Category: Exposition
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Our Covenant Keeping God
Before you listen to the sermon I have linked below, I want you to do something for me. First, read Psalm 36. Second, read Romans 1-3. (As a bonus, throw in 4 and 5 – you might catch why I said that in the sermon.) Third, read the first chapter of Calvin’s Institutes. Fourth, ponder what implications the universal knowledge of God, the universal knowledge of His moral law, and the status of man as covenant-breaker, under Adam, his federal head, might have insofar as what Van Til’s usage of those concepts was, and what theology they presuppose. Please take …
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Christian Homosexuals
There’s been a good bit of discussion about the nonsensical statements of the so-called “Biola Queer Underground” of late. To be candid, the only justifications they can offer for their revisionist position have been refuted so many times that you almost feel sorry for the research skills of these supposed university students. For instance, the “champion” for their revisionist eisegesis is one Justin Lee, director of the “Gay Christian Network“. What might be interesting to our readers is that this same Justin Lee debated Dr. James White on May 16th prior to the Reformation Montana Conference. …
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Going Deeper
In our last post, we examined Philippians 1 as a bit of a survey, and covered some high points and contextual issues. Now I want to dig a little more into the text and bring out some points in higher relief. We started the post with the observation that neither Rome nor the health and wealth preachers are possessors of the Biblical Gospel. Rome, in particular, makes enough additions and subtractions to make the Judaizers look like amateur heretics. We then made the connection with the term “Evangelical” – which essentially means “those who are about the Gospel”. We hear …
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Are you an Evangelical apologist?
The term “evangelical” is used for a whole host of people these days – but what does it really mean? It refers to those who believe the Gospel is the center of the Christian faith, and the core of our message, right? Since we live in such a sound byte culture, it really behooves us to ask – both ourselves, and those we come in contact with, what they mean when they say “evangelical.” Which, of course, brings us to the subject of our post.
It’s all well and good to say “I’m an Evangelical!” It’s another thing altogether to …
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On Being All Things to All Men
…1 Cor. 9:19-22: For though I am free from all [men], I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without
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On an Apologetic for Doubt
C. Michael Patton is hardly my favorite blogger, as you might have guessed by now. The reason I have him in my RSS feed is because the sorts of things he typically says are symptomatic of what is wrong with most of non-confessional “Calvinism.” What I’ve dealt with most from him, of course, is the subject of “doubt”. The subject of doubt, for some reason, seems to be a fascination with Mr. Patton. As one who is focused on the apologetic implications of theological stances, his “advice” on this subject often horrifies me. Case in point: “On Talking to …
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God and Desire
It was a bit of an eyebrow raiser – mostly due to the nonchalance of the entire affair – (albeit unsurprising, given prior statements he has made) to read Piper simply handing over 1 Tim. 2:4 to Arminianism. What’s also quite interesting is that the handoff is done with practically no exegetical attention paid to the surrounding verses, or seemingly, even an attempt to interact with the historic Reformed commentators on the subject.
…Put two texts together, and see what you see.
“God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (eis
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Romans 6 and Prolepsis
If, as we are told by Date and Co., death spoken of a present tense is prolepsis – an event spoken of as certain to occur in the future – are we to take regeneration to be something that occurs only after this death? For what are we born again, as if we had a need? It’s not as if we are dead, is it? For, as we are told, death is something to be considered as the actual deprivation of life; and speaking of “dead in trespasses and sins” as if it was a present reality is prolepsis, is …
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Furnaces of Fire and Outer Darkness
Another common argument made by annihilationists is from the imagery of the “furnace”, particularly in Matthew 13:42 and 50. As this is one of the parables Christ gives the most explanation of, we should be able to make a significant amount of headway in exegeting it properly. Date’s exegesis of this passage is significantly lacking – and as with the passages we’ve already looked at, I sincerely hope that what he has offered us thus far is not all that we’ll see, despite his statement that I am in possession of the entirety of his positive case. If this is …
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Point of Contact – Life, Death and Theology
Dealt with approximately 25 minutes of audio from three lengthy Theopologetics podcasts on annihilationism, the presuppositional commitments that are brought to the text, and on the basis of that reading, affect the theology they teach. Had Ben, Matthias, and Justin in with me at various points. We didn’t get to all of it, as we had a near catastrophic recording failure toward the end, where you will hear the audio quality/texture change, and I then make some comments specifically to Chris. Thankfully, it was recovered, and all was then right with the world. Take a listen.
Also, see this post…