My interest in Freemasonry began a few years ago, as I was asked to complete a writing project of Baptist historian Terry Wolever, who unexpectedly died, leaving a biography of Stephen Gano (1762–1828) unfinished. ((Dr. Straub taught historical theology at Central...
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...
Abstract After an introduction listing known TR editions, the argument of this paper proceeds in three movements. ((Dr. Ward is an academic editor for Lexham Press, and the author of Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press,...
Introduction Christians’ interest in theological subjects ebbs and flows, often depending upon the cultural and political issues of the day, provocative books or articles on debated subjects, or whatever a favorite pastor or scholar decides to spotlight. ((Dr. Pratt...
No one starts down the pathway toward immorality thinking, “You know, I really want to destroy my marriage today. I would love it, if I could give the enemy an advantage on me, and bring immeasurable reproach on my family.” The fact that no one thinks like that and...
I have not engaged substantially in the study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Most of the celebrity that Bonhoeffer has earned is in the spheres of ethics, piety, and courage (and he rightly merits our admiration on those counts); still, I have been concerned that unqualified...
In December 2018, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary of Louisville, Kentucky, released a study, Report on Slavery and Racism in the History of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. ((Dr. Straub taught historical theology at Central Baptist Theological...
From 1751–1758, Jonathan Edwards was a missionary to the Native American community in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, a “praying town” along the Housatonic River at the frontier’s edge.((Dr. Crawford is Lead Pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Marshall, MI. Of Dr. Compton...
Introduction American approval of interracial marriage (IM) is uncomfortably recent. ((It is our privilege this year again to feature an article by an M.Div. student at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary. Mr. Francia submitted this article and was one of three...
The doctrine of biblical creation is often viewed as incidental, if not detrimental, to the task of defending the Christian faith.((Dr. Dunham is the Associate Professor of Old Testament at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.)) ((By biblical creation I mean the...
Fifteen years ago, my late mentor Rolland McCune passed me a baton, namely, his class on dispensational theology. ((Dr. Snoeberger is Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.)) Dr. McCune routinely taught that...
A couple of weeks ago Dan Wallace wrote an article questioning whether or not online education is equal in quality to in-person education. (Tim Miller offered some of his thoughts on the article here.) I’d like to consider two of the issues he raises in comparing...
Introduction and Preliminary Thesis A few years ago, a colleague alerted me to the humorous rumor that I had formally denied the existence of natural revelation.((Dr. Snoeberger, who writes the extended introduction of this article, is Professor of Systematic Theology...
Introduction Obscurity surrounds much of the early northern Baptist theological tradition. ((Dr. Shrader is Associate Professor of Church History at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Plymouth, MN.)) Despite many recognizing its important place in the development...
In my previous post considering Dan Wallace’s recent article discussing online vs. in-person education I concluded that, especially regarding theological teaching, in-person education is superior to distance education—all other things being equal. But rarely if ever...
Postmillennial eschatology is on the rise. In contrast to premillennialism, which affirms a literal, thousand year kingdom of Christ following the second coming, and amillennialism, which asserts that the kingdom of Christ is a present spiritual reality and that there...
The eternal generation of the Son has been a staple element in Christian orthodoxy since Nicaea, and its formulation doubtless occurred earlier:((Dr. Snoeberger is Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary. An earlier...
This morning I scanned through an interesting book put out by Georgetown University that analyzes the value of 171 common college majors available today. By “value” the authors mean almost entirely fiscal value, or how much money a graduate can expect to make after...
Introduction In his recent book on spiritual gifts, Thomas Schreiner uses the final two chapters to argue for the cessation of the miraculous gifts.((Thomas R. Schreiner, Spiritual Gifts: What They Are and Why They Matter (Nashville: B & H, 2018).)) ((Dr. Compton...
Former Olympian and gold medalist Bruce Jenner transitioned to Caitlyn Jenner. A once-decorated army soldier who leaked classified data, Bradley Manning transitioned to Chelsea Manning, who is again in the news for recently being offered a position at Harvard as a...
Introduction Secular psychology is a popular approach to helping people with their problems that can offer utilitarian benefits even for churches. While secular psychology can offer useful observations, however, it falls short of providing complete solutions to life’s...
Introduction A reconstruction of Solomon’s accession to the throne is complicated by the two distinct accounts in Kings and Chronicles. ((Dr. Bolen is Professor of Biblical Studies at The Master’s University in Santa Clarita, California.)) In recent decades,...
