Good Inferential Theology
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture – Westminster Confession of Faith 1.6 Is it legitimate to make inferences in theology? Covenant theology both Baptistic and [...]
When and Where We Can Be Wrong
Thursday, April 15th, 2010In case you haven’t heard, Bruce Waltke, an eminent Old Testament scholar, has resigned from teaching at Reformed Theological Seminary because of some comments he made at a BioLogo conference. Waltke believes in theistic evolution and made some comments that were perhaps stronger than he’d intended. He also wasn’t clear that he was only speaking [...]
Pride Translated Into Praise
Sunday, September 20th, 2009As I’ve been reading my Old Testament lately, I’ve been doing a little mental exercise. At first, it was a form or rebellion and then it turned into something better. When you read in the Old Testament “the LORD” what you’re seeing is God’s covenant name “Yahweh” with the vowel dots for “Adoni” or “Lord”. [...]
Sources, Reliable & Otherwise
Monday, June 22nd, 2009Read 2 Kings 1-4 the other morning. Some pretty serious prophet action going on there with the passing of the mantle from Elijah to Elisha and Elisha doing some pretty heavy prophet work. He made a poisoned stew safe to eat, parted the river Jordon with Elijah’s robe, provided an endless source of oil for [...]
Ezekiel’s Temple
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009The issue came up in Sunday school last week whether the temple in Ezekiel’s vision in chapters 40-48 is a literal, physical building or a visionary representation of something else. The amount of physical detail given to the temple seems to indicate that it is intended to be a real, physical construction. I believe the [...]
Song of Songs and Grow Up
Thursday, May 14th, 2009There has been some flap lately about preaching the Song of Songs. Some younger pastors, it has been said, have treated the book almost pornographically. Older preachers are calling for restraint and dignity when handling this inspired poem. Well, I don’t know about that. I haven’t listened to those sermons so I’ll just let the [...]
Genesis: How’d We Get Here?
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009We all know what’s in the book of Genesis. We’re familiar with the stories of creation and Noah and Joseph and his coat. But what is Genesis about? Another way to ask the question would be to ask why Moses wrote it. One way to try to determine what a story is about is to [...]
Red or Green, Your Choice
Friday, September 19th, 2008I’m no fan of Tony Campollo. One of his “things” lately has been to call himself a “Red Letter Christian” as in follow the words of Christ since, for an odd reason, they tend to be printed in red in our modern Bibles. What about the rest of the Bible? Well, who knows. Anyway, there [...]
Funny Things, Chiasms
Friday, July 18th, 2008In a previous post I made reference to a chiasm in Colossians 2:8-22. When I wrote it I was still in the process of weighing the usefulness of the chiasm. I’m a big proponent of paying attention to the literary nature of the Bible and I know that in other settings the chiasm is legitimate. [...]
I Love Tony Campolo, I hate Tony Campolo
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008The Colbert Report is not something to be taken seriously. Guests who do take it seriously come off looking like idiots. Tony Campolo is no idiot. He fared pretty well with Colbert. However… I am not a fan of Tony Campolo. I’ve been pretty clear about that. But something I’ve been saying quite a bit [...]
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