February 15, 2025

Sometimes I hear preachers emphasize that God’s love is “unconditional”, and what they mean by this is intended to comfort and encourage their listeners. The idea, however, can be so easily abused. What these speakers might need to stress instead is that even though “God is love,” God is also holy and rejects sin. Without this reminder, I fear that the message of unconditional love might register to some people as a license to sin and get away with it.... Read more

February 1, 2025

We are here with more questions on the atonement for David M. Moffitt who recently wrote, Rethinking the Atonement: New Perspectives on Jesus’s Death, Resurrection, and Ascension (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic). In part I of this interview, we discussed his view of the atonement of Christ, how the Old Testament sacrificial system is commonly misunderstood, the Day of Atonement, and the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, among other things. This week we will cover, inter alia, Moffitt’s view of the... Read more

January 24, 2025

It is my pleasure to introduce David Moffitt, author of Rethinking the Atonement: New Perspectives on Jesus’s Death, Resurrection, and Ascension (Baker Academic). Dr. David M. Moffitt is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews (Fife, United Kingdom). He is also Extraordinary Researcher, The Unit for Reformational Theology and the Development of the South African Society, Faculty of Theology, North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa. His book, Atonement and the Logic of Resurrection in... Read more

January 6, 2025

What is the origin of Paul’s gospel? Was he the first Christ-follower to use the term? You have perhaps heard that Jesus himself commissioned Paul to proclaim his message (Galatians 1:11-16). The content of that message includes, among other things, that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died and rose again from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Rom 1:3-4). But was he the first to use the term gospel, namely, the “good news”? The journal Religions recently... Read more

December 22, 2024

As 2024 is quickly coming to an end, it’s time for the most wonderful blog posts of the year from my column “In Christ.” I base these top 10 picks on the amount of views each of them received. So, in essence, these are your picks: Which Bible Do Evangelicals Use? Even though this post is now 2 ½ years old, it still continues to attract many viewers, so many in fact that it made the top ten again this... Read more

December 8, 2024

An often overlooked but significant passage in Acts speaks of the Apostle Paul in the “hall of Tyrannus” when staying in Ephesus. After boldly proclaiming the kingdom of God in the synagogue for three months, some became hardened and spoke against the followers of Christ. In response, Paul “having departed from them, he took away his disciples, reasoning every day in the lecture hall (school) of Tyrannus. And this took place for two years so that all those dwelling in... Read more

November 27, 2024

How did the Romans first hear about Jesus Christ and become believers? It is clear from Romans 1:1–15 that Paul had not yet met them, but their faith was already well known to others in the Empire. So how did they turn to trusting in Jesus without having Paul bring them the gospel? Roman Travelers Unlike his own congregations in other cities, the Roman Christ-community was not relatively new when Paul first writes to them. Paul tells this congregation that... Read more

November 11, 2024

John Wesley presents his viewpoint on water baptism and its relationship to the new birth, which he discusses in his sermon entitled, “The New Birth” (Sermon 45 in Wesley’s Works, vol. 6, pp. 65–77). Baptism and the New Birth Wesley brings up that baptism is not the new birth mentioned as the born again experience in texts like John 3:3–6. Although baptism is a sacrament that Christ ordained, it is “a sign and seal of regeneration by his Spirit. Here... Read more

October 27, 2024

The most famous biblical monster is Leviathan—that is, if we are talking about earthly creatures. Job 41 provides us with the most-prolonged description of this creature. Questions still come up on whether this is a crocodile or some sort of dragon. And if the latter, is it real, mythological, or descriptive of a dinosaur? I think it’s a good idea to revisit this monster with some new information. Descriptions of Leviathan In other biblical texts where Leviathan appears, it does... Read more

October 19, 2024

Paul, known as Saul of Tarsus, meets Jesus for the first time on the road to Damascus. His Damascus road experience includes seeing a bright light, falling to the ground, and hearing a heavenly voice telling him that he has been persecuting Jesus by persecuting those who follow Jesus. Actually, there are three different versions of this encounter in Acts. In Acts 9 the author of Acts, traditionally Luke, provides the first narrative. In Acts 22 Paul’s own testimony is... Read more


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