In recent days there has been considerable discussion about what it means to speak of “preaching Christ from all of Scripture.” Some object to this way of speaking and this approach to Bible interpretation on the grounds that it does violence to . . . Continue reading →
Biblical theology
Office Hours: Journeys With Jesus
Millions of Christians gather every week to hear sermons preached, we trust, from God’s Word. Believers read and study it. Pastors and elders study it but we do not always agree about how to understand it. How often have you heard someone . . . Continue reading →
Resources For A Redemptive-Historical Reading Of Scripture
“Biblical theology,” or “redemptive-historical” theology may be new terms or perhaps confusing. After all, is not Reformed theology supposed to be biblical? Yes, it is but in the history of theology there developed, in the 19th century, a movement that intended to . . . Continue reading →
The Church: The Christ-Confessing Covenant Community
When one talks about the church what is at stake is the way in which the Christian life is organized. I believe that the Bible teaches us that believers should be united to the visible community of the redeemed meeting for worship, instruction, and fellowship in an organized, disciplined, way. If I am wrong, then millions of dollars and millions of hours and lives are being sadly misspent. Continue reading →
Jude On The Continuity Of The Covenant Of Grace
Tucked in as it is between 3 John and the Revelation, it is easy to over look the epistle of Jude but this past Lord’s Day I noticed something I had not before and that something tells us a good deal about . . . Continue reading →
AGR: With Chris Gordon On Unhitching The Faith From The Holy Old Testament God
Recently Atlanta pastor Andy Stanley argued that Christians should “unhitch” their faith from the Old Testament. He was trying to respond to concerns that people have about difficult episodes in the history of redemption but in so doing he fell into an . . . Continue reading →
2018 Faculty Conference—The Bible: His Stories, Your Life
Cranfield On Why “Works Of The Law” Means More Than Mosaic Ceremonies
We turn now at last to Romans. The first occurrence of ἔργα νόμου is in 3:20: διότι ἐξ ἔργων νόμου οὐ δικαιωθήσεται πᾶσα σὰρξ ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, διὰ γὰρ νόμου ἐπίγνωσις ἁμαρτίας. Dunn explains ἔργα νόμου here as meaning quite specifically those observances . . . Continue reading →
What The Bible Is All About
The hit TV show Seinfeld has been called a show about nothing. One of the most pernicious falsehoods about the Bible is that it, too, is a book about nothing, that it is a random collection of ancient myths and moral aphorisms. . . . Continue reading →
Strangers And Aliens (7): The Living Stone And The Living Stones (1 Peter 2:4–6)
There is a strain of modern evangelical theology that looks forward to the literal rebuilding of the Israelite temple and to the re-institution of sacrifices, albeit, in that case, memorial sacrifices. This passage should help us see one of the important reasons . . . Continue reading →
What The Bible Is All About
The hit TV show Seinfeld has been called a show about nothing. One of the most pernicious falsehoods about the Bible is that it, too, is a book about nothing, that it is a random collection of ancient myths and moral aphorisms. . . . Continue reading →
Saturday And The Silence Of The Lamb
During this season, which many Christians call “Holy Week,” I am perversely drawn to Saturday. Perhaps it is because the Saturday between “Good” Friday and Resurrection Day is, for others a sort of relief. For them it is a day off from . . . Continue reading →
What The Prophets Knew
In taking the comfort of the prophetic promises to our hearts we do not, perhaps, always realize what after the tempests and tumults, in the brief seasons of clear shining which God interposed, such relief must have meant to the prophets themselves. . . . Continue reading →
Is There An Apostolic Hermeneutic And Can We Imitate it?
Yes and yes. No, it’s not in the Scofield Reference or Ryrie Study Bibles. It seems that some of our dispensational friends have yet to read the memo. See this example sent to me a by a friend. This writer, whom I do . . . Continue reading →
The Christmas Story As You’ve Never Heard It Before
When we think of Christmas, we probably don’t think of Genesis 19 and Lot’s daughters. It’s one of the more difficult stories in Scripture. It’s an ugly story of doubt and worse. As Pastor Gordon notes, in this sermon, some have said . . . Continue reading →
This Christian Life
One of my favorite radio programs is This American Life starring Ira Glass. I stumbled across this show several years ago, and for a while I did not understand why I was so attracted to it. Glass does not have a classic “radio voice” . . . Continue reading →
Preaching Genesis 1
We’ve been blessed by the ministry of pastor Chris Gordon at Escondido URC. He’s also the proprietor of the Gordian Knot and the host of the Abounding Grace Radio program, currently broadcast in the Pacific Northwest, Phoenix, and San Diego. Recently, he . . . Continue reading →
Biblical Theology Isn’t New—It’s In the Catechism
HC Q. 19 (Pt 1)
Go the reference room (virtual or real), find a encyclopedia entry on “Biblical Theology” and one will likely find an entry that begins in the 19th century liberalism. Depending upon which entries one reads, one might find reference to the Dutch Reformed . . . Continue reading →
New: Riddlebarger on 1Corinthians
Kim Riddlebarger has a new commentary on 1Corinthians forthcoming in the Lectio Continua series. He’s got the information on the RB. The Lectio Continua series is a new exegetical, Reformed commentary, on Scripture, edited by Jon Payne, pastor of Grace PCA in . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Fesko on Galatians
The latest Office Hours is just out. In this episode Office Hours talks with John Fesko, Professor of Systematic Theology and Historical Theology at Westminster Seminary California, about his new commentary on Galatians. We talked about the setting of Galatians (when, where, to . . . Continue reading →