Retribution and Redemption
The death penalty has its origin in God's dealings with Noah and those who stepped off of the Ark with him immediately after the flood.
Jesus was in the loins of Noah, so to speak. The nations were also in the loins of Noah. Noah stood as a second Adam, the head of a newly created humanity standing in a typical new creation–though far from being the consummated new heavens and new earth. In order to secure the populating of... Continue Reading
The Idol of Idolatry
As we focus on identifying and smashing the idols in our lives, we sometimes forget to pause and marvel at God’s sufficiency as He uses these fears and struggles for our sanctification.
The problem with the vigilante Christian life was that I concerned myself more with being an expert idol smasher than with seeing God as sufficient in what He was using to sanctify me. Instead of wrestling with matters like my fears, my doubts about God, my love for nature and art, my career plans or... Continue Reading
False Alarms And The Impending Judgment of God
A message more urgent than a nuclear warhead and more inescapable than being trapped on an island with an inbound missile is the coming judgment of God.
Like the proverbial “boy who cried wolf,” many are so accustomed to false alarms they don’t take heed when a warning is actually true. Our warnings of God’s judgment is often met with indifference and sudden attempts to change the conversation. Likewise, the words of the prophet Ezekiel were not heard as he warned of... Continue Reading
5 Ways to Be a Godly Grandparent
Scripture doesn’t let grandparents, or even seniors without their own children or grandchildren, off the hook for impacting the next generation.
The Christian life is a race, and we’re called to run to the very end (Hebrews 12:1–3), not just to an arbitrary retirement age! God can use you to make an impact on the lives of those around you regardless of your age (young [1 Timothy 4:12] or old!). Of course, we will likely have... Continue Reading
Should Christians Withdraw from the World?
When Christ calls people into His kingdom, He doesn’t pull them out of the world forever. He sends them back out with the gospel.
Just after His resurrection Jesus came to the upper room, where the Apostles were hiding in fear, and told them that they were to wait for the Spirit to be poured out. But at that point, there was to be no more waiting. Once the Spirit came, they were to go out into the world... Continue Reading
‘Til Kingdom Come
"On the one hand, 'kingdom of God' is the narrower, and 'church' the wider concept...On the other hand, the 'kingdom of God' or 'of heaven' is a broader concept than that of the church."
The complexity of these two concepts necessitates that we give the utmost care to our consideration of both their distinctness and interrelatedness. It is only as we do so that we will profitably enter into conversations about the mission of the church, social justice, mercy ministry, the individual and the corporate, the sacred and the... Continue Reading
The Gospel According to Progressive Christianity: Is it Really Good News?
Why does Charles Wesley find the blood of Jesus to be soul-saving good news, and Michael Gungor find it to be gruesome and horrific?
Gospel is a word that literally means “good news.” It’s used a lot in the Bible, and Christians say it all the time. The Apostle Paul said he wasn’t ashamed of it and anyone who preaches a different one should be cursed. He called it “the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.” Jesus... Continue Reading
Why Pastors Should Engage Francis Turretin
it is Turrretin’s precision that makes him so necessary for pastors today.
Covering the whole range of systematic theology, Turretin offers twenty topics. Each topic is addressed through a series of questions. The questions are answered. Objections are raised. Objections are answered. With the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel, Turretin addresses problems, works through all the angles, and brings the reader to a pinpoint resolution—aided by logic,... Continue Reading
God Is Not Small
As Packer puts it, God is barely a “smudge” on the page of our secularized lives.
Ever since the garden of Eden, Satan has been seeking to convince each of us that we can “be like God” (Gen. 3:5). The clear assumption behind this lie is that you and I can actually be like Him. It is an explicit denial of the “Godness” of God, an obvious rejection of the Creator-creature distinction,... Continue Reading
Pilgrim Theology Versus Ethnic Theology
Those ethnic groups who have suffered, who have been politically, culturally, or economically oppressed, have had an important experience but does that suffering define them?
Over against the panoply of ethnic and sexual theologies that emerged in late modernity (post-1968 in the USA and post-1914 in Europe) this essay argues that we should doubt the major premise upon which any ethnic theology is constructed and that Christians ought to abandon such projects and embrace the traditional trans-ethnic designations: Christian, Patristic,... Continue Reading
