The Christian faith affirms the reality of progressive revelation; without it, the New Testament would be, not new, but only a different version of the Old Testament. For Christians, the New Testament bears witness to a revelation that is more complete than what we find in the Old Testament. And even in the New Testament … More Progressive Revelation
Knowing who is and who isn’t a member of the holy people can be difficult to determine. … More A Few Observations about Holiness
A Chart Explaining Biblical Prophecy and Its Fulfillment I have taught the same adult Sunday School class for more than ten years. From time to time we have studied the Bible’s prophetic writings. I remember distinctly when we studied the Old Testament’s minor prophets. A recurring experience of the members of the class was exasperation … More Three theses on biblical prophecy
We still have a highly conservative, rural Evangelical voice that is inflexible in its politics and fearful of urbanites, immigrants, and everything else that is different from traditional rural culture. … More Prohibition and Apocalyptic Politics
Historical narration serves truth. … More Narrative and truth
How does God’s word relate to human words? How does God speak in the Bible? I am currently teaching two sections of a freshman course, New Testament History and Religion. On Wednesday we covered the portions of Luke’s gospel that deal with wealth and contrasted them with what 1 Timothy 6 says about wealth. Luke’s … More The Incarnational Paradox of the Bible
Here is a sermon that I recently delivered. It’s about the circumstances of life in which we can hear God speak. It’s an exposition of Luke 9:58-62 (let the dead bury the dead) and a story about my encounter with a homeless couple, an encounter that, I think, put me in the same situation as … More A Sermon on Encountering the Word of God
To be human is to receive the divine command or question and to respond. … More The Unsettling Encounter with the Word of God
Last week I raised the question of progressive revelation within the Bible. I noted that Christians generally acknowledge that the New Testament reveals God in a fuller way than does the Old Testament. (This statement obviously requires qualification. Martin Luther, for instance, believed that parts of the OT reveal Christ while parts of the NT … More Veiling women and the word of God
I’ve received a request to write a 1000 word essay on “progressive revelation” for the Global Wesleyan Dictionary of Biblical Theology, so I’m turning my thoughts to that topic. For many Christians, “progressive revelation” has a sinister meaning, conjuring up images of Joseph Smith receiving the book of Mormon from the angel Moroni. The fear … More Progressive Revelation?
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