The pragmatic calculation is to deny Christ. To take a shot in the kneecap, a ride to the hospital, and return home to the embrace of your family. To live to provide and care for them all the remaining days of your . . . Continue reading →
Eschatology
Strangers And Aliens (3): The Good News Of The Salvation Has Now Been Announced (1 Peter 1:10–12)
What is the central unifying narrative thread in the history of redemption? For many American evangelicals the default answer to this question is: national Israel. For them it is a mark of faithfulness to Scripture to assume that the central, unifying thread . . . Continue reading →
Strangers And Aliens (2): Doxology, Suffering, And Salvation (1 Peter 1:3–9)
For the Apostle Peter, Christians are delivered from Pharaoh, as it were, but we are not yet in Canaan. We are “in Christ” and with him we have been raised from the dead. We have an inheritance (below) we have not yet . . . Continue reading →
Strangers And Aliens (1): Christ’s Abounding Graces (1 Peter 1:1–2)
I suspect this sort of idea is difficult for some of us to receive with joy. It is not on many of our agendas to to be so identified with Christ, in this hostile world, as to be required to suffer and die for him. It was only Peter’s agenda, however, and therefore on God’s agenda. Remember, the Lord Jesus had promised Peter, “when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go” (John 21.18). Jesus predicted Peter’s martyrdom and Peter was, in effect predicting suffering, if not martyrdom for his readers. Continue reading →
But Deliver Us From The Evil One
Whoever has God for his friend will find Satan to be his enemy. He receives the name of Satan, first, because he is the adversary of God himself; and next, because he is the adversary of those whom God honors with his . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 123: The Second Petition—Your Kingdom Come (1)
What this all means is that how one understands the kingdom is very closely related to one’s eschatology. This is the often unspoken assumption behind the too-often heated debate over the kingdom in confessional Reformed circles. Most everyone in the contemporary intra-Reformed agrees that Christ is reigning now, that he is sovereign now, but the disagreement comes over the implications of that reign. We all agree that the kingdom has been inaugurated and that it has earthly manifestations but where we disagree is where to look for those manifestations. Since the late 19th century, those who have been influenced by what has come to be called “neo-Calvinism” (neo is Greek for new) have sometimes argued that Christ’s reign is such that the kingdom is manifested in everything than any Christian does for the sake of Christ. This is a more expansive way of speaking of the implications of the kingdom of God than was traditionally used. Those who take the narrower view, tend to associate the manifestation of the kingdom of God on the earth with the visible institutional church. Continue reading →
Antinomianism Is The Fruit Of Over-Realized Eschatology
Those who do not see the Law as valid in the life of the Christian must also assert that this world has passed away and that the new world has already been inaugurated. This proposition must be firmly rejected because only at Christ’s . . . Continue reading →
Vos: Distinguishing Two Ages Is Not Platonism
If further inquiring into the characteristics of the aionion, still keeping its formal aspect rather than its substantial content in view, the first feature obtruding itself is that of the imperishableness, including the unchangeableness, of the things pertaining to it. Paul declares, . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: The Land Promise Was For Israel
And that thou mayest live long on the earth. Moses expressly mentions the land of Canaan, “that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” (Exod. 20:12.) Beyond this the Jews could not conceive of . . . Continue reading →
Interview With TruNews’ Rick Wiles: On The Secret Rapture
It was a pleasure to talk with Rick Wiles on TruNews today. Rick’s show is heard on radio stations all over America, across the globe, and on the web at TruNews.com. Here is the full episode. Here is the audio from the . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 58: Bored By Heaven? (2)
58. What comfort do we have from the article of “life everlasting”? That, inasmuch as I now feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, I shall after this life possess complete bliss, such as eye has not seen, nor ear . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 58: Bored By Heaven? (1)
58. What comfort do we have from the article of “life everlasting”? That, inasmuch as I now feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, I shall after this life possess complete bliss, such as eye has not seen, nor ear . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 57: The Comfort Of Resurrection And Glorification
The European Enlightenment(s) posed as world-expanding, mind-expanding movements. They promised to free us from the shackles of a benighted, narrow view of the world. Ironically, however, the Enlightenments did just the opposite. Whether through rationalism (what the human intellect cannot comprehend cannot . . . Continue reading →
The Spirit Of Our Age
…Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. —Deut 12:8; Judges 17:6; 21:25; Prov 12:15; 21:2
Heidelberg 52: When The Final Judgment Is Good News
…when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus (Rom 2:15–16.). The world gospel means good news. The verbal form of the noun (εὐαγγέλιόν) Paul uses in v. 16 in secular Greek “is always used in a . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 51: The Glory Of A King Distant And Near
Difficult as it may be for those who live within “the Beltway” (as if there is only one city in the world with a beltway) to imagine, many Americans have never visited the American capitol. For many Americans the capitol is distant . . . Continue reading →
Utopia Always Morphs To Dystopia
As long as human beings are unique, as long as even one of them thinks independently of others, Utopia is a total pipe dream. Compliance must be forced. Or human beings must cease to be human by giving up their uniqueness. Either . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 50: Christ Reigns Now (2)
Last time we looked briefly at some of the reasons some evangelicals (Dispensationalists) have had difficulty with the biblical and historic Christian doctrine that Jesus is presently reigning over all things and particularly his church. That view is in contrast to the . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 50: Christ Reigns Now (1)
It is basic to historic Christian teaching and confession that Jesus is reigning and ruling now. In the sixth article of the Apostles’ Creed all Christians confess, “He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 45: Three Benefits Of Christ’s Resurrection (4)
Be4 I sign off learned a new word in church today: Eschatology. Anyone? — Katie Couric (@katiecouric) December 1, 2014 Couric, a television host took a lot of heat for admitting that she did not know what “eschatology” means. That’s unfortunate because . . . Continue reading →