Category: Bible
Sanctified by Grace Blog Tour: Election
One of the great problems facing the church today is how to cultivate a unified Christian mind on a corporate level in our churches and on an individual level in the lives of individual Christians. This challenge is, in one...
A Defense of “Biblical” Against Interpretative Nihilism.
The recent controversy surrounding Rachel Held Evans’ book has fortuitously coincided with some close rereading of Richard Hays’ Moral Vision of the New Testament, a work that is simultaneously awe-inspiring for its scope and frustrating for its ambiguity. The question it pursues...
The King Jesus Gospel: A Review
I’ve been almost completely offline the past couple weeks, so I’m behind on everything. But I just noticed that Leadership Journal published my review of Scot Mcknight’s new book The King Jesus Gospel. McKnight’s central critique is that contemporary evangelicals...
Christian Influence Fail: Rob Bell and Time Magazine
I never really cared about Rob Bell. I’ve never read his books but I like his nice videos. They seem like they might be attractive to people, maybe help influence doubters or seekers to examine Christianity a little more closely....
Literally?
Last week, Justin Taylor highlighted an article on the history of the interpretation of Genesis 1. I almost posted a rapid response, as the history of biblical interpretation is my big specialty. But I feared the appearance of posturing for...
What are Theologians For?
What are theologians for? What are they supposed to do? If the theologians of the world went on a retreat together and made a list of objectives for 2011, what would be on it? I’m not sure how to answer...
Mixing Fibers and Levitical Prohibitions
Mention the prohibition on tattoos in Leviticus 19:6 and it’s 98.7% likely that the immediate response will be, “Yeah, and don’t wear a cotton/polyester blend, either!” Now, I take it that the existence of polyester suits is a prima facie...
Defining the Gospel
Talking about the Gospel is all the rage these days. Everyone wants to know precisely how big it should be–does it include working for justice (which is invariably social justice), or not? With that in mind, I decided to put...
McLaren’s ‘New Christianity’ and its Greco-Roman Narrative
I haven’t yet read McLaren’s latest, mostly because of financial restrictions. But I’ve been keeping one eye on the critiques, if only to see where the perceived weaknesses are if I ever make it around to it. And Fuller New...
The Central Message of the Epistle to the Galatians
I’ve been reading through some traditional evangelicals, hunting for their understanding of embodiment. Along the way, I came across this gem from Andrew Murray: That there is a glorying in Christ Jesus that is accompanied by much confidence in the...