My father was a graduate of the Naval Academy, class of 1950. After doing his stint in the Korean War, he eventually resigned his commission to go into Christian literature work with Officers’ Christian Union (now Officers’ Christian Fellowship). After he left the Navy, we wound up in Tacoma Park, Maryland for a short time …
Primer on Eschatology 3
26. What are some of the features of postmillennialism? We have already talked about preterism: Many of the prophecies of the Bible which premillennialists consider unfulfilled, postmillennialists believe have already been fulfilled. This includes Old and New Testaments both. We determine what has been fulfilled by the teaching of the New Testament. Psalm 2 provides …
Efficacious Redemption
We must begin by rejecting a term that is commonly applied to this doctrine. The rejected term is that of limited atonement. It should be rejected for two reasons. One is that it is misleading with regard to the teaching of the Bible, and the other is that it misrepresents the debate. One of the …
Faithful in a Little
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 35 Jesus teaches us that if we are faithful in little, we will be able to be faithful over much (Luke 19:17). Someone who was a slouch as a teen-ager with his paper route is likely to be a slouch …
Petty Legalism
I am currently working through another of N.T. Wright’s books, Bringing the Church to the World, and which promises to be quite good. But on p. 34, I came across a passage that, in my view, overstates his case, and causes alarums to break out in various sectors of Christendom. He says this, speaking of …
Divorce and Remarriage
It is not a coincidence that Christ teaches on divorce in the passage immediately following His instruction on lust. And although Christ taught in this section that we should be willing to remove any member which stumbles us, He teaches here that there is one member which is not to be removed. “”Furthermore it has …
Resurrection Life
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Great God of wonders, God of our risen Lord Jesus, God of the new creation, we worship You now in the powerful name of Jesus Christ. You gave the breath of life to our father Adam, and You gave new life and …
Rejoicing in Lent
Every Lord’s Day, we mark the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Every Lord’s Day we mark the glory of the resurrection. We do this on a grand scale annually, with our celebration of Easter, but we must not forget that each Lord’s Day does the same thing. (And let us leave aside for the …
Treachery
As God writes the story of His covenant people in the world, with this Table at the center, we see that traitors and treachery are an important element in the story. All four gospels have the story of Judas, which is certainly one indication of its importance. When Jesus talks about the Table of the …
The Heart of Lust
As Jesus applies the law of God in this sermon, He continues the same pattern. Obedience to the law is not merely a matter of external conformity; it is a question of heart loyalty. Put another way, the well-respected and pious tend to think about sins. The godly are constrained by the teaching of Christ …