Five Views on the New Testament Canon, editedby Stanley E. Porter and Benjamin P. Laird. Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2022. 280 pp. $24.99. When I took my first teaching post nearly thirty years ago, I was assigned to teach New...
40 Questions About Bible Translation, by Mark L. Strauss. Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2023. 352 pp. $24.99. NIV translator Mark L. Strauss uses Kregel Academic’s 40 Questions format to excellent effect as he answers 40...
Contextualization and the Old Testament: Between Asian and Western Perspectives, by Jerry Hwang. Carlisle, UK: Langham Global Library, 2022. 264 pp. $24.00. At a recent academic conference, a seasoned Old Testament scholar opined that most of the future...
Jesus's reference to the abomination of desolation has caused much debate. Today we talk with Dr. Ryan Meyer about what it actually is.
The King James-only movement believes that only the KJV is the Word of God. All other English versions are corrupt since no modern Bible version (except the New King James Version) is translated from the Textus Receptus (TR) Greek NT, which is considered to be without...
Dave Deuel on Biblical Aramaic for Biblical Interpreters A Parallel Hebrew-Aramaic Handbook DBSJ 29 2024Download Biblical Aramaic for Biblical Interpreters: A Parallel Hebrew-Aramaic Handbook, by Scott N. Callaham. Wilmore, KY: GlossaHouse, 2021. xv + 249 pp. $35.99....
Dave Deuel on Autism Spectrum Disorder DBSJ 29 2024Download Autism Spectrum Disorder: Meeting Challenges with Hope, by Michael R. Emlet. Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2023. 23 pp. $5.00. Michael Emlet (MDiv, MD) practiced as a family physician for over ten years...
The newest issue of the Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal is now available online. The 2024 issue contains six peer-reviewed articles and 68 pages of book reviews. This year's issue, along with all back issues of the DBSJ, can be downloaded for free from our seminary...
Christian Platonism. Friend or Foe? The Christian system has long been dogged by the question of philosophical grounding and the ancient comparison between Aristotle and Plato. Which (if either) of these philosophical models best sustains Christian...
The use of the term passion has seen a huge uptick in conservative evangelical life in the past 25 years or so, roughly paralleling the sharp rise in influence of Reformed Charismatism in conservative evangelical theology and hymnody. The...
If you interact with certain segments of conservatism, you may have heard about a kerfuffle at the Mere Anglicanism conference held a couple of weeks ago in SC, which included speakers like Sam Allberry, D. A. Carson, Rebecca McLaughlin, Carl Trueman, and Calvin...
The Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24–25 is the longest prophetic section in the NT outside of the book of Revelation. If the next prophesied event that believers are looking forward to is their gathering to meet the Lord in the air, you might expect our Lord to refer to...
The Rice Lectures will take place on Wednesday March 14, with speaker Dr. Bryant G. Wood. His topic will be “Archaeology and the Conquest: New Evidence on an Old Problem.” There is no cost to attend the Rice Lectures. However, for planning purposes, all guests are...
Read Part 1 of this series here. Christ descended in the incarnation on the first Christmas. He came to earth as a man forever binding himself to humanity. This much is certain. But did Christ descend into Sheol (ᾅδης/hades/inferos/inferna) after his death? I argue...
In 1999, I had the privilege of accompanying a missionary on his survey trip to Tanzania. I had been overseas before, but never for this kind of missions trip. It was incredible. It was life-changing. Since then, I’ve traveled many times to foreign fields, and I’d...
Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to study the Psalms for various academic projects. One of the areas of research has been the presence of wisdom elements in the Psalter. This study culminated in the recent publication of an article in Old Testament...
Perhaps you’ve wondered before: if God already knows all things and knows what we need, why should we pray? Even more, if God has already planned all things, why should we pray? These concerns and questions are not new. John Calvin dealt with these issues in his work,...
It is refreshing to read a new commentary that not only says something new (i.e., it is not merely repeating what others have said) but also supports that new statement with good arguments, ideally arguments that build upon what other believers have seen in the text....
Faith-based, multi-season series The Chosen has made a big splash, showcasing an audience of 100 million plus and views, in some form, surpassing 500 million.[1] At the start of production, it held the place of “highest crowdfunded media project of all time.”[2] The...
I do intend to finish my series on Matthew 24:36–41, but I am taking a break for this post. First, like Nebuchadnezzar’s magicians, I am “trying to gain time.” Second, while dealing with a passage that is debated, like Matthew 24, sometimes it is comforting to remind...
Ask your average evangelical Protestant what it means to “be saved” and you will likely hear about an event occurring within history, usually in the legal sense of justification, though occasionally incorporating more existential terms of new birth. So something like…...
Sometimes we assume we know what a verse means, but once we slow down and read through it carefully, we realize it does not mean what we think it means. It happens to us all. We can receive help in several ways—listening to what others understand a verse to mean...
