For nearly three decades the faculty of Detroit Baptist Seminary have released a triennial list of recommended commentaries for each book of the Bible and additional ranked lists of resources for a variety of other theological and other ministry topics. When I came to...
We are pleased to announce the release of the 2017 issue of the Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal, now in its 22nd year. This year features six articles, including “Divine Persons in Genesis: Theological Implications,” by Bill Barrick; “Nakedness & Coverings in...
In his Introduction to Systematic Theology, Cornelius Van Til asks and answers the age-old question, “What Is Truth?” His answer is a bit philosophical, but if one follows it carefully, a very satisfactory pattern for seminary study emerges. Van Til notes that there...
Check out the recent feature post from the Gospel Coalition about the East Africa Baptist School of Theology and its upcoming Proclaim Conference this coming May in Nairobi, Kenya. East Africa Baptist School of Theology is a ministry of Grace Baptist Mission, which is...
I feel a bit inadequate to write on a topic on which so many with greater experience than I have written at length. I don’t purport to be an expert on writing homilies; only rarely have I had extended seasons of life where I have had to write a weekly (much less...
OK, so I told myself I was done talking about Christians and voting. But the events of the last week got to me. Not the Billy Bush video, but the evangelical reaction to it. Please don’t get me wrong—the video was awful and disgusting and demeaning and odious and...
In my occasional role as an interim pastor, I’ve been tasked more than once with creating a questionnaire for potential pastoral candidates who have submitted applications for a vacancy in the church. One of the questions that I like to include is this: “What is the...
Christians should be personally sympathetic to the plight of those who are truly persecuted and traumatized by the effects of war, especially those who are innocent of and vulnerable to the atrocities of war. Further, Christians should personally extend benevolence,...
This blog post is fairly ambitious, seeking to answer two questions: How can we prove the existence of universally “received laws of language”? And, assuming they exist, Who gets to decide what those laws are in the absence of an explicit biblical statement of those...
I confess I don’t keep up very well with the evangelical left and its culture-lapping delight in all things morally degenerate. So I’m rather late getting into the discussion of Perry Noble and his ignoble attempt to catch Mark Driscoll's mantle before it reaches the...
Last year we were jolted when the Supreme Court struck down one of the central pillars of the “Defense of Marriage Act,” effectively releasing whatever brake was still restraining same-sex marriage. This week we moved one step closer to trouble for our churches when a...
The worldwide web is a staging area for mobs. It offers us sound definitions of and warnings about mobs (Wikipedia calls them “individuals in a group to acting together without planned direction…in schools, demonstrations, riots, and general strikes, sporting events,...
One of the more surprising sources of parental advice that I have received came to me a few years ago in the form of a recorded lecture by Greg Bahnsen—a lecture in which he detailed the process of “becoming a philosopher.” Without explaining the entire discussion,...
I’m finding myself somewhere between pity and embarrassment as I watch otherwise respectable middle-aged white men tripping over one another to be first in line insisting that they’re not racist because they’re OK with Reformed Rap and Holy Hip-Hop as valid worship...
A few years ago, Stanley Gundry wrote an article, “Hermeneutics or Zeitgeist as the Determining Factor in the History of Eschatologies?” (JETS 20 [1977]: 45–55). In it, he proposed that the church’s eschatological trends have not been established principally by...
I’ve read about people who go on technology fasts—some to concentrate on more important priorities, some to relate with other cultures or eras, some to prove to themselves that they aren’t really technology addicts after all. I’ve never felt the need to abstain. But...
In my previous post, I noted the existence of several examples of the use of the Old Testament in the New that don’t seem to make sense (Hos 11:1 with Matt 2:15; Jer 31:15 with Matt 2:16–18; Psalm 22:18 with John 19:24; Psalm 96:25 and 109:8 with Acts 1:16–20; Joel...
Last week a friend of mine, Fred Zaspel, offered a case for the typological interpretation of the Scripture. In offering a four-point rationale for typological interpretation, Zaspel made several observations that call for both applause and reflection. I applauded,...
WikiAnswers poses the question, “Why does music exist?” then self-replies: “Because it brings happiness to people all over the world.” We must grant that WikiAnswers is scarcely an authoritative reference source, but it does offer a window on popular culture. It...
The proceedings (written and audio) of the 2013 Conference of the Church for God's Glory (Rockford, IL) are now available on the conference website. I'd like to invite you to enjoy and use the resources made available by the various speakers. I cannot speak on their...
Readers living within driving distance of Rockford, Illinois, will be interested in attending the annual Conference on the Church for God's Glory held there on May 20th of this year. This year's conference theme, "The Resolved Pastor," promises a careful reflection on...
This is the second part of a two-part post on how to survive seminary as a couple/family. The first part is Mark Snoeberger's perspective as a husband. What follows below is an answer to the same question from the perspective of Mark's wife, Heather. The seminary...
Since my wife and I are seminary survivors that still occasionally hold hands in public, we are sometimes asked, “How did you do it?” Or “How did you survive the seminary experience?” For the next two posts on this blog, we are going to answer that question—I from my...
Rowman & Littlefield just graciously sent me a desk copy of their Guide to Writing with Sources by James Davis (2012), so I took the requisite 45 minutes to read it. Since I teach Theological Research Methods here at DBTS, I try to keep up on sources of this...
One of the persistent themes of the conservative evangelical movement has been a recovery of a “theology of the cross” from its eclipse by a “theology of glory.” In general, this is a positive development. The distinction between these two categories is generally...
I did not eat at Chick-fil-A on August 1st. I've got a good excuse: they don't have Chick-fil-A's in Michigan, and Toledo is forty miles away. But honestly, I probably wouldn't have gone anyway, because I don't like fast food chicken (my refined fast food palate...
In the interests of avoiding a reputation as an iconoclast, I thought it might be good to offer a positive follow-up to my previous post, God Is Not My Fall Guy. Some of you perhaps were scandalized by the post, supposing that the only alternative to invoking...
"Hello, my name is__________, and I approve this message." This awkward disclaimer became part of standard political jargon in 2002, when the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act was passed. Specifically, its "Stand By Your Ad" provision demands that all political ads run...
I was preparing for my class in the OT Historical Books the other day when I stumbled over one of the ESV's little-advertised translation changes in 1 Samuel 13:1 (I'd call it a stealth version, but that would be a cheap shot). Unlike many of these changes, this was a...
Every time I hear a specific date announced for the end of the War in Afghanistan, I experience a brief snort of laughter. What kind of world do we live in where the beginning and end of wars can be scheduled? The fact is, so long as differing worldviews exist, wars...