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. […]
Theology
Jesus Is Yahweh, the Covenant God of Israel—and the World
Many Christians read their Old Testament and see in it mostly the story of God the Father, perhaps with occasional pre-incarnate appearances of the Son and the rare glimmer of the Holy Spirit. They think that human history can be broadly divided up into three continuous phases: In other words, the Father was the primary […]
The Judgment of the Sons of God by the Sons of God
In Psalm 82, the psalmist describes the rebellious sons of God ruling unjustly over the nations (Ps 82:2–4) that Yahweh had allotted to them at Babel (Gen 10–11), which we read about in Deuteronomy 32:8 in the DSS and LXX. When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he […]
A Biblical Theological Framing of Technology
The team at Logos asked me to write some thoughts on technology and how we at Logos think about the role of technology in the mission of the church and our for-profit business that exists to “use technology to equip the church to grow in the light of the Bible.” Many have angst about this […]
What Is the Gospel? How Genesis 12:3 and Galatians 3:8 Open Our Eyes to the Whole-Bible, Whole-World Good News
It seems like an elementary question with a simple answer. Almost every Sunday school child at gospel-preaching churches knows that the gospel is the good news about Jesus dying on the cross to save sinners through faith so they can be forgiven and have eternal life. While there’s a beautiful simplicity to the gospel that […]
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 […]
5 Ways You Shouldn’t Try to Be Like Jesus
One of the most common ways people relate to Jesus is by seeing him as an example to follow. This idea is captured in the popular modern phrase “What would Jesus do?” or in the acronym WWJD. Even many non-Christians recognize Jesus as a positive moral example. While it’s not the primary way we should […]
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 […]