The Eternally Wounded Christ
There are several reasons why Jesus bears the wounds of His sufferings for all eternity.
Believers need to have their fears and doubts allayed. When the glorified Christ charged Thomas to touch the nail-prints in his hands and feet, and his pierced side, he was teaching every subsequent generation of believers about that which of most importance to their faith. While we do not now see the visible wounds of... Continue Reading
Is There a Climate Change Cult?
I suspect that in 2020 we are going to be hearing even more about climate change than we heard about transgender issues in 2019.
I suspect that what we will NOT get from the BBC in 2020 is a year of balanced reporting on the climate and the different views that people hold. If you question the current climate change doctrine you will be labeled a heretic and banned. Welcome to Climate Pravda. Climate change is real. Human... Continue Reading
What Will Our Resurrection Body Be Like?
Scripture does provide certain key rails for our train of thought on the resurrection.
What will our body be like? Will it be like we have now but with what we might call super powers? Will a disabled body from birth have an abled body that, in many ways, will look and act quite different in the resurrection (as in the case with cerebral palsy)? And if someone has... Continue Reading
Revisiting Revoice: Same-Sex Attraction in the Fall
Revoice theology agrees that homosexual behavior is morally culpable sin, but does not necessarily agree that temptation to homosexual behavior is morally culpable sin.
A fair number of Protestant Christians were wrongly taught that temptation to sin is never the same thing as sin. But temptation to sin is sin, when that temptation stems from within. Temptation from within is rooted in our fallen flesh, while temptation from without originates with the world and Satan. We know from God’s word that Adam... Continue Reading
A Lesson (or Two) in Death
As a boy I heard preachers say that every death happened for a reason, but I couldn’t figure out the reason for my mum’s death.
I lost my mother unexpectedly in April, 2001. She was in her early thirties. She left behind her husband and three little boys, the youngest being 7 months old at the time. Back then I did not understand what had happened. And I was too young to ask questions, or to fully understand the answers... Continue Reading
Retrieving Theology: A Question of Posture
What is theological retrieval and is it any different than what we think of as church history or historical theology?
The short answer is that retrieval is a particular way of doing historical theology, largely in its insistence on a certain posture toward the Christian past. In my view, I see retrieval as helpful, precisely because of this posture, despite my dissatisfaction with many instantiations of it. Recent days and years have seen an... Continue Reading
How to Read the Bible in Context and Stay on Track
An accurate meaning of words, verses, and stories may be found only as understood in context.
“He hit a home run,” may mean different things depending on whether it was written in the context of a business presentation or a baseball game. “Out of Egypt I have called my son,” has meaning in light of its Matthew 2 and Hosea 11 contexts. On the other hand, in Exodus God identifies Israel,... Continue Reading
When Miracles Fail
What do we expect these signs and wonders to accomplish?
Do we think a sign or wonder will communicate the Gospel? Is it leading people to Christ? The answer here is actually shocking. If you read all of Acts 14 as one narrative, as Luke wants you to, then the thesis to the chapter is not, “Paul does miraculous works.” Instead Luke records the thesis in Acts... Continue Reading
Three Ways Christians Misunderstand Obedience
Make no mistake, humans crave order and accountability.
Often Christians dismiss rules, as if the most joyful kind of life is the life without restraint, as if grace means we are free to live enslaved to our desires. But the gospel teaches a different way. Here are three ways Christians misunderstand obedience. I’ll never forget the conversation my wife and I had... Continue Reading
Living All The Bible: A Response To A Faddish Argument
Of the Old Testament law, only the moral law, summarized in the Ten Commandments was intended to be permanent and even that law, as it was expressed at Sinai (Ex 20) had temporary features.
The living-the-Bible-for-a-year approach ignores basic literary conventions like types and shadows. A type is an illustration of a future reality. A shadow is a sketch of future realities. According to the New Testament, the types, shadows, and sketches of future realities were fulfilled in Christ. It was on this principle that the Holy Spirit revealed to the Apostle... Continue Reading