There is no time in human history when you were more perfectly represented than in the Garden of Eden because your representative was chosen infallibly by a perfectly holy, perfectly just, omniscient God. So I cannot say that I would have done differently than Adam did.   I think the New Testament does teach that... Continue Reading

I love and have been instructed by A Christmas Carol because of the way Dickens condenses down to its essence the whole grand progress from sin to salvation, selfishness to compassion, despair to hope, imprisonment to freedom: the accomplishments of a lifetime turned, like Shakespeare’s Henry V, into an hour glass.   Let me begin... Continue Reading

It pays to hold your nerve when the rest of the culture is losing theirs. Not just for your own sake. But for the sake of those who risk becoming a byword for the (hopefully) brief period of madness that overlook a declining Western culture at the start of the 21st century.   It pays... Continue Reading

Man’s fall into sin brings bad news, but the gospel announces good news. While Adam and Eve failed under temptation, Jesus endured and overcame temptation (Matt. 4:1–11). Though we have misery through Adam, we have life through Christ. This lesson paves the way for examining sin and its effects and for seeing the majesty of... Continue Reading

Since the Book of Revelation speaks of all sorts of fiery trials or events, it is worth pausing to see how John (and Jesus) speak of tribulation in Revelations 1–3 to get a sense of what the word means. (I will leave the question of tribulational timing for another time.)   The word tribulation has... Continue Reading

While a distinction between sinner and sin is a handy one for protecting the individual from God’s hatred, it simply cannot bear up under the weight of Scriptural evidence which has God showing hatred, or wrath, resting on individuals. Jesus condemns people as workers of iniquity (Lk 13:27), and will take personal vengeance on those... Continue Reading

There is biblical precedent for congregants holding forth their hands when the benediction is pronounced. For instance, in Nehemiah 8:6, we read, “Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.”... Continue Reading

Though the Christian tradition does not present a unified voice on what it means to be human, it nevertheless contains a substantial body of theological reflection on anthropology that exhibits striking family resemblances across many centuries and many theological traditions. The church did not begin thinking about anthropology at the turn of the third millennium.... Continue Reading

This new covenant abolished the part of the Law dealing with ceremony and sacrifice, but it did not do away with the part of the Law that reveals God’s standard of Righteousness for it is by this Law becoming apparent to our hearts contrasted with our utter lack of righteousness that God uses to draw... Continue Reading

I have long told my students that virtually everything that Milton wrote can be read devotionally. The images that Milton places before us in Paradise Lost fall into the same categories as we find in the Bible—examples of moral and spiritual evil to avoid and images of good to emulate. The effect in my life... Continue Reading