On at least one occasion, the apostle Paul identifies faithfulness as the sole criterion for success in ministry and the basis on which his life will be evaluated at the judgment (bema) seat of Christ. ((Dr. Compton is Professor of Biblical Languages and Literature at...
A few weeks ago I drew attention to the AI movement and its complications with education. Namely, to what degree can students use AI and still consider the product their own work. Just recently, ChatGPT launched and now has over one million users. If you try to use...
In 2021 Inter-City Baptist Church became a certified training center with ACBC. Because our seminary is a ministry of ICBC, DBTS offers training that results in your ACBC certification. We offer two paths to biblical counseling certification. Path #1: MDiv...
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...
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...
One of the benefits of being in Detroit is our proximity to Canada (you can get to Canada from our seminary in about 20 minutes). That allows Canadians to attend our seminary more easily (and allows us easier access to Canadian delicacies like poutine!) Today is...
We discussed the Nicodemus narrative in my Greek refresher course last Friday. While I was preparing for the class, I was struck by John 3:16. It’s such a clear statement about Jesus’ mission and God’s character. Sometimes it just takes reading a passage in a...
Introduction As was the case in the previous article of this journal, the question addressed in this article is the destination of the souls of Old Testament saints at death: Did they go (1) to an undifferentiated “place of the dead” to which all human souls descend,...
A persistent debate in the study of 1 Peter has been the nature of persecution described in the letter. ((Dr. Miller is Associate Professor of New Testament at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.)) Two approaches have dominated the topic. One classic approach...
Arminian Baptists: A Biographical History of Free Will Baptists, edited by David Lytle and Charles Cook. Nashville: Randall House, 2022. viii + 466 pp. $27.99. In their edited book, David Lytle and Charles Cook, have assembled a stellar...
In their joint Isis article published in 2000, David Livingstone and Mark Noll begin with a provocative thesis that subsequently gained near canonical acceptance. ((Dr. Zaspel serves as a pastor at Reformed Baptist Church in Franconia, PA, an adjunct professor of...
Dustin Burlet on A Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic LexiconDownload A Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, by Frank Matheus. Wilmore, KY: GlossaHouse, 2020. x + 388 pp. $29.99. There is a dearth of up-to-date, inexpensive, and user-friendly lexicons for biblical Aramaic....
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...
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...
Brett McCracken has written a helpful, short book on managing our information-overload world. He rightly notes that though we live in a world of exponentially increasing knowledge, such knowledge has not done much to make us wise. The book breaks into two unequal...
It has been over 8 months since the initial major responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. Various local, state, and federal leaders and agencies have pursued a variety of responses and adopted a range of policies. Personally, I am thankful I was not responsible...
As we embark on a new decade, it can be helpful to consider what has occurred over the previous decade(s) to consider what we might expect in the coming one. I recently read a thought-provoking argument that may have some insight into apologetics efforts in the coming...
"I would like to buy about three dollars' worth of gospel, please. Not too much—just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted. I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust. I certainly don’t want so much that I...
Church Planting is all the rage right now–the topic seems to be on everyone’s mind, on every conference schedule, and taking hold of many church budgets. All Glory to Christ! I am so thankful for the surge of church planting among evangelicals and the advance of...
Choosing Hats (an apologetics site) has a lengthy article pointing out the fallacies of four common arguments given in support of Planned Parenthood and some suggestions for how you can push back against these arguments. I thought I’d provide a brief summary of the...
The Bible states that we have an enemy that plagues everyone—death. Though we may avoid this enemy for a time, we cannot escape it. Death is certain. No one can avoid death. And Death is cruel. At its heart, death is separation. Death separates our bodies from our...
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...
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...
Since the Bible's sufficiency means that the Bible speaks to (though not necessarily about) everything, then it follows that our theology speaks to (though not necessarily about) healthcare. Please note that this is not an analysis of the theological rightness or...
It happens to every elementary Greek student. ((Dr. Hughes is Senior Manager of the Office of Ministerial Advancement at Bob Jones University and an adjunct professor of New Testament at BJU Seminary.)) Just when he is getting used to verbs in his vocabulary lists...
In what may be the most highly contested passage of Ecclesiastes, the writer Qohelet((Given that the author of Ecclesiastes does not identify himself outside the nom de plume Qohelet (Heb. קֹהֶלֶת), I will use this nomenclature to designate him. ((Dr. Dunham is...
In the 1850s, Swiss historian Jean Henri Merle d’Aubigné was showing a French pastor the sights of Geneva.((Dr. Sidwell serves as Professor, Division of History, Government, and Social Science, Bob Jones University. An earlier version of this article was presented at...