DBTS Web Articles
James Baird is the Pastor of Christian Education at Covenant Church of Naples (PCA). His book King of Kings offers an answer to the question of whether the government should promote Christianity. He is steeped in the reformed tradition, relying heavily on the...
Some bad effects of the pietistic heritage of fundamentalism and evangelicalism tend to make conflicts worse: An all-or-nothing view of people and ministries. A misguided view of spirituality affects how others and oneself are viewed. Being “wrong” on some issue is...
The newest issue of the Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal is now available online. The 2024 issue contains six peer-reviewed articles and 68 pages of book reviews. This year's issue, along with all back issues of the DBSJ, can be downloaded for free from our seminary...
Occasionally, some well-meaning Baptists have asserted that belief in both the active and passive obedience of Christ as the ground of our justification is something foreign to Baptist life—perhaps something picked up from the Gospel Coalition, the now inactive T4G,...
The book of Proverbs has, for me in recent years, become a most faithful friend. It encourages and edifies my soul as I meditate on it. I keep one of those ESV journal books with me as a helpful way to read through it and meditate on it. Considering recent events...
This past April, Andrew Naselli’s new volume, How to Read a Book: Advice for Christian Readers, was released by Canon Press. Over the past few months, six of my kids have read it. Most of them had already read Adler’s book with a similar title.[1] They thought...
Recently, I came across a Reddit thread with a provocative title: “The Bible’s God-inspired book of Proverbs is plagiarized from the Egyptian Teachings of Amenemope.” The thread was of interest because I had recently finished working through the section that allegedly...
In this post I resume my series of blogposts on historically/theologically freighted phrases/clauses/mantras that have become cliché in contemporary Christian-speak—lines that are intrinsically innocuous (i.e., the words themselves are unobjectionable) but sometimes...
This post was originally published here on January 21, 2014. Many college and seminary students are either preparing for another semester of school to start or have already begun working on classes. For some, this will be their final semester before graduation. Though...
This post continues (see Part 1 here) a review of the new, two-volume commentary in the ICC series by Travis Williams and David Horrell. In this post on Volume 2, we will examine the exegesis of a few debated passages in chapters 3–5, the chapters covered in this...
I’ve decided to start a mini-series of blogposts on historically freighted phrases/clauses/mantras that have been detached from their moorings and have become cliché in contemporary Christian-speak. Most of the time these lines are intrinsically innocuous (i.e.,...
Travis B. Williams and David G. Horrell have recently produced an expansive two-volume commentary on 1 Peter. Both volumes together stretch to just over 1,600 pages, covering 105 verses. The introduction alone is over 300 pages. It is one of the most well-researched...
This series has been looking at nine arguments made by John Hart in Evidence for the Rapture for a pre-tribulation rapture in Matthew 24. So far, in Part 1, we have seen that there is a switch at 24:36 from a gathering of believers that comes after signs (vv. 29–31)...
What did church leadership look like in the first century? Below are a few observations. In a passage penned in the mid-first century, James addressed the question of what to do when one is facing serious illness. He wrote, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call the...
Christian Platonism. Friend or Foe? The Christian system has long been dogged by the question of philosophical grounding and the ancient comparison between Aristotle and Plato. Which (if either) of these philosophical models best sustains Christian...
I’ve found it helpful to distinguish between reasons and rationalizations. Reasons are facts, arguments, principles, etc., that lead you to a particular conclusion. Reasons are the explanation for why you started holding a position or taking an action. It is what a...
I do intend to finish my series on Matthew 24:36–41, but I am taking a break for this post. First, like Nebuchadnezzar’s magicians, I am “trying to gain time.” Second, while dealing with a passage that is debated, like Matthew 24, sometimes it is comforting to remind...
In recent months, I’ve written about marriage, parenting, and financial advice “from a dead guy” (i.e., John Chrysostom, c. 347–407). In recounting this advice, I’m not suggesting that Chrysostom was always correct or that his advice should necessarily be followed in...
The term ἀδιάφορα (adiaphora), literally, matters that are to be viewed with indifference or that make no difference, does not appear in the Christian Scriptures and does not feature significantly in Christian Theology until the Reformation era. The term does,...
Church Works Media has a helpful resource for pastors and those who plan worship services: a topical list of hymns In a similar spirit, I wanted to share a list of hymns that we either sang or considered singing in connection to a series I preached on the attributes...
Read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here. In this series, we have been examining the arguments made by John Hart in Evidence for the Rapture that our Lord Jesus describes the pre-tribulation rapture of his church in Matthew 24:36–44. To review,...
In recent months, I’ve written about marriage and parenting advice “from a dead guy” (i.e., John Chrysostom, c. 347–407). In this post, I’m going to note a few comments about wealth and poverty from this same church father. Almost every substantial discussion of John...
The use of the term passion has seen a huge uptick in conservative evangelical life in the past 25 years or so, roughly paralleling the sharp rise in influence of Reformed Charismatism in conservative evangelical theology and hymnody. The...
I’ve been teaching through the book of Hosea recently and have been struck by some fascinating parallels to modern American culture. Hosea prophesied in the northern kingdom of Israel around 755–710 B.C., during the final decades of its existence. The northern kingdom...
You’ve probably heard someone pray at church (and likely have prayed yourself) something like the title of this post: “We give thanks for the freedom we have to worship publicly.” This prayer is set in contrast to the experience of many Christians in different times...
