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 …
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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 I’m too busy to finish anything I thought I’d re-post this article from 2008: Scientism, the belief that science provides the epistemological framework upon which reality can be known, enjoyed its heyday in the first part of the Twentieth Century,[1] until roughly the early 1960’s when it started to come under increasing scrutiny.During that time it was widely believed within academia that “science was the answer.”The very word “scientist” was enough to make people expect “the facts.”Science in this …
“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 …
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 …
Part Three Revelation Cannot Be Divorced From the Character of the Revealer Plain-speaking is usually thought to be a virtue. One should say what one means. On the other hand, it is not a virtue to use words which one knows beforehand may lead another person to conclude we mean one thing, when, in actuality, we mean something more obscure and inscrutable, or even utterly different. To show how impactful this truth is, I’ll pick an example from another sphere. …
This is a response to comments left for me in the combox at this post about Sam Storms’s views on eschatology. I appreciate the brother bringing them to my attention. I am responding mainly to this: Thanks for the post. I am not sure the last section really represents Sam’s view. He would say that Paul and Peter leave no room for a milennium since Paul has the last enemy death defeated at the parousia in 1Cor 15:24ff, 50 therefore …
Part One G. There are some noteworthy discussions of passages in the book. Probably the most intriguing part of Gentry’s contribution is his promotion of a pre-fall “Creation covenant.” Gentry’s exposition of this covenant is found in Chapters 5 and 6. While pursuing an exchange with Paul Williamson, Gentry traces out the difference between the phrase “to cut a covenant” (karat berith), and “to uphold an existing covenant” (heqim berith). And he makes a reasonable circumstantial case for tying …
Review of Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants, by Peter J. Gentry and Stephen J. Wellum, Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2012, 848 pages. A. This book is written by two professors from Southern Seminary; one a theologian, the other an Old Testament scholar. The work in question is a courageous effort to forge a via media between traditional covenant theology (CT) and dispensational theology (DT). If for no other reason than this, Kingdom through Covenant deserves attention, and …
