Now, the law is a doctrine partly known by nature, teaching us that there is a God, and what God is, and what he requires us to do, binding all reasonable creatures to perfect obedience, both internal and external, promising the favour . . . Continue reading →
Hermeneutics
Beza On Rightly Dividing The Word
We divide this Word into two principal parts or kinds: the one is called the ‘Law,’ the other the ‘Gospel.’ For all the rest can be gathered under the one or other of these two headings…Ignorance of this distinction between Law and . . . Continue reading →
Perkins: The Basic Principle In Application
The basic principle in application is to know whether the passage is a statement of the law or of the gospel. For when the Word is preached, the law and the gospel operate differently. The law exposes the disease of sin, and . . . Continue reading →
Kingdom Through Covenant: A Review (2)
This is part 2 of a two-part review of Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, Kingdom Through Covenant (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012). The review is written by Harrison Perkins. He grew up in the south and attended college in Alabama. He began . . . Continue reading →
Calvin’s Law-Gospel Hermeneutic In Hebrews 6
He calls it a tasting of the good word of God; by which he means, that the will of God is therein revealed, not in any sort of way, but in such a way as sweetly to delight us; in short, by . . . Continue reading →
Prediction: Harold Won’t Miss This Deadline
Zeke Piestrup has made a documentary following Harold Camping (and see this post) and company in the days leading up to and just after May 21, 2011, the day Camping had said Jesus would return—Apocalypse Later: Harold Camping vs. The End Of The . . . Continue reading →
Bavinck On Gospel In The Narrow Sense
And indeed, strictly speaking, there are no demands and conditions in the gospel but only promises and gifts. Faith and repentance are as much benefits of the covenant of grace as justification (and so forth). Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 4.454 (HT: James . . . Continue reading →
Reading Scripture As The Apostles Did Or Some Other Way?
Darrel, writes, “After reading your paper, The Israel of God, it struck me that you did not mention any of the as yet to be fulfilled prophesies concerning the Nation of Israel. Why? Also, it seems that you cast things in a . . . Continue reading →
How to Understand and Preach Romans 7
My impression is that, over the last few decades, the historic Reformed reading of Romans 7 has taken one on the chin, as it were. Perhaps that’s not so. I’ve not done a survey to see how pastors are reading and preaching . . . Continue reading →
Arminius’ Claims About The Belgic Confession And Heidelberg Catechism On Predestination
V. This Doctrine Of Predestination Is Not In Harmony With The Confessions Of The Reformed Churches With a minimum of contention or even trivial objection, it may be appropriately doubted whether this doctrine agrees with either the Belgic confession or the Heidelberg . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Steve Baugh on Hebrews 11
You know that Hebrews 11 is the “faith” chapter of Hebrews. Perhaps you’ve been told that you should have faith like Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. Well, you should perhaps but not in the way that you may have been told. WSC . . . 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 →
Why the Reformation Cannot Be Avoided
Joel writes in response to the post, “Is the Gospel Preached or Lived?” to ask for a response to his post responding to criticisms of the expression “living the gospel.” The substance of the post is to observe that the NT uses . . . Continue reading →
Selective Skepticism
HB correspondent Dave writes with this quotation from someone else: “my parents taught me that the bible is up for interpretation, and it is not the spoken truth.” This is widely held as a truism and it is widely used as a . . . Continue reading →
Why Hebrews 9 Is Referring To A Covenant Not To A Testament
Most modern translations and commentators take diatheke as “will” or “testament” in vv. 16–17, but understand it as “covenant” in vv 15 and 18. As we have seen, the context of v. 15 seems to demand the sense of “covenant” because only . . . Continue reading →
Augustine On Signs And Things Signified
2. All instruction is either about things or about signs; but things are learnt by means of signs. I now use the word “thing” in a strict sense, to signify that which is never employed as a sign of anything else: for . . . Continue reading →
Text Criticism and Good Hermeneutics is Practical
Walter Slonopas seems to read the Bible the way lots of American evangelicals and others do so. They read the most symbolic book in Scripture as if it belonged to some other genre, as if it may be read correctly, the first . . . Continue reading →
Do You See How He Makes This Distinction Between Law And Gospel?
Do you see how he makes this the distinction between law and gospel: that the former attributes righteousness to works, the latter bestows free righteousness apart from the help of works? This is an important passage, and one that can extricate us . . . Continue reading →
S-T-O-P Means Stop (or Does it?)
In 25 years of ministry one of the most profound changes I’ve seen is the growing inability and/or unwillingness of Americans to read texts according to the intent of the author. One of the major reasons for this change was the mutation . . . Continue reading →
Straining at Hermeneutical Gnats and Swallowing Exegetical Camels
Kathy Keller has reviewed the new book by Rachel Held Evans, A Year of Biblical Womanhood. Held Evans is frustrated with evangelical “complementarianism” so she set out to live as if there were no New Testament and as if Jesus’ hadn’t fulfilled . . . Continue reading →