A unique resource has finally been fully completed, and I thought our readers should take note. Mark Ward, a graduate of BJU who now works at Logos, has worked for two years compiling a helpful resource for comparing the Greek text underlying the KJV (TR) with modern...
A few weeks ago, Dan Wallace wrote an article on the recent trend towards online theological education. I would like to summarize his points here, and then offer a few comments. You can read his entire post at this link (and I encourage you to do so). The main point...
Have you ever read one of the Gospels in one sitting? I believe many Christians have not. Have you ever read Romans in one sitting? How would such a reading change your perspective on the book? I require my students to read the Bible in large portions. For instance,...
A local pastor recently asked me to recommend a reliable Greek guide for working through a New Testament text. He was planning to preach through the text, and while he had plenty of commentaries, even commentaries based on the Greek text, he was looking for something...
Is our world a simulation? That position has been expressed in the past.[1] Some of the more well-known theories come from Descartes and the movie, “The Matrix.” According to Descartes, it is possible that our world experience is the hallucination caused by a...
A few weeks ago I asked the question concerning how much those committed to evangelical faith should engage with progressive scholarship.[1] The reader’s responses were helpful, pointing mostly to limited and purposeful engagement. Let’s say we follow this advice and...
In 1 Peter 2:11–12, Peter argues that believers should live “good lives among the pagans” with the goal that unbelievers would see the believers’ “good deeds and glorify God.” From 2:13–3:7, Peter lays out the various ways this can be accomplished: by citizens...
I knew I had a difficult task ahead of me. The next passage to teach in my Adult Bible Fellowship was 1 Peter 3:18–22. If you have ever preached or taught through 1 Peter, you got goosebumps when I mentioned that passage. In just five verses there is complexity upon...
DBTS just hosted the Bible Faculty Summit, a meeting of faculty from various theological institutions. This year, we had multiple faculty members from institutions like Bob Jones University, Maranatha Baptist University, Faith Baptist Bible College in Ankeny, and...
* Note this is a two-part series. The first part details my theological reservations about the book. The second details some of the insightful elements a discerning reader may nevertheless gain from the book. C.S. Lewis was a master of imagination. Most Christians...
Three things excited me about this book. First, it deals with sanctification, a topic central to the Christian life. Second, it is in a series of books called Union, which is edited by Michael Reeves. I reviewed one of the titles in this series before (Rejoice and...
Books don’t often make grown men cry with joy, but I have heard that Reeves’s book on the Trinity (Delighting in the Trinity) has done so. That book is still on my reading list, but when I heard Reeves recently wrote a book on the Fear of the Lord, I knew I had to...
Discontinuity to Continuity: A Survey of Dispensational and Covenantal Theologies, by Benjamin L. Merkle. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2020. 288 pp. $25.99. Not long ago, one was presented with a binary choice of theological systems—dispensationalism or covenant...
Recently, I have been reworking my notes on the book of Revelation for a survey course I teach at the seminary. Since I do not have the luxury of spending months preaching through the book (as Pastor Jacob recently encouraged us to do), I was considering how to...
Last week I published a short post, encouraging this blog’s readers to pick up a recently released book, Gentle and Lowly. This post will highlight some particularly helpful elements of the book. Before doing so, it would be helpful to express the book's structure....
Is the world better without religion? Doesn’t Christianity crush diversity? Doesn’t religion hinder morality? These are just a few of the twelve questions addressed by Rebecca McLaughlin in her debut book, Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World's...
In one sense, the answer to this question is clear. Jesus indicated that it is the mark of his disciples that they forgive. In the parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matt 18:21–35), we see that the man who refuses to forgive reveals that he has not truly been...
NOTE: This is the second in a two-part series on one of the most significant fake letters in the history of the church. The previous essay introduced the reader to the letter, explained what it says, and showed the historical and factual problems with the narrative....
NOTE: This is the first in a two-part series on one of the most significant fake letters in the history of the church. This essay will introduce the reader to the letter, explain what it says, and show the historical and factual problems with the narrative. A future...
When I taught Old Testament Survey at a Christian University, one of my favorite assignments was having the students read Bel and the Dragon. This is a portion of apocryphal literature[1] which was written to be added to the text of Daniel (as chapter 14). I had the...
Paul and the Words of Jesus - MillerDownload
Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible, by Mark Ward. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017. 168 pp. $12.99. Do we need another book on the King James Bible debate? If you had asked me that question before reading this book, I would have responded, No....
A local pastor recently asked me to recommend a reliable Greek guide for working through a New Testament text. He was planning to preach through the text, and while he had plenty of commentaries, even commentaries based on the Greek text, he was looking for something...
An Evangelical Apology for the Septuagint - MillerDownload
(The following is my short review of the book. For a fuller treatment see the helpful review in our recent journal by Timothy A. Hughes) I just finished reading Advances in the Study of Greek by Constantine Campbell, a relatively recent work on the state of New...
