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Most churches support missionaries approved by various Missions agencies or denominational conferences. But very unique is the role of a person (this presenter) who serves as a “church missionary,” having made 36.00 international mission trips across Ukraine, Poland, Serbia, Africa, Armenia, Guatemala, and China — teaching theology & Bible classes and evangelizing. He has been … Read more
The theological legacy of the Reformation has produced “strange bedfellows.” In the context of nineteenth-century theology, perhaps German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher and his American counterpart Charles Hodge serve as proper examples of this “strange” kinship to the Reformation tradition. Schleiermacher’s allegiance to the “Reformed” legacy is particularly noteworthy given his commitment to reconstructing key Christian … Read more
Scripture defines salvation as a “work of God.” Many in the church reduce God’s work to a simple “belief” in Christ, or Christ’s death on the cross. But the “work” of God has a definitive meaning and a unique sequence of steps, whereby salvation is the creative result, or “product” – the unsaved person is … Read more
“Sólo Jesús,” Hispanic Modalism, Oneness Christology, and Paul’s First Epistles Daniel S. Steffen, PhD This paper proposes to explain the popular hispanic modalistic or “Oneness” Christology as to its particular beliefs and strong influence in several Latin American nations.1 The movement is known as “Sólo Jesús,” in Spanish. This explanation includes comparing and contrasting this … Read more
Expository preachers have a difficult time knowing what to do with the Book of Proverbs. They may ask themselves, “Should I preach it sequentially, verse by verse?” “Should I preach it topically after collecting all the main themes into different buckets?” “Should I preach Collection I (Proverbs 1–9) expositionally, and then the rest of the … Read more
Early church historians generally agree on what constituted the earliest rudimentary form of the creed known as the regula fidei. However, the relationship between this proto-creed and the versions of the baptismal confession, occasionally produces some scholarly debates. For example, while some scholars like Adolf von Harnack, argue that the regula fidei was kind of … Read more
The Book of Revelation is often described as perplexing, bewildering, or even impenetrable—terms that signal what cognitive pragmatics would call a “pragmatic failure.” Readers encounter moments of interpretive impasse, or aporias, in which the text seems to contradict itself or defy coherence. These aporias are not accidental. Rather, I argue that they function as deliberate … Read more
How does the angelology of Jonathan Edwards relate to his Reformed forebears? For many contemporary theologians and church historians, Edwards is an aberration from the Reformed tradition. Others counter that he was no aberration, but rather was simply trying to take what the Reformed were doing and articulate that vision in a new context. The … Read more
Faithful theological higher education should benefit Christ’s universal church and serve as an agent for extending the church’s mission on earth. How does God’s Word describe the nature and function of theological higher education? Wrestling both exegetically and theologically, this study addresses: (1) the place of theological higher education in church history; (2) Scripture as … Read more
The high concentration of זנה “to whore” and derived nouns within the first two chapters of Hosea sets the reader back on his heels. The shock is magnified by Yahweh’s statement that he will “expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers” (Hos 2:12 [ET 2:10]). Hosea does not stop at graphic sexual language. … Read more