I realize that resurrection Sunday may feel a bit like last week’s news. After all, it’s done. We’ve celebrated. Now we’ve moved on to what’s next, whether that’s Pentecost or something (slightly) less noble like the pennant race. We’ll be happy to do it all again...
James D. G. Dunn. Baptism in the Holy Spirit: A Re-Examination of the New Testament Teaching on the Gift of the Spirit in Relation to Pentecostalism Today. Second edition. London: SCM Press, 2010, xxi + 248 pp. This second-edition of Baptism in the Holy Spirit...
I’m teaching a class on Paul this semester and this week we looked at 1–2 Thessalonians. One of the interesting things about these letters is that both appear to have been co-authored by Paul and two of his companions, Silas—you may know him as Silvanus—and Timothy...
Here’s some good news. According to Operation World, evangelical faith exploded in Africa during the 20th century. There are now approximately 182 million believers in Africa, a population nearly double the size of the evangelical community in the United States. This...
One of the major “characters” in the Christmas story is—perhaps surprisingly—a star, one that some wise men follow from the East all the way to Bethlehem. The star makes a brief appearance in Matthew’s gospel (2:2, 7, 9, 10), before passing off the scene (and into...
One of the best-known lines from St. Paul is found at the beginning of his letter to the Philippians where he says, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (1:21). I think this was my life verse for at least a few years. In fact, I’m pretty sure I put the...
If you’ve decided to shake out of your Greek-less stupor in this new year but aren’t yet sure how to do it, let me try to offer you some help. Here’s a link to a refresher schedule I recommend my first year students complete during their Winter break between Greek...
I’m leading a seminar this semester on biblical theology. We just had our third meeting this last week. For the first two, we read from and discussed a dictionary. (It was better than it sounds. I promise!) Last week we read and discussed a new release from Zondervan...
I’ve never met a Bible teacher who wished they had not learned Greek. It’s only the guys who have let it slip and no longer use it for their sermon preparation who try to tell me that Greek doesn’t enhance their teaching—Con Campbell in Keep Your Greek: Strategies for...
Dear [seminarian], I thought I’d write to pass along a bit of advice about your studies from St. Paul. I suspect now may be as good of a time as any, since you’ll likely receive this right after your midterms. (If not, feel free to put my note on hold until you’ve...
This is a guest post by my friend David Doran, Jr., who is the Director of Outreach at Inter-City Baptist Church and a student at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary. If you were anywhere within 1,000 miles of another human being this summer—let alone a TV—you heard...
This is a guest post by Matt Owen, my friend and associate pastor of Community Baptist Church in Trenton, MI. Only a few days have passed since the Olympic torch was extinguished at the conclusion of the 2012 summer games. London has no doubt wearily...
Did you take any Greek in seminary or Bible college? Perhaps you teach it. If so, then I suspect you’ll know what I mean when I say that my second-year Greek class has entered that time in the semester when I’ve got to start talking about Heinrich Bizter or posting...
John J. Collins. The Scepter and the Star: Messianism in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls. 2nd edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010, xi + 298 pp. Why was Jesus crucified as a messianic pretender (“King of the Jews”) or, upon his resurrection, declared by his...
We looked at Romans 9–16 last week in a course I’m teaching on Paul. I’ll admit, we spent most of our time in chs. 9–11, working a bit too closely—considering our time constraints—through Paul’s OT citations. One of the more puzzling of these citations is found in...
What question do seminary students get asked more than any other? I’ll bet you know even if you’ve never been to seminary or met a real-life seminarian. No, it’s not what brand of lapsarian they are, believe it or not, nor even whether they prefer the Erasmian or...