I received some questions about how divine institutions are coming under attack by Russian and Western political theories, so I thought I would adapt the answer for our blog here:[Read More]
prophecy
How James quoted Amos
At the Jerusalem Council (Acts 19:6–21), James quotes Amos in a way that some have interpreted in a way that sees him spiritualizing promises that God made to Israel and applying them to the church. I do not think that this is what he was doing, though. James was using the plain grammatical-historical method of interpretation, which includes Amos’s original context as well as James’ context in Acts.
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Dispensationalism: What It Is And Why It Matters
Dispensationalism is the school of thought that results from a plain grammatical-historical reading of Scriptures. Ryrie’s threefold sine qua non of dispensationalism includes grammatical-historical hermeneutics, doxological centrality of Scripture, and the distinction between Israel and the church,[1] but these latter two points are merely the result of the first. The doctrine that dispensationalism is most famous for is the pre-tribulational rapture, but this too is just the result of the consistent literal reading of Scripture. Even critics of dispensationalism recognize that grammatical-historicism results in dispensationalist conclusions. Since the legitimacy of dispensationalism stands or falls on the legitimacy of grammatical-historical hermeneutics, a discussion of dispensationalism’s strengths should focus on its hermeneutics.[Read More]
Four Objects Related to the 70-Year Chronology
Lately, I have been doing some work with the Book of Ezra, which begins with Cyrus’ decree that was issued, “that the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished” (Ezra 1:1). Ezra does not actually quote Jeremiah, but assumes that the reader is biblically literate. The work that I am doing will explore the biblical issues further, but as I studied for that project, I came across some archaeological items that are worth discussing here.[Read More]
Works-Universalism: Contradiction or Middle Ground?
We have developed a quadrant model for describing soteriological compromises. The biblical message of salvation is summarized as Faith Alone in Christ Alone (FACA). Two ways to reject this are by rejecting the sufficiency of FACA or the necessity of FACA. Each of these two sides has differing extremes: On the side that rejects sufficiency, a near alternative is Works-Assisted Condition while a distant alternative is Works-Assisted Merit; on the side that rejects necessity, a near alternative is Christian Pluralism while a distant alternative is Christian Universalism.[Read More]
Thoughts on Russia, Ukraine, and the Bible
Russophobia is emerging around the world. There are individuals in the Russian government who are making evil decisions that affect Russia and other countries—Putin comes to mind, as do others who may not be as familiar to Western readers—but these are not grounds to resent Russian people. Within the Russian population are plenty of believers who are doing excellent work in a dark place. They are to be commended (if not now, then they will certainly be rewarded later).[Read More]