The Covenants
The feel of dirt mattered to Wolfgang Musculus. Common dust and clay and grass accompanied many of his formative experiences like sod stuck to a child’s knee. [...]
Modern Reformation recently sat down with pastors Michael Brown and Zach Keele to talk about their book, Sacred Bond: Covenant Theology Explored, 2nd ed., with a foreword by Michael Horton (Wyoming, MI: Reformed Fellowship Inc., 2017). MR: How does the whole story of the Bible fit together? ZK: How much time do you have! There […]
“Progressive Covenantalism: Charting a Course between Dispensational and Covenantal Theologies” ed. Stephen J. Wellum and Brent E. Parker
Systematic theology can be intimidating. Like every discipline, it comes with its own vocabulary, a complex history, and seemingly endless debates. At first glance, it may appear more problematic than practical, but it would be hard to find any topic discussed in the church today (from the ordination of women to the role of instruments […]
Promises are powerful. God made a promise, a worldwide, game-changing promise, and every story in the Bible finds its way back to this promise of hope. Yet, when we consider the Old Testament, it can be confusing to dip into one part of it, especially without knowing much about the other parts. The thread that […]
There's so much we don't know about the Epistle to the Hebrews. We don't know who wrote it or when. We don't know for sure where or to whom it was written. We don't know exactly what challenge its recipients faced, or exactly how they were tempted to compromise in response. But here's one thing […]
This series of sidebar articles from Dennis Johnson is adapted from the presidential address atthe annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society Far West Region, “From All the Scriptures (Luke 24:27): Preaching Jesus from the Old Testament” (April 2012). Dennis Johnson is professor of practical theology at Westminster Seminary California in Escondido. 1. The Sermon […]
"Covenant" is the Bible's central way of describing the Lord's relationship to his people. In the Ancient Near East, a great king (suzerain) would rescue a smaller kingdom or city. On the basis of this deliverance, the lesser ruler would become the vassal (servant), part of the wider empire of the great king. As you […]
"Sure, God condemns homosexuality in the Old Testament, but he also condemns hot dogs and orders the stoning of disobedient children." We hear this on pop "news" programs a lot. At the outset of Is God a Moral Monster? you write that you were motivated to address this issue because of misrepresentations of violence and […]
In a recent White Horse Inn roundtable discussion, hosts Michael Horton (MSH), Ken Jones (KJ), Kim Riddlebarger (KR), and Rod Rosenbladt (RR) discussed the "Big Picture" of the Bible. How do we invite new Christians into the strange world of the Bible and encourage them to see it, first of all, as one story from […]
One of the difficulties of reading the Bible is the Bible itself. Not only new believers, but old ones as well, often find it tough slogging to pick up the book at Genesis and wind up at Revelation without giving up somewhere in between. The Protestant Reformers never said that the Bible is an easy […]
What The Iliad and The Odyssey were to the Greeks and what The Aeneid was to the Romans, the book of Exodus was to the Hebrews. It was the story within which they defined their own lives as a story. Let the reader understand: the Exodus event was paradigmatic or world defining for the […]
"Don't make promises you can't keep." We use this little proverb as a reminder of how costly our words can be. Making a promise means you have to perform what is necessary to fulfill it. After we stroll through the narratives of Genesis, adorned with the gems of God's promise, it is easy for a […]
If I Were a Horse - "Kinship by Covenant: A Canonical Approach to the Fulfillment of God's Saving Promises"
Scott Hahn has written a useful volume for the academic community with a well-researched book on the subject of covenant. The final product of years of sustained labor and reflection, this is a reworking of Hahn's doctoral dissertation and will be of immense interest to all students of the Bible, professional and otherwise, because it […]
Often we find that differences among Christians over end-times views reveal broader disagreements about how to interpret the Bible as a whole. Ancient Gnostics (especially Marcion) rejected the Old Testament, pitting Yahweh the Creator God of the Jews against the New Testament Christ of Spirit and grace. Irenaeus, second-century bishop of Lyons, refuted Gnosticism not […]
Recovering the Message of Scripture In this special section of our "Rightly Dividing the Word" issue, nine pastor-theologians help shed light on some popular texts of Scripture that tend to lose their true redemptive-historical significance in a culture of interpretive narcissism. It is common to hear Christians claim that America is a "Christian nation." Because […]
