To say that 1 Timothy 2:12 is “difficult” Continue reading
Hermeneutics
Augustine Contra Biblicism
Or if anyone should think this is untrue, I am not going to quarrel about it. After all, I am clearly dealing with Christians, who rejoice over their knowing the holy Scriptures without human guidance; and if that is the case, it . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours With Sujin Pak On Calvin’s Hermeneutics And More
Few Bible interpreters in the history of the church have been as prolific and influential as John Calvin (1509–64). Love or hate him, one cannot ignore him. He wrote commentaries upon much of Scripture. As a humanist, he was a careful, sensitive, . . . Continue reading →
What The Reformed Can Learn From A 1532 Synod: God Should Be Preached Only As He Is Known In Christ
How disgraceful it is for a servant of Christ not to know the command of His Lord, and to pursue some other, useless preoccupation, and fail to take an interest in the things which concern His Lord, who is our everlasting blessedness! . . . Continue reading →
New Resource Page: On Dispensationalism
Dispensationalism describes a way of reading the Bible and a system of theology the nearest roots of which are in the 19th century. There have been premillennial (traditionally known as “chiliastic) movements, including some Reformed theologians, since the early church but most . . . Continue reading →
One Important Difference Between The Reformed And Some Particular Baptists: God The Son Was In, With, And Under The Types And Shadows
In reading Particular Baptist sources from the classical period of Particular Baptist theology, piety, and practice and from modern proponents of that tradition I have become more deeply impressed with how superficial my understanding was and how great the differences are in . . . Continue reading →
Audio: With New Geneva On Reformed Amillennialism
For many American evangelicals, faithfulness to the Bible means believing in a view of end times (eschatology) that teaches that says something like this: The book of the Revelation is to be read literally (including chapter 20) The formation of the nation . . . Continue reading →
Everyone Is “Culturally Situated”
There are a few Late-Modern bromides that people repeat as if they were self-evidently true that are really quite nonsensical. One of these is: everything is relative. Well, if everything is relative, then your claim that everything is relative is also relative. . . . Continue reading →
Does Romans 8:9–11 Require Believer’s Baptism?
A reader writes with a question about biblical interpretation and baptism: I was going through Colossians 2 when I read the footnote from the Reformation Study Bible… which sent me to page 41 for a more in-depth explanation. Infant baptism seems to make . . . Continue reading →
Is Abraham “Our Father” Or “A Father”?
Abounding Grace Radio exists to make known the riches of God’s grace to sinners in Christ. We confess the great Protestant doctrines of salvation sola gratia (by grace alone), sola fide (through faith alone). With the ancient Christian fathers Barnabas (AD 120), Justin . . . Continue reading →
Is Abraham Our Father Or A Father?
The Reformed Churches confess the great Protestant doctrines of salvation sola gratia (by grace alone), sola fide (through faith alone). With the ancient Christian fathers Barnabas (AD 120), Justin Martyr (AD 150), and Irenaeus (AD 170), and the Reformed theologians and churches of . . . Continue reading →
What Preaching Christ From All Of Scripture Does And Does Not Mean
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 →
Office Hours: Echoes Of Exodus
Few stories in the Bible are as important to understanding the rest of Scripture as the Exodus. Throughout the Old Testament and beyond, this event came to define the nature of salvation. It was paradigmatic. Thus, in order to understand Scripture on . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast Series: I Will Be A God To You And To Your Children
The question of baptism, who should be baptized and why, is not just a question about the sacraments. It is a question that is integrally connected to the way we read the Scriptures (hermeneutics), the way we understand redemptive history, the way . . . Continue reading →
With Bill Feltner On Distinguishing The Jerusalem From Above From The Jerusalem That Is Below
There is much consternation and joy about the announcement that the United States intends to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Some evangelicals and fundamentalists, perhaps inspired by a Dispensational understanding of redemptive history and their pre-millennial hermeneutic, are overjoyed with . . . Continue reading →
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 Israel Of God
At the center of the debate is the question of “the Israel of God” (Gal 6.16). Of course, this is not a new question. During our Lord’s earthly ministry and after his resurrection and before his ascension, the disciples asked him repeatedly, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1.6). Continue reading →
The USA Is Not Old Testament Israel
Theonomy (or, more broadly Christian Reconstructionism) is one of the tollbooths through which pilgrims from traveling from Münster to Geneva, as it were, often seem to pass. I encountered it almost as soon as I came into contact with the Reformed churches. . . . Continue reading →
Resources On The Role Of Abraham In Redemptive History
Resources Moses Was Not Abraham Abraham Was Not Moses Is Abraham “A” Father Or “Our” Father? (1) Is Abraham “A” Father Or “Our” Father? (2) Is Abraham “A” Father Or “Our” Father? (3) Abraham Was A Spiritual, Gracious Covenant The Abrahamic Covenant . . . Continue reading →