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...
Today in the library, I stumbled upon four new students toiling away on a research and writing assignment. This encounter reminded me of when I started seminary, and what I wish I knew then that I know now in my final year. Over the past four years, numerous books...
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...
A few weeks ago Doug Wilson outlined a solution to the “problem of prayer” in the face of divine sovereignty by championing the idea of special providence. Wilson is not, of course, the first to express this idea, but he does so uniquely and well,...
Pastor Richard A. Harris (1934–2021) was the pastor of my youth. By God’s grace and through his efforts the Bethel Baptist Church of Sellersville, PA, was chartered in 1962 in an unlikely patch of Bucks County that, despite the otherwise booming growth of that county,...
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....
Since we were not able to hold our commencement this year at DBTS, we are highlighting one of our graduates each day. Today we would like to recognize Timothy Schlater. Tim was born in Bucks County, PA, in 1986, the son of Robert and Judith Schlater. When he was 5...
Since we were not able to hold our commencement this year at DBTS, we are highlighting one of our graduates each day. Today we would like to recognize Joshua Roland. Josh was born in Denver, CO, in 1984, the son of Ralph (late) and Carol Roland. He came to Christ...
Since we were not able to hold our commencement this year at DBTS, we are highlighting one of our graduates each day. Today we would like to recognize Anthony Iorillo. Tony was born in Cleveland, OH, in 1982, the son of Mark and Maria Iorillo. When he was 13 years...
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...
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...
Longtime friends of the seminary will fondly recall that Dr. Priest served on the faculty of DBTS from 1988 until his retirement in 2010. While Dr. Priest taught numerous courses in homiletics and Bible exposition, the focus of his teaching and writing ministry was in...
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...
While talking to an acquaintance yesterday about a thorny Christological question, I made the statement that Christ was 100% God and 100% human. Pretty standard stuff. My acquaintance agreed, stating that he also believed this to be true, adding the caveat, “by...
(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...
Next year will be our 40th year of helping local churches prepare men for gospel ministry. God has been very kind to DBTS through these four decades of ministry. DBTS grads are serving all over the United States and advancing the gospel around the world. There are a...
Apparently, it was Benjamin Franklin who first said that the only thing we can be certain of is death and taxes. We are reminded of that again today, April 15, though the IRS has given us a couple of extra days this year to file our tax returns. Even the ancient...
Every three years the DBTS faculty collaborate to produce a Basic Library Booklist for pastors. Of course, books come out more frequently than every three years, so I thought it might be helpful to reflect publicly on the "must haves" in systematic theology from...