Grace Abroad Ministries is pleased to announce that our upcoming book, What is Dispensationalism? is on track to being in print next month (Nov 2018)! It has been an absolute joy to work alongside 25 fellow dispensationalists to get this thing cranked out. It has been a lot of work, but we look forward to seeing how God will use this book as we translate it into other languages around the world.[Read More]
systematic theology
A Tale of Two Houstons
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. It was the 1960s, a time which ushered in what sociologists would identify as “The Consciousness Revolution.” America was due for an awakening. Just as 80 years prior had been the “Third Great Awakening,” which followed the “Second Great Awakening,” decades prior and the first “Great Awakening” of the 1720s-30s which eventually formed the basis of the American Revolution. Every generation of Americans goes through some kind of an awakening. Perhaps this trend began with the “Puritan Awakening,” which itself came from the previous generation’s “Protestant Reformation” in Europe.
For centuries before and after the American Revolution, these awakenings seemed to revolve around the Christian worldview. When I look at the Reformers, Puritans, and missionaries who came out of the previous awakenings, I recognize that, on many issues, we aren’t on the same page, but at least we are all generally reading from the same book. This is not true of the Consciousness Revolution of the 1960s. For some reason, America was breaking its long held tradition of Biblicism and we are paying that price today.[Read More]
Rick James, Eddie Murphy’s Couch, and the Kingdom Theology of Progressive Dispensationalism
Years ago, Dave Chappelle used to have his own show. It was a pretty vulgar show, but I was an unbeliever living in the Middle East with plenty of free time, so I watched it with no moral conflict. Anyhoo, I was reading something in Dallas Seminary’s library recently that reminded me of an episode that I had watched over 10 years earlier.[Read More]
BRT Podcast: What is the Gospel?
The gentlemen at the Back Row Theologians podcast invited Paul to be a guest on a discussion on “What is the Gospel?” You can listen to it below, or check it out on their site here.
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The Timing of Ezekiel’s Temple (Ezek 43:1-27; 44:15-31)
This is part of a series on Ezekiel’s Temple. I’d recommend first reading Spiritualizers, Revisionists, and Ezekiel’s Temple. Or not.[Read More]
Tsar Ivan the Not-So-Much-More-Terrible-Than-The-Rest-Of-Us
Tsar Ivan the Terrible was known for his paranoia and terrible fits of rage. Anyone who angered Ivan the Terrible to the slightest degree faced instant execution. He was constantly throwing violent tantrums, and during one outburst, Ivan even beat his own son and heir to death. Standing up to the tsar in those times was an unthinkable act, but one day a so called “Fool for Christ” named Basil did just that. It was spring in Russia, a time when followers of Russian Orthodoxy fast for Lent. Basil approached Ivan the Terrible and offered him a slab of raw meat, insisting that there was no point in fasting, since the tsar had committed too many murders to be able to cover his sin with the act of fasting. Ivan realized that Basil was right, and deeply respected him for standing up to him. In fact, when Basil died, Ivan the Terrible himself acted as a pallbearer at the funeral and named the most famous cathedral in Russia after him.[Read More]