Thoughts of a Christian Husband, Father, and Pastor
Have you ever asked that question? Was it easy to find an answer? While the doctrine of heaven may be firmly established by using the whole of the revealed will of God, it is interesting to me how little Jesus himself says about heaven–at least in its future aspects. For the most part, when Jesus [...]
I found this quote from CJ Mahaney’s blog, where after discussing the doctrine of adoption, he looks at Packer’s answer to the question, ‘Which is greater, adoption or justification?’. I thought it was an interesting question and definitely worth thinking through. Here is Packer’s answer: That justification—by which we mean God’s forgiveness of the past [...]
Last Autumn at GFC we embarked on a journey. We endeavoured to ask and answer 26 of the most crucial questions that Christians should be asking–and should know the answers to. Basically, it was a sneaky (read: not boring) way to teach our people sytematic theology. We taught this series on Sunday evenings, with various [...]
This past Sunday at GFC, the preacher taught on Core Value #4: Authority. That was good for my heart to hear. When we, as elders, sat to discuss what we wanted to include in this series (i.e. What are our core values?), authority wasn’t the first thing that came to mind. As we reflected on [...]
Sunday’s post reminded me of something that Dr Ware taught us in a contemporary theology course not too long ago. He challenged us to develop our Trinitarian categories, and to work hard for clarity in the distinctions between the persons of the Godhead. One challenging example he gave was that of Ephesians 1. How many [...]
It seems that in theology, as in the rest of life, we’re constantly riding a pendulum. The more we run from doctrinal error that we see in others, the more likely we are to fall into the opposite error ourselves. If we reject an over-emphasis on God’s love as the basis of his character, we [...]
In the life of our church, there is no greater highlight (in my mind) than when we celebrate baptisms. The baptism of a believer is the rite of inauguration into the church of Jesus Christ. When we celebrate baptism, we celebrate that one more soul has been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred [...]
Both the complementarian and the egalitarian positions ultimately must stand or fall based on their interpretation of Genesis 1-2. Both sides agree that male and female were created alike, with the same human nature, both created in the image of God with equal dignity and value; but was it God’s intention for there to be [...]
Seeing as how I’ve been giving some really broad, yet really brief overviews of theological positions this week (dangerous at the best of times, but necessary just about always), I thought I’d continue with that pattern but on a different issue. So, we approach again the gender debate. Are women free to take any office [...]
As promised yesterday, here is what amounts to a super-brief (again) presentation of the biblical support for penal substitution. Despite what the critics will posit, it’s not new, it’s not western, it’s not because of Augustine, and it’s not even modern; penal substitution is biblical. We’ll borrow our definition of ‘penal substitution’ from Wayne Grudem [...]
In keeping with our theme of atonement from yesterday, I thought I’d outline some of the more common objections to penal substitution offered in contemporary ‘evangelical’ literature. Again, these are very brief descriptions of the arguments, but they are simply intended to familiarize us with what is being said by self-proclaimed evangelicals today. God willing, [...]
It is a charge often brought against those who hold to penal substitution that we miss the dynamic presentation of the atoning work of Christ through Scriptures. In other words, if you hold to penal substitution, you miss the many ways that the Bible speaks about the atonement. I’ve had some opportunity lately to think [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion. 5. CONCLUSION Stephen Neill is indeed correct in his summation, that “the Christian finds that he can never think of God without thinking of Jesus Christ, and that he can never think of Jesus Christ without thinking of God.”[1] In the NT, the faith [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion. 4. IN JESUS’ NAME: PRAYER TO AND WORSHIP OF JESUS AS GOD Aside from being portrayed as deity by his authority in his earthly ministry, and declared to be both “Lord” and “God” throughout the NT, Jesus is also strongly implied to be deity [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion. 3. JESUS AS KURIOS AND THEOS (cont’d) B. JESUS AS THEOS. Many of the passages which may speak of Jesus as θεός are heavily debated, and some with good reason. The ones which most certainly do refer to Jesus as θεός are John 1.1; [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion. 3. JESUS AS KURIOS AND THEOS A. JESUS AS KURIOS. It must be noted first that we are not primarily dealing with the gospels in this section, since “when people address Jesus as ‘Lord’ in the Gospels, this is often no more than a [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion. 2. A MAN WITH THE AUTHORITY OF GOD: JESUS’ DIVINITY IN THE GOSPELS Darrell Bock notes that whereas the number of times when Jesus is directly spoken of as “God” in the gospels is relatively small, it is “far more common” that Jesus, in [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion. 1. INTRODUCTION The importance of recognizing that the New Testament identifies Jesus as deity, and yet as completely one with the Father, cannot possibly be over-stated. For the authors of the NT, this Christ himself became not only the interpretive grid, but also the [...]
One of my good friends recently had an invitation extended to him to go work for a church in Toronto as an evangelist and to preach every few weeks. It would be a great position for him because he is gifted for and passionate about evangelism. I have no d0ubt that our Lord will use [...]
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