Part Seven “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” – Matt. 6:13 I am going to comment on these two petitions as one, since they form a sort of couplet. The fact of evil is what makes necessary both of these petitions. Temptation is never to do good! This life is a life filled with various temptations. But why would we have to petition a holy God not to lead us into temptation? …
Category: Biblical Studies
“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” This petition, especially when coupled with the addendum in v. 14-15 (“if you do not forgive others the Lord will not forgive you”) has caused concern for some of God’s people. Let me say first that this passage is not concerned with forgiveness of sins and justification on the basis of the cross and resurrection. Certainly, that is not how the disciples would have understood Jesus. Rather, what is in …
Part Five In this last post I intend to do three things. First, I will be drawing the conclusion that there are two very different ideas and hence definitions of “progressive revelation” (PR), and both operative words mean something very different both separately and together, depending on who is using them. Thus, there is no really agreed upon definition of this term within Evangelicalism (or, indeed, biblical studies generally). Second, I want to quickly address the straw man issue (I’ll …
This is a transcript of a lecture taken from the course on “The Doctrine of Man and Sin” at Telos Biblical Institute Part One Problems with Creationism’s view of God creating new souls in individual bodies: 1. What about sin? · If God is creating new souls in each individual body then how does that soul become sinful? Or are we back to the old Platonic view that the body is sinful and that somehow by contact with the material body, …
This is a transcript of a lecture taken from the course on “The Doctrine of Man and Sin” at Telos Biblical Institute How do we get our souls? How are our souls transmitted to each of us? Three Distinct Views of How the Soul has been Transmitted in the History of Christianity · The Pre-Existence of the Soul · Creationism · Traducianism First – the Doctrine of the Pre-Existence of the Soul [Obviously, we know this is not taught by …
As previously noted, I was asked to represent Traditional Dispensationalism for a set of interviews conducted by Lindsay Kennedy. Two far more noteworthy contributors; Darrell Bock (Progressive Dispensationalism), and James Hamilton (Historic Premillennialism), were also interviewed. After the interviews were completed, each man was given the opportunity to ask one of the others a question. Darrell Bock asked me about Acts 2 and the Throne of David. I drew Jim Hamilton and promptly snuck-in two questions. The second was deliberately …
“Give us this day our daily bread…” (Matthew 6:11) Many of God’s people have known what it is to go without. Many have known extremity. Without any doubt when bills cannot be paid with the resources on-hand tensions grow, tempers blow, and faith can take a pounding. Paul admonishes the comfort-softened westerner, “having food and clothing let us therewith be content.” We may well believe that he takes shelter for granted. Still, one wonders exactly what the Lord considers …
Recently I was interviewed by an Australian brother ministering in England, where I’m from. Lindsay Kennedy, who teaches at the Calvary Chapel College in York, asked me some questions as part of a series he is running on differing perspectives within Premillennialism. I tried to represent Traditional Dispensationalism; Darrell Bock was interviewed about Progressive Dispensationalism, and James Hamilton was asked to write on Historic Premillennialism. As you will see, my answers were longer than those given by the other …
Part Four In the first part of this series I referenced some things to which I should now like to return. Even before getting into what is meant when the two words “progressive revelation” are brought together, I said that we needed to settle on what revelation is. At bottom revelation is communication from God to man. The next question up is, how accessible a communication is it? Is it both constant and consistent? That is to say, does the …
Reformed scholars often tend to give unaided reason the final say when it comes to the Bible and prophecy. They use the same sorts of arguments to argue against another biblical teaching many of them don’t like: the literal six day creation. John Byl has written a delightful response to Scott Clark’s scholarly snubbing of the words of Genesis 1. Byl is himself Reformed and a young-earth creationist (as were the Westminster Divines). His article (as most always), is worth …
