prophets speak super-spiritual language to deceive and manipulate people (Lamentations 2:14).2.    False prophets promise peace when it suits their interest and war when it suits their int...  Read More

Introduction“I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; 14 That thou keep this commandment witho...  Read More

1.    Faith is the antecedent condition of justification (Rom. 5:1). Works are not efficacious for acquiring justification (Rom. 3:23f; 5:5).2.    Regenerate Christians will perform good works (Mt. 7:...  Read More

IntroductionImagine a father and his three-year-old daughter step out for a neighborhood stroll. The familiar sights and sounds hum around them. The sun, in its gentle descent, casts a warm glow upon ...  Read More

IntroductionThe Bible presents an optimistic eschatology. The Kingdom of the Lord will start small but eventually spread to the whole earth (Mk. 4:30ff). The nations are ruled by the Lord and over tim...  Read More

IntroductionProjecting the future is what scholars refer to as an epistemological pickle. Scripture solves that problem by giving a framework for looking at both history and the future that centers ar...  Read More

IntroductionInheritance is not merely the transference of possessions upon the occasion of one's demise. It is a profound endeavor dedicated to the perpetuation of that most cardinal creation: the hou...  Read More

The problem of “stuff” in modern American life is not that we have too much of it, but we have the wrong view of it. Put again, the problem isn’t stuff, but our misuse of it. What is stuff? The Englis...  Read More

IntroductionThe central event of the New Testament is not the overthrow of the Old Testament, but the overthrow of death by way of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, which forever linked the two testaments,...  Read More

IntroductionThe relationship between the church and the state is a controversial subject in the current climate. It was also a controversial subject during the Reformation. Joel Biermann has written a...  Read More

IntroductionThe murder of Christ is not a fragment of a larger theology. It is the larger theology that touches every fragment. In the death and resurrection of Christ, one all-embracing power knocks ...  Read More

“In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were...  Read More

IntroductionEvangelicals exhibit a mysterious suspicion of the assurance of salvation. And so it is that lots of Christians struggle with a lack of assurance. They have anxiety about the final state o...  Read More

IntroductionThe word “bless” is a regular part of life in the South. Clerks conclude the transaction with “Have a blessed day.” Little old ladies conclude the gossip huddle with “Bless his heart.” Fam...  Read More

Many of you are now in the midst of memorizing Psalms for our annual Psummer Psalms (thanks to Daron Drown for organizing this event every year). This is where you pick a Psalm, memorize it, and then ...  Read More