Something I was reading today triggered my memory of a sin from the past. Fresh feelings of guilt swept across me, even though it was something for which I asked the Lord’s forgiveness many years ago. Sadly, my default plan of attack for dealing with that unwarranted subjective guilt was to try to minimize my […]
Theology
Herman Nicolaas Ridderbos
The late Herman Nicolaas Ridderbos (1909–2007), who went to be with the Lord last Thursday, March 8, 2007, at the age of 98, was one of my favorite modern theologians and has had a profound impact on the way I read the New Testament—particularly because of his emphasis on Heilsgeschichte. I became acquainted with Ridderbos […]
Westerholm on Righteousness and Covenant
I love this selection from Westerholm’s Perspectives Old and New on Paul. To this point I have discussed Paul’s usage of the dikaio– terminology with scarcely a reference to “the covenant.” So astonishing an omission can only be accounted for by a narrow preoccupation with the Pauline texts, which never link the vocabulary of “righteousness” […]
Thoughts on Proverbs 31:6–7
“Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.” —Proverbs 31:6–7 Someone recently asked me about this passage—specifically whether it condones the consumption of alcohol as a remedy for depression. Read flatly, the text seems […]
Calvin on Interchurch Separation
They exclaim that it is impossible to tolerate the vice which everywhere stalks abroad like a pestilence. What if the apostle’s sentiment applies here also? Among the Corinthians it was not a few that erred, but almost the whole body had become tainted; there was not one species of sin merely, but a multitude, and […]
Reprobation in Jude?
Jude 4 in the KJV reads, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” According to this translation of οἱ πάλαι προγεγραμμένοι εἰς τοῦτο τὸ […]
Praying Like Nehemiah?
A recurring theme stood out to me while reading through Nehemiah this time. Nehemiah continually asked God to remember (and respond accordingly to) the good deeds that he did. Neh 5:19 Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people. Neh 13:14 Remember me, O my God, concerning this, […]
The Spirit Communicating: Logos Syntax Search
My Bible reading plan had me in Acts 13 the other day (I’m following Carson’s slight variation of the M’Cheyne plan). Verse 2 reads, “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’” Curious about the […]