I just got back from my church’s Good Friday service. Pastor Dave Doran preached from 2 Corinthians 13:4: “For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God's power we will live with him in our dealing...
Life in the Spirit is the fruit of the 2009 Wheaton Theology Conference, where numerous scholars presented on themes related to spiritual formation. The book does not follow the format of the conference; instead, the “volume emerged from the conference’s dialogue...
Mere Christianity - MillerDownload
The Debate over the Ordo Salutis in American Reformed Theology - MillerDownload
C. S. Lewis warned us of chronological snobbery, the natural proclivity to see the newest book as inherently better. Lewis rightly saw that ancient authors often view the world differently than us. By reading their words, we may enter into the way they view the world,...
Though I am not a pastor, I want to stay current with the literature written for pastors. So when I heard that this book won both the 2020 Christianity Today award for church and pastoral leadership and the 2019 Gospel Coalition ministry book of the year award, I...
Some of my favorite classes at DBTS are the seminars. They tend to be explorative, going deeper into a topic than any normal class would go. For instance, a few semesters ago we had a seminar on Advanced Greek. On one of the weeks we were able to seriously consider...
Coming in at exactly 100 small pages, Donald Whitney’s book is deceptive. Under such a small frame hides a powerful message and one that I have been able to see fruitfully applied in different contexts over the last few years. Around two years ago I was introduced to...
Around Easter I contributed a post about Paul’s view of the necessity of Jesus' resurrection for salvation. The motivation for that post actually came from a Greek exegesis class as we considered 1 Peter. We were discussing 3:18, and we noted that Peter likewise...
Three of our professors will be presenting papers at the Evangelical Theological Society in Denver, Colorado this week. Mark Snoeberger: "Did God Die on the Cross? A Proposal for Harmonizing Divine Impassibility with Christ's Passion" (Tuesday, 9:50–10:30 AM). Kyle...
Jesus shocked His listeners by His seemingly ludicrous claim about righteousness. He argued that they needed a greater righteousness than the Scribes and Pharisees (S&P). I am not sure if Israel has crickets, but if so they could be heard after that bombshell....
Mark Ward, a personal friend, has written a very helpful book on the King James Bible debate. Initially, you might think that the horse has been sufficiently beaten. Surely there is nothing new under the sun, and in terms of this debate, what can Ward offer that...
One of our students, Aaron Berry, recently wrote an article on avoiding hypocrisy. You can view the article here. Here is a little snippet to whet your appetite: "If you were raised in Christian circles like me, perhaps you experienced the temptation of using outward...
James 2 indicates that Abraham is justified by works (δικαιόω—Jas 2:21) when he presented Isaac on the altar (Gen 22). Paul indicates that Abraham was not justified by works (δικαιόω—Rom 4:2), but rather by faith when he believed God’s promises (Gen 15:6). Since both...
Anticipation abounds as we are about to embark on a new year of education here at DBTS. God has given us a wonderful new group of incoming MDiv students, and we are looking forward eagerly to the first classes tomorrow morning. At the beginning of each year, I am...
When we exegete a passage, three poles must always be in mind. First, there is a historical dimension to every text. This includes not only the historical facts a text may claim, but also includes the historical context under which the entire text is to be understood....
1 Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace, who called you into his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself put things right, strengthen, empower, [and] secure [you]. 11To him be the dominion forever! Amen! I have enjoyed reading...
While most people know about the yearly Evangelical Theological Society Conference, perhaps less know is that there is also a smaller, yearly meeting for each geographical region. This year the Midwestern Region is meeting in Wheaton, Illinois, and I have the pleasure...
Music has been a controversial topic in nearly every generation since the beginning of the church. And while I don’t plan to solve anything with this post, I propose the following four principles as a baseline for what I think is acceptable music in a worship service:...
Each successful doctoral completion in biblical studies results in a niche scholar; that is, a scholar who knows massive amounts about a small corner of the biblical marketplace.[1] For instance, I completed my dissertation on John Frame and Vern Poythress’s...
If you were to rate the importance of reading on a scale of 1-10, how would you rate it? Of course, as people of the Book, I trust you would rate it fairly high. If so, let me ask a second question, When was the last time you read a book about the skill of reading? If...
Over at the Gospel Coalition website, Justin Taylor just posted a short and incisive critique of abortion. In my opinion, his broad treatment of the issue is one of the best ways to converse with those who disagree. It takes a position that nearly everyone on the...
DBTS has a history of presenting papers at the Evangelical Theological Society. This year, I have the honor of presenting at the sister organization, the Evangelical Philosophical Society, a paper titled, "Perspectival Epistemology: John Frame’s Trinitarian Theology...
Should the chief role of a seminary be the training of scholars or pastors? In recent years there has been much said about the Pastor-Scholar, a breed of theological prodigies capable of handling two full time jobs. While some may be able to maintain such balance,...