While the tide is slowly turning, many modern scholars and pastors still reject what the late Michael S. Heiser popularized as the divine council worldview (DCW). But it’s not entirely clear to me which claims they find controversial or difficult to accept, since it’s often accepted or rejected wholesale as a set of interconnected ideas. […]
Exegesis
The Eternal Promise of Eternal Life: The Covenant of Redemption in Titus 1:2
Our church is studying Titus on Sunday mornings, and our family happens to be working through Titus right now in our regular Bible time together, too. We’ve be making our way through the New Testament over the last few years, slowly reading through a portion of Scripture and looking for patterns and major themes and […]
How Do Love for God and Love for Others Relate? The Two Greatest Commands as One?
The Bible is full of commands to love God and love others. Jesus called these the two greatest commands. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first […]
The New Testament Ethic of Love
What is the New Testament all about? If I were to ask this question to my three-year-old son during our family Bible time, he’d answer, “God,” followed by “Jesus.” He’s usually right! And he wouldn’t be wrong in this case, either. There are many good candidates for the central idea of the New Testament. God, […]
Why Did God Harden Pharaoh’s Heart? A Case for Divine Ultimacy
Every Sunday school child knows the story of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt. It contains all the elements that make a good flannelgraph or picture-book story—or even a Hollywood movie. It’s one of the most powerful and dramatic stories in the Bible. But it’s much more than a children’s story. It’s central in the Bible’s storyline, […]
Did John Use Bad Grammar to Teach the Holy Spirit’s Personality?
Does the Bible present the Holy Spirit as a person, distinct from the Father and the Son? Yes. Did John use the masculine demonstrative pronoun ἐκεῖνος (instead of the neuter ἐκεῖνο) in John 14:26, 15:26, and 16:13–14 to make that point? An impressive list of people answers yes. But Andy Naselli and I argue they’re wrong in “Prooftexting […]
Does Matthew 5:48 Require Sinless Perfection?
Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). This is often interpreted as a call to sinless perfection, something that Christians cannot attain prior to glorification. God is thus able to issue this injunction to his people: ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ […]
What Is the Righteousness Required to Enter the Kingdom?
Jesus said in Matthew 5:20, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus here identifies a necessary condition for entering the kingdom, which is synonymous with gaining eternal life (cf. Mt 19:16, 23), so it’s important that we […]