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First Baptist Boston has a rich 360-year history, with the leadership of Samuel Stillman (1763–1807) marking a particularly transformative period. At a time when Baptists were often dismissed as uneducated, radical, and sectarian, Stillman challenged these perceptions through the power of his preaching, the sharpness of his intellect, his ecumenical relationships, and the increasing influence … Read more
Scholars and theologians have wrestled with the meaning of the millennium for centuries. Is there a neglected key to its significance in the book of Revelation itself? The present paper proposes that Jesus’ message to the seven churches provides a controlling hermeneutic for the rest of the book. Each letter links the hearer thematically with … Read more
By his own admission, George Whitefield was not a theologian – at least, not a theologian of the conventional sort. Indeed, he never aspired to be one. Instead, in much the same way that his Methodist field-preaching compatriot John Wesley has been famously dubbed a “folk-theologian”—a practical theologian as opposed to a systematic theologian—Whitefield might … Read more
In his celebrated treatise On the Incarnation, Athanasius defends the divinity of Christ in a manner that has shaped Christian theology for centuries. This paper highlights his climactic apologetic for the divinity of Christ, namely, the transformed lives of those who believe in him. In his first volume Against the Gentiles, Athanasius exposes the folly … Read more
The Creeds of Nicaea and Constantinople were not novelties that characterized innovations in theology or ecclesiology in order to combat the novel threats of Arianism and Eutychianism but were rooted in longer traditions that predated even Irenaeus’ and his own battles with the Marcionites and other gnostic teachers. As for back as the Didache, we … Read more
Attempts to understand the purpose of the Gospel according to John almost always and inevitably focus on John 20:30–31. This so-called true ending is an explicit purpose statement. The goal of this presentation, however, is not to recount how the scholars have spoken of purpose and John in former times up to the present, but … Read more
The Nicene Creed is undeniably one of the greatest theological statements in Christian history. But the strongest orthodox statement also needs to be fortified with teaching in orthopraxy. John Wesley famously suggested that “orthodoxy is but a slender part of religion, if it could be counted a part at all.” Statements like the Nicene Creed … Read more
The relationship between confession, ecclesiology, and authority in protestant literature has been variously appraised. Dorner considers confession as a product of the certain character of Christian faith; Bavinck considers confession as arising genetically from Scripture; and Webster posits that confession is act of the eccentricity holiness of the church. Norwegian Lutheran dogmatician Gisle Johnson (1822-1894), … Read more
I am arguing in this paper for the historically-rooted designator “pastor-theologian” to be used in examining the life and ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and, by implication, a useful framework for modern pastoral identity construction. Precisely stated, a pastor-theologian is a biblically-educated, theologically-grounded intellectual who makes disciples in and through the local church by the … Read more
Purity and Impurity are fundamental to the most basic forms of religion, evident not only in the ancient Near Eastern context but also throughout the Pentateuch. The book of Leviticus, where the terms of purity and impurity are highly concentrated, is typically where most discussions originate concerning a purity worldview. However, some biblical theologians argue … Read more