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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Introduction Interpreters of the Levitical cult have long speculated over the rationale for and difference between Israel’s sin offering and guilt offering. ((Dr. Dunham is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.)) In spite of the...
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...
In the past few months I have encountered several conflicting ideas about forgiveness in unexpected counseling situations. Nor is the confusion confined to the uninformed or immature. The biblical idea of forgiveness is an elusive one that is often missed entirely or...
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...
I attended Bible College in the 1980s and seminary in the 1990s. The time I spent earning my Master of Divinity at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary still stands for me as the most grueling four years of my life. But I had accidentally prepared for it for years,...
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...
I’ve decided to start a mini-series of blogposts on historically freighted phrases/clauses/mantras that have been detached from their moorings and have become cliché in contemporary Christian-speak. Most of the time these lines are intrinsically innocuous (i.e.,...
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...
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...
“You can’t legislate morality.” I see this phrase come up in often in discussions of the government’s role in moral issues. Whether debating previous laws against adultery or current laws about drug use or marriage, many people argue that the government has no ability...
Over the past few weeks, I’ve posted a couple of suggested reading lists. These lists have included broad overviews of church history and books on the history of Christian doctrine. In this post, I’m going to recommend a number of books that focus on the history of...
Normally when book reviews appear on this website, they’re for new books: cutting edge books that add some new piece of information or fresh analysis to our ever-growing bank of theological information. But we also need to reflect on historical gems—classic treatments...
One of the more interesting discoveries I made when researching Baptist polity a few years ago was the lost practice of “recognition councils.” Most Baptists are familiar with ordination councils, in which a local church calls together a group of elders and messengers...
A couple of weeks ago I suggested that believers would benefit from occasionally reading older books. However, just because a work was written in a previous era does not mean that it’s necessarily worth reading today. In fact, far more old books exist that any one...
Despite Bill Clinton’s famous statement that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare,” today only one of those three adjectives is actually descriptive of abortion in America. Abortion remains legal in all 50 states. However, abortion never has been safe for the...
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...
The Fundamental Concepts of Caregiving: Caregiving is More Than a Career; It Is a Process of Building a Relationship, by Murphy V. S. Anderson. Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2024. 254 pp. $31.00. Murphy Anderson is the CEO of Save...
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...
Fundamentalist U: Keeping the Faith in American Higher Education, by Adam Laats. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. x + 348 pp. $29.95. The subject of twentieth-century evangelicalism fascinates the academic world. A host of recent publications on the variegated...
Christianity and Modern Medicine: Foundations for Bioethics, by Mark Wesley Foreman and Lindsay C. Leonard. Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2022. 384 pp. $29.99. This volume is co-authored by the father-daughter duo of a bioethicist...
Read Part 1 in this series here. Read Part 2 here. Read Part 3 here. Teaching Directly Related to Justification (cont.) The previous post in this series examined what FV has said about the imputation of Christ’s righteousness and the role of works in justification....
Read Part 1 in this series here. Read Part 2 here. Teaching Directly Related to Justification While FV is not centered around soteriology, its proponents still address issues directly related to justification in their writings. Four specific issues directly related to...
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...
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…...
Recently I rewatched most of an abortion debate I attended a couple of years ago at Wayne State University here in Detroit. The debate was between Nadine Strossen, professor of Law at New York Law School and former president of ACLU, and Scott Klusendorf, president of...
Thomas Todhunter Shields Jr - StraubDownload
Are science and religion/faith incompatible? The leading lights of the atheism revolution certainly believe they are: Christopher Hitchens: “All attempts to reconcile faith with science and reason are consigned to failure and ridicule.” Richard Dawkins: “I am hostile...
As the baby boomer generation continues to age, the percentage of Americans at retirement age is expected to explode, with about 9000 reaching age 65 each day. “Forty-eight million Americans were age 65 and older in 2015, 18 percent more than just five years earlier....
Back when I was in seminary, one of my professors used to warn us seminarians to be neither “more pious than Paul” nor “more Christian than Christ.” Such a stance might win us halos on earth, but no crowns in glory. This instruction was never more vivid to me than...
A few weeks ago, Mark Snoeberger had a post arguing that in the matter of salvation, especially the issue of regeneration, there are only two possible options, which he labeled as Calvinism and Arminianism. As might be expected, there was some push back to the idea of...
Despite all the jokes about Wikipedia’s SOPA blackout on Wednesday being hard on college students, the truth is many students do need to improve their online research skills. We live in an amazing day. Within seconds one can use the internet to locate an electronic...
If you have been in ministry for a number of years since seminary, you know how easy it can be to get into a ministry routine and allow other things in your life to become your first love, whether it is a hobby, a recreational pursuit, or other amusement. We as...
David Instone-Brewer argues in a recent article that the Talmud’s account of Jesus’ trial contains the original Jewish charge against Jesus. The lines, as preserved in the Munich ed. (1342), read like this: It was taught: On the Eve of the Passover they hung Yeshu the...
January 22 marks the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that declared abortion to be legal in the United States. Since that decision, over 50 million abortions have been legally performed in the U.S. Many Christians have labored to overturn...
There is a new web site, Early Bible, that recently came online, whose purpose is to display pictures of the New Testament papyrus manuscripts. It is very nicely done and hopefully more papyri will be coming online soon.
One of the inevitabilities of working in a seminary community is that you’re likely to lose quite a few dear friends over the course of your tenure. It’s not because seminaries require vows of friendlessness, alongside those of poverty and humility. Rather, it’s...
Todd Wilson declares that the expression “law of Christ” continues to “bedevil interpreters.”by Paul Hartog((Dr. Hartog is Professor of Theology at Faith Baptist Theological Seminary in Ankeny, IA.)) ((Todd A. Wilson, “The Law of Christ and the Law of Moses:...
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...
2012 William R. Rice Lecture Series Date: Wednesday, March 14, 2012Speaker: Dr. Bryant G. WoodTheme: “Archaeology and the Conquest: New Evidence on an Old Problem” Lectures:Lecture 1: Background and Chronology of the Exodus and Conquest...