To suppose that Mark’s omission of the virgin birth means he doesn’t believe in the virgin birth (and thus must not share Matthew and Luke’s Christology) is an unsustainable line of reasoning. After all, Mark doesn’t even include a birth account!  Should we conclude from that fact that he didn’t believe Jesus was born at... Continue Reading

This isn’t semantics or politics.  Rome understood the Reformation and she anathematized many of its major emphases: bondage of the will, justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, the sacraments, and so forth.  Though I am a Protestant who strongly disagrees with Trent and many of the doctrines of Rome (and therefore... Continue Reading

This is a very timely book because it seems that in an effort to combat liberal theology and feminism, the conservative church may have narrowed their focus a bit on the whole woman issue. As thankful as I am for some very helpful teaching on biblical womanhood, I am afraid that we may have become... Continue Reading

Not surprisingly, one of the major tenets in Ehrman’s argument is that Jesus never considered himself to be God, nor ever claimed to be God. In order to make his case, Ehrman summarizes his arguments from his book, Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium (Oxford, 2001), and says that Jesus just viewed himself as an apocalyptic... Continue Reading

The greatest delight I had from reading Reformed Dogmatics was in the undeniable clarity of the writing and argumentation that Vos employs. It is common to think of Vos as primarily a biblical theologian. His most important works that have been published so far have been in this vein. But the simple clarity of Reformed Dogmatics causes me to... Continue Reading

At one time Green had apparently intended to be a minister and vestiges of a Christian worldview can be found in the book, but only vestiges. Mostly he teaches—well, I don’t know what he teaches. It’s not nihilism, but neither is it Christian hope and optimism. In a novel about illness and death, he makes... Continue Reading

“Overall, I was quite pleased with the book, though, as with any such collection, the essays vary, not so much in quality, but as in how they affected me. I found C. John Collins’ essay thin and unconvincing. The most helpful is Leland Ryken’s essay “Reclaiming the Psalms for Private Worship.” The essays by Craig... Continue Reading

Mariano didn’t try on a real baseball glove until he was 16. Until that time, he and his friends fashioned together gloves from “a milk carton, a bat from a stick,” and a ball made from wrapping a rock in fishing nets and tape, as they played along the shore. He dropped out of high... Continue Reading

“And I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Born again? What is that?’” Langer said. “I hadn’t heard that in all the churches I had been to. … At first I thought, ‘Well, he’s using a different Bible than we use.’” But a few months after that Bible study, he “knew exactly” what he needed. “The Bible says nobody is... Continue Reading

“One device that Satan uses to keep souls in a sad, doubting, and questioning condition – to make their life hell – is to causing them to constantly muse upon their sin, and to mind their sins more than their Savior, yea, so to mind their sins as to forget or even neglect their Savior. ... Continue Reading