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post titled “Parenting Advice from a Dead Guy.” In that post, I introduced Eastern church father John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) and noted some parenting advice found in his book An Address on Vainglory and the Right Way for Parents to Bring up...
For those of you who knew about and prayed for my recent open-heart surgery, I want to offer my deepest thanks. The discovery and repair of two long-term heart issues has freshly tuned my heart, metaphorically speaking, to the doctrine of divine providence, easily one...
Read Part 1 of this series here. Read Part 2 here. In the last installment of this series, we examined the argument (a convincing argument, in my opinion) made by John Hart in Evidence for the Rapture that Matthew 24:29–41 was not intended to portray future events in...
In this series, we are examining nine arguments made by John Hart in his essay, “Jesus and the Rapture: Matthew 24,” which appeared in Evidence for the Rapture: A Biblical Case for Pretribulationism. In the last post (available here), we examined Hart’s first argument...
If you interact with certain segments of conservatism, you may have heard about a kerfuffle at the Mere Anglicanism conference held a couple of weeks ago in SC, which included speakers like Sam Allberry, D. A. Carson, Rebecca McLaughlin, Carl Trueman, and Calvin...
Eastern church father John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) is best known for his eloquent sermons (more than 700 are extant), wherein he worked verse-by-verse through books of the Bible. In fact, “Chrysostom” is neither a patronymic nor a demonym but rather an appellation...
As questions in the ongoing Trinitarian controversy become more refined, the “pieces” of the broader discussion are coming under greater scrutiny. One of these appurtenant issues is the locus of the will, that is, whether volition is seated in one’s substance (i.e.,...
One of the many interpretive challenges in Ecclesiastes revolves around the meaning of the closing poem in 12:1–7. Interpreters have often read the poem as an allegory of old age. There are a number of problems with this view, however, including inconsistency in the...
The Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24–25 is the longest prophetic section in the NT outside of the book of Revelation. If the next prophesied event that believers are looking forward to is their gathering to meet the Lord in the air, you might expect our Lord to refer to...
Looking for a New Year's resolution? Consider working towards a Master of Theology (Th.M.) degree at DBTS. As described in our catalog, the Th.M. is "offered for those desiring advanced training beyond the Master of Divinity level." It is designed for both pastors...
This post originally appeared on December 25, 2013. During Christmas season each year, we read the accounts of Jesus’ birth in the Gospels (Matt 1:18–25; Luke 1:26–38), and we are reminded once more of our Savior’s Virgin Birth. What exactly do we mean by the Virgin...
Read Part 1 in this series here. Read Part 2 here. Read Part 3 here. Teaching Directly Related to Justification (cont.) The previous post in this series examined what FV has said about the imputation of Christ’s righteousness and the role of works in justification....
Read Part 1 in this series here. Read Part 2 here. Teaching Directly Related to Justification While FV is not centered around soteriology, its proponents still address issues directly related to justification in their writings. Four specific issues directly related to...
Read Part 1 of this series here. Christ descended in the incarnation on the first Christmas. He came to earth as a man forever binding himself to humanity. This much is certain. But did Christ descend into Sheol (ᾅδης/hades/inferos/inferna) after his death? I argue...
While the dispensational community has rightly pointed out that NT never posits identity between the Christian Church and the Messianic Kingdom, the relationship of the Church to the Kingdom is sometimes murky in dispensational thought. Paul in Ephesians 1:10 tells us...
Read Part 1 of this series here. Teaching Indirectly Related to Justification As was stated in my previous post, FV is not primarily concerned with soteriology, much less justification. However, some of their teaching in other areas helps to shape their understanding...
There are more reasons for pastors to visit the mission field than I’ve listed so far, but I’ll stop my list with the three I’ve given: understanding missions better, improving your leadership of the church’s missions efforts, and being a blessing to God’s servants on...
I’ve seen several people recently discussing the issue of Federal Vision, a theological movement among Reformed churches that arose in 2002 and was both championed and condemned by various leaders within those churches. Some seem confused as to why some popular...
So far, I have suggested that visiting the mission field does wonderful things for a pastor’s knowledge about missions and his zeal for missions, and both of these help him be a better leader in the local church’s missionary efforts. Learning and leadership are great...
In 1999, I had the privilege of accompanying a missionary on his survey trip to Tanzania. I had been overseas before, but never for this kind of missions trip. It was incredible. It was life-changing. Since then, I’ve traveled many times to foreign fields, and I’d...
Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to study the Psalms for various academic projects. One of the areas of research has been the presence of wisdom elements in the Psalter. This study culminated in the recent publication of an article in Old Testament...
Halloween, as many of us have probably noticed, seems to have taken a darker turn in recent years. It's a stark contrast to our childhood memories, characterized by innocence, candy, and dressing up as our favorite characters. Now, we may find ourselves averting our...
A few weeks ago I was alerted to a criticism raised about an old blog post of mine—a post in which I argued for a universally shared a priori awareness of linguistic laws that make possible the successful reading of Scripture by all image-bearers. We...
Perhaps you’ve wondered before: if God already knows all things and knows what we need, why should we pray? Even more, if God has already planned all things, why should we pray? These concerns and questions are not new. John Calvin dealt with these issues in his work,...