Decline-Presenting – Page 2 – Evangelical Theological Society

Ongoing revelation? A pastoral reframing of the debate in terms of the Spirit’s work of illumina

The question of ongoing revelation creates significant division in evangelical Christianity. The question arises with prophetic ministries (Grudem, 2000; Storms, 2017; Wilson, 2019) and with various approaches to spirituality and guidance (e.g. Willard, 1999; Blackaby, Blackaby & King, 2008; Shirer, 2012) which encourage Christians to “hear God”. Both of these approached have been criticised as … Read more

With the Love of Liberty Burning in Your Souls: African American Pastors and World War I

War presents citizens with questions of how to understand their nationality and what constitutes national loyalty. For African Americans in World War I, debates about national identity held another layer of meaning. President Woodrow Wilson defined American involvement in the conflict as an effort to make the world safe for democracy, yet during this time … Read more

Imaginaries, Worldviews, and Social Constructs

Racism and its various mutations have impacted every aspect of American life and remains a great challenge to the American Church. Worldviews seek to answer life’s biggest questions, that of reality, origin, meaning, morality, and destiny, by forming humans to live, think, and ‘be’ a certain way in the world. Protestant Evangelicals advocate for a … Read more

Schaeffer as Ethicist: Exploring the Metaethical Foundations for his Moral & Cultural Engagement

Francis Schaeffer is best remembered as a Christian apologist, cultural critic, and founder of the L’Abri Fellowship. Yet, much of the academic and pastoral engagement with his work has overlooked a vital dimension: Schaeffer as an ethicist. This paper proposes to revisit and explore Schaeffer’s thought through the lens of Christian ethics. Specifically, it will … Read more

A Classical Understanding of καταστολή and its Meaning and Function in Isaiah 61:3 LXX

The usage of καταστολή in Isa 61:3 LXX represents one of only eighteen occurrences of this term among twelve primary sources through the mid-second century CE. This paper presents the findings of a comprehensive investigation of these sources and occurrences of καταστολή therein. The research reveals fifteen patterns related to lexical, semantic behavioral, and authorial … Read more

No One Has Ascended: John’s Gospel as an Apologetic against Flavian Messianism

Authorship: Don Love is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Liberty University & Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. He studied The Gospel of John and Biblical Theology under Andreas Köstenberger and continues to publish and teach within these interest areas. Thesis Statement: Internal and external evidence demonstrates that John was written to mitigate the growing Roman … Read more

Role of Liturgical Authority in the Nicene Controversies

Nicene controversies was at least partly a conflict over authority. Arendt defined authority “contradistinction to both coercion by force and persuasion through arguments” (Arendt, Between Past and Future, 91). By that definition, the Nicene controversies of the fourth century represent a complete lack of authority as both force and persuasion marked virtually the entirety of … Read more

Ellipsis in the Pastorals: Invisible Εἰμί and Peters᾽s Theory of the Article after a Decade

Ten years ago, Ronald D. Peters published _The Greek Article_ (Brill, 2014), in which he proposed the novel theory that the Greek article “functions as a reduced form of the relative pronoun” (3) in the Koine period by the time of the NT (69). Daniel B. Wallace wrote a very negative review of this monograph, … Read more

Lady Wisdom as a Christological Prototype in the Hebrew Bible and Church Fathers

Many interpreters view Lady Wisdom in Proverbs as the personification of Yahweh’s wisdom. Even more, her lengthy speech in Proverbs 8 affords her a quasi-divine status. This text in turn became the locus of debate over Christ’s nature among the church fathers, with many early theologians, Arians and orthodox alike, resorting to the text to … Read more

Eugene Peterson on Prayer and the Pastoral Vocation

Eugene Peterson’s vision of pastoral ministry is grounded in the conviction that the pastoral vocation requires cultivating personal, communal, and liturgical God-attentiveness. The pastor is placed among the community to “pay attention and call attention” to the divine activity of the triune God. Within this vision, prayer is requisite. Prayer sets the individual before God’s … Read more