Friends have often asked me how I use commentaries, mainly because of my qualifications as a biblical scholar. At times, I perceive that some assume I spend hours pouring over multiple commentaries on the passage that I plan to preach that week. The fact is, I simply do not have time to do that type of reading throughout my week, nor do I believe it is helpful to do so.
The presence of God among us posed a question: what do we think of God? The crucifixion of Jesus answers. Since Eden, man has sought to evade God. And the best way to evade God is to do seek to do away with Him. To mock him and to seek to twist Him into our own image. To paraphrase the Gospel of John, the light came into the darkness, and the darkness tried to extinguish Him.
The Wheaton College School of Biblical & Theological Studies is launching a new M.A. in Theology concentration in collaboration with the Center for Pastor Theologians, one of the country’s leading organizations devoted to theologically equipping pastors.
“It is finished,” He cried. This work of Christ on the cross is called by theologians the doctrine of the atonement. The atonement is really at the heart of the gospel and the heart of Christianity itself, and I’d like to examine various aspects of the atonement, and show how each one is important for us in our Christian walk.
On Good Friday, we arrive at the day that all of human history had been barreling toward since God promised to crush the head of the serpent in Gen 3:15. The day when Jesus, the very Son of God, the man who had never defied God’s law, was crucified in the way usually reserved for the worst criminals in the Roman Empire. By this horrible death, he paid the price for our sin “once for all when he offered up himself” (Heb 7:27).
All of us love appropriate humility but nobody wants to see the person who is truly worthy of admiration shamed. Nobody wants to see the professor sweeping the classroom floor, nobody wants to see the mother of the house carrying out the trash.
The heinous murders of eight people (seven of whom were women) at massage parlors in the Atlanta area have shocked Americans, particularly Americans of Asian descent. Whether or not this proves to be a hate crime motivated by race, at the very least it appears (in my judgment) that it should be deemed a hate crime against women.
As important as the racial dynamics of these crimes are, I want to focus my reflection in this article on the sexual dynamic and its implications for––or, perhaps, its indictment against––Christian men and church leaders.
Many seminaries and theological colleges tethered to partner institutions offer masters degrees or professional doctorates in Canada (Vancouver School of Theology, Montreal School of Theology, Atlantic School of Theology, for example), but it is only in Toronto, through the Toronto School of Theology, in partnership with the University of Toronto and several member colleges/seminaries, that one can study for a conjoint PhD.
While there is no command in the Bible to recite creeds, the earliest church—that of the New Testament—speaks often of commonly held theological truths by a variety of different names: “the gospel” (Rom. 1:1; 1:16; Gal. 1:6), “the/our confession” (Heb. 3:1; 4:14; 10:23), “the tradition” (2 Thess. 3:6), “the faith” (Acts 6:7; Col. 2:7; Jude 3), “the testimony of Jesus” (Rev. 1:2; 12:17; 19:10), and “the teaching” or “doctrine” (1 Tim. 4:16; Heb. 6:1). And texts such as Matthew 28:18–20 and Ephesians 4:11–16 (printed below) imply the imperative of Christian leaders disciplining through a recognizable set and summary of doctrine:
No Christian, if asked by a friend what the Bible teaches, is simply going to start reading aloud at Genesis 1:1 and not stop until Revelation 22:21. Instead, when asked by friends what the Bible teaches, we all try to offer a synthesis, a summary of what the Bible says. And as we move from biblical text to theological statement, we offer what is, in terms of content, something akin to a creed or confession.
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