When I first became a Christian as a teen, I didn’t know any of the lingo erupting around me. When I first heard the word backslider, I pictured a person on their backside careening down a Slip ‘N’ Slide. Since people mentioned...
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” —Matthew 3:2 NIV So begins the ministry of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. And this theme, repentance, occurs frequently in the early chapters of all the Synoptic Gospels. In fact, the ministry of...
As I write this, we are just waking from the sugarcoated dream of the Christmas season. We have tried and tasted every delectable culinary bite we could. Salt-and-pepper-crusted medium-rare steak. Racks full of drying homemade pasta. Mugs of rich...
By Stephen Witmer I lay awake, staring into darkness, mentally replaying a conversation from earlier that day. My friend had misunderstood me and then condemned me for it. I felt deeply wronged. I also felt a toxic mixture of anger, self-pity, and...
Introduction The history of biblical exegesis and hermeneutics is not without controversy, and the apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is no exception. It has more allusions and quotes from the Hebrew Bible than any other New Testament work, but is...
I recently posted a somewhat funny post calling Andy Stanley a Calvinist. The quote I mentioned there got me thinking about the larger context in which Calvin used it. I’ve always been struck by this section in Institutes. Calvin has such an...
John Calvin wrote against the Adultero-German Intrim in his tract The True Method for Giving Peace to Christendom and Reforming the Church. However, there is still some really great stuff in there . For instance, there is a great reminder to the...
Every evangelical knows of the fall of mankind, but what did that have to do with you or me? Why would have Adam’s fall, better yet how could have one single piece of fruit have such infliction and such vengeance on the whole of human race...