We are excited to welcome Dr. Ernie Baker on August 22, 2023, as he presents a seminar on Biblical Counseling and Abuse. The Association of Certified Biblical Counselors is producing a series of affirmations and denials about domestic abuse and providing a framework...
Studies of the creation account in Genesis 1 show no sign of abatement. A recent addition to the literature by Gregg Davidson and Kenneth Turner proposes a middle way between proponents of young-earth creationism and old-earth approaches (The Manifold Beauty of...
It is that time of year here in Michigan when you begin to see yard sales cropping up around your neighborhood. When I decide to sell something, I have become more fond of the online methods that eliminate the unpleasant experience of moving things from your yard...
Each spring I teach a section in a third-year pastoral course aimed at helping aspiring pastors deal with change and conflict in churches. I have been doing it for years, but the escalating level of tension in our culture that is seeping into churches and ministries...
Evaluating the credibility of historical revivals is not a new exercise in the history of the Church. We are made aware that the multiplied “awakenings” of early American history are not all of a sort, and that some proved more credible than others. Iain...
*This post was originally published in 2013. My wife and I are looking forward to enjoying our first Christmas as parents, even if our son is currently more interested in putting wrapping paper in his mouth than in any other part of Christmas. It’s still fun to...
“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of...
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...
Perhaps you (like me) have had grand plans of working steadily on projects or sermons only to find that it is Saturday night, and tomorrow is the deadline. Modern ministry is full of distractions. It is challenging, perhaps now more than ever, to keep the main thing...
The words Reformed and Baptist mean something and they are and always have been mutually exclusive. So begins one of Scott Clark’s several diatribes on the paradox of Reformed Baptists, the latest of which hit the fan a couple of weeks back...
Dealing with difficult passages requires that we keep four hermeneutical principles in mind: Principle #1: Interpreting difficult passages starts with understanding what the text says.Principle #2: Difficult passages must be interpreted in light the immediate...
Among the many trees in the Garden of Eden, Scripture tells us, stood two trees of great significance: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. This pair of posts is an attempt to understand the nature, effects, and relationship of these two...
David Platt gave a talk yesterday at the T4G conference that was an excellent challenge for all Christians to be more committed to pursuing disciples of Christ among all nations. He especially urged believers to do more to see the gospel go to unreached areas/peoples....
The fact that all truth is interconnected and sourced in the Triune God means that God in Christ may be rightly connected to every datum of truth in the whole universe. Many argue that faithful preaching, in fact, will make such a connection in every sermon:...
Writing after World War I, the British War and Air secretary Winston Churchill avouched his support for Zionism, a movement that afforded in his view a welcome counterpoise to the menace of communism: “Some people like the Jews and some do not; but no thoughtful man...
Breaking news: We are all going to die. But prior to death, we lose our strength and energy. Old age comes with waning strength. Memory starts to slip; instability and immobility become a norm of life. Young, healthy people don't think about the later years as...
Anyone who has read, listened to, or studied contemporary leadership theories knows that vision is touted as “the essential ingredient for successful leadership” (Hyatt, The Vision Driven Leader, p. 21). If you are among my older readers you may have endured the...
In 1964, George Eldon Ladd argued that the Church functions as “Custodian of the Kingdom” (Presence of the Future, 276). For many, this designation sounds either (1) too Catholic (salvation is found in the organized Church alone) or (2) too Reformed (the Church IS the...
It’s been several years since I have taken time to write anything other than Tweets about Fundamentalism, but a new book and a blog post piqued my interest recently. When I saw that Dr. David Beale, under whose teaching I greatly benefitted as a college student 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...
I suggested in a previous post that something like the following is a good foundation for determining the limits of governmental authority over the church: Christians/churches must submit to every government regulation unless it would mean disobeying God (i.e., cause...
As Christians in North America continue to transition from governments that were largely favorable or neutral to Christianity to governments that demonstrate an increasing animosity toward traditional Christianity, believers and churches will be forced to wrestle more...
Over the past year, Christian leaders have been forced to think through the nature of governmental authority as it relates to the church. One consistent refrain has been that churches must comply with much if not all of the current government restrictions, because...
About 25 years ago I was privileged to take several seminary courses that focused on the science of textual criticism. Textual criticism was really important in those days because epic battles were then raging over texts and translations as the King James Version lost...
Theological diversity should not exist. But it does. I disagree with people who have the same background as I do, went to the same schools, and go to the same type of churches. How can this happen and what should be done about it? These are the questions that are...
In 2009, I pastored at a church north of Detroit. Because I had intended to be there for a long time, I made a goal to preach through the entire Bible. One of the last books that I planned to preach through was Revelation, because as you can imagine, I thought, “It...