Archive for September 2011
The Kindness of our Creator
by Fred Zaspel Thinking through the early chapters of Genesis the other day, I was struck again with the wonderful picture of God’s kindness that emerges in the creation narrative. God carefully brings into existence all that is — all, it seems, for the use and benefit of his newly created image-bearers (Gen. 1:26-29). He…
Read MorePraying to the Glory of God-Part 1
by Micah McCormick The simple truth is that most Christians, myself included, don’t pray as we should. So even as I write three posts on the subject of prayer, I’m speaking to myself as well as to any readers. My three posts will answer three questions regarding prayer (why do we pray, how do we…
Read MorePrayer to the Glory of God-Part 2
by Micah McCormick How do we pray? In his book, A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers, D. A. Carson observes, “One of the foundational steps in knowing God, and one of the basic demonstrations that we do know God, is prayer—spiritual, persistent, biblically minded prayer. . . . We have…
Read MorePraying to the Glory of God-Part 3
by Micah McCormick When should we pray? Such a question sounds a bit strange when pitted with other more natural prayer questions like why and how. But I ask this question in order to prompt specific reflection on planning to pray. We can speak in platitudes about the importance of prayer, the necessity of prayer,…
Read MoreWhat Does it Mean for an Elder to be “Able to Teach”? A Proposal
by Nathan Finn Like most Baptists, I would argue the biblical terms translated as overseer, bishop, elder, and pastor are synonyms used to describe a man who has been set apart for the primary teaching, leading, and shepherding office in a local congregation. For that reason, in this post I’ll use the terms pastor and…
Read MoreHodge and Bavinck on Theological Method
by Luke Stamps “The Bible is to the theologian what nature is to the man of science. It is his store-house of facts. . . . The duty of the Christian theologian is to ascertain, collect, and combine all the facts which God has revealed concerning himself and our relation to Him.”[1] In the opening…
Read MoreImprisoned but Not Silenced
by Fred Zaspel One of great ironies of Christian history occurred in the latter part of seventeenth-century England, in the little town of Bedford. Despite more than a century of attempts at reforming both church and state, the struggle for religious freedom had been long and hard in coming. A poor tinker (mender of pots…
Read MoreThe Confession of an Impatient Historian
by Michael A. G. Haykin “Make haste slowly” is a proverbial remark that was apparently often found on the mouth of Augustus Caesar, the man responsible for ordering the census that led to the birth of the Lord Jesus at Bethlehem. “Make haste slowly”: I, for one, have spent a lifetime learning the lessons of…
Read MoreWas the Mosaic Covenant Legalistic?
by Matthew Barrett This is the second of forty questions Thomas Schreiner asks in his new book, 40 Questions about Christians and Biblical Law (Kregel). First, says Schreiner, we must define “legalism.” Legalism is the “idea that human beings can earn or merit right standing with God.” Based on this definition, the answer to the…
Read MoreTwo Helpful New Books for Pastors
by Nathan Finn As a professor, most of the books I read deal with topics I’m interested in from a scholarly standpoint. But every summer, I try to devote a portion of my reading time to books related to “practical ministry” such as preaching, evangelism, counseling, and pastoral leadership. In the past few days, I’ve…
Read MoreJudge with Right Judgment: Making the Move from Biblical Theology to Systematic Theology
by Luke Stamps Last week, I posted a short article on the differences between Charles Hodge and Herman Bavinck with regard to theological method. Bavinck criticized Hodge’s “empirical” method by which he treated the Bible as a “store-house of facts” that must be collected and organized by the theologian. In its place Bavinck offered his…
Read MoreTrusting the Son of Man: Revelation 1:9-20
by Thomas Schreiner A big part of life is letting go. When you are young, life consists in acquiring. You graduate from elementary school, from middle school, and college. You get a job. Many get married and have children. But then as life goes on, we begin to let go. Perhaps you have had to…
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