1495 results found
How (and How Not) to Read the Psalms
Bruce K. Waltke, Fred G. Zaspel
Although we all have derived spiritual benefit from the Psalms—an ancient collection of poems—on many levels, there are ways to read the Psalter that are more beneficial than others.
10 Things You Should Know about the Fall
Made for communion with God, Adam and Eve experienced alienation. Made for trust and hope and life abundant, they descended into sin and shame. They fell.
What Is the Difference between Systematic Theology and Biblical Theology?
The Bible doesn’t come to us as an academic textbook, with carefully delineated topical headings organized according to theological themes. What is different about these two ways of organizing theology?
Jesus’s Love for the Marginalized of this World
We are inclined to give our attention to and serve those with influence and power, to praise those who wield influence in the world, but every person is made in God’s image and every person is significant.
J. Alasdair Groves, Winston T. Smith
The issue isn’t really whether or not God has emotions but what they are like. Does God experience emotions the way we do?
We all read things every day and are warned not to believe everything. Why can we believe everything in the Bible?
Orthodoxy and Heresy Orthodoxy means right doctrine or belief. In one very important sense it is essential to salvation. Although we are saved entirely by the grace of God, not on the basis of the …
Why Is Love Called the Greatest of These? (1 Corinthians 13)
Love is not a spiritual gift. It is essential for using spiritual gifts, and it is more important than spiritual gifts.
Suffering and Hope in the Time of COVID-19
In these circumstances, we may find ourselves wondering, Where is God? How can these things be happening if God is perfectly good and all-powerful? Can’t he stop them? Doesn’t he want to?
6 Lessons We Learn from the Nicene Creed
Here are six summary statements—or, we might say, six lessons—we can learn from this seventeen-hundred year-old confession of faith, the Nicene Creed.
10 Things You Should Know about Covenant Theology
John R. Muether, J. Nicholas Reid, Guy Prentiss Waters
The Bible is a book about God’s plan to glorify himself by saving sinners through the work of his Son, Jesus Christ. At every point, Scripture’s covenant theology leads us to Jesus.
The term sovereignty does not contain the idea of purposeful action, but the term providence does.
What Does It Mean That Jesus Ascended into Heaven?
What is “heaven”? Is it the sky or outer space? Does the Apostle's Creed mean that Jesus was the first astronaut? No, both it and the Bible are making a different point.
We may take it for granted that women are equally valuable as men. But that was not what people in Jesus’s day believed.
What Is Divine Inspiration (and Why Does It Matter)?
The general line of argument is that if the Bible is divinely inspired, it must also be infallible because God would not lead his people astray.
Was Violence against the Canaanites a Matter of Racial Prejudice?
Gregory Goswell, Andreas J. Köstenberger
It is impossible to ignore what is routinely viewed as the grave moral problem of the book of Joshua, namely, the action of the Israelites in exterminating the Canaanites.
How and Where the NT Authors Reaffirm the Ten Commandments (Except One)
The Ten Commandments are part of the OT Law, but NT authors do quote or allude to the commandments quite often as being relevant for new covenant Christians (except for one).
An Interview with J. I. Packer on the Origin and Significance of the ESV Bible
Dr. Packer served on the Translation Oversight Committee as general editor for the English Standard Version.
Here are seven important principles for sharing our faith with others gleaned from a close reading of Acts 8.
What Does It Mean to Pray “Your Kingdom Come”?
A simple definition is to think of the kingdom of God as his reign and rule. Another way to think of the kingdom is as God’s redemptive presence coming down from heaven to earth.
What Does It Mean That All Israel Will Be Saved? (Romans 11)
There is a particular call to faith in Christ through the call of the gospel. Both God’s gifts and his calling of Jews to faith in Christ remain in force and will not be revoked.
The foundation stories of Genesis set the stage of the drama of Scripture in many ways.
Your Prayer Life Might Be Better Than You Think
Scripture’s prayers, especially the psalms, are prayers we can and should take on our lips. We can pray through Scripture. It’s part of learning how to pray.
What Did Jesus Teach about Total Depravity?
The assumption of universal guilt before God is evident throughout Jesus’s teaching in the Gospels. Proof of this reality is manifold. Below are four evidences to support this claim.
In the Beginning God Created a King
You could argue that the theme of kingship is the central theme in the story of the Bible, the one without which the others simply cannot cohere.
Is the Lord’s Supper Jesus’s Actual Body and Blood? (1 Corinthians)
The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
How We Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strengthens Us
Philippians 4:13 is well known as a verse used to support everything from winning football games to pursuing wealth and prosperity, but those applications miss the point.
10 Things You Should Know about the Book of Acts
In the book of Acts, Jesus remains at the center of the action calling people to himself, adding new believers to his church, providing direction to his disciples, and appointing ministers of his word.
The Message of the Book of Romans in One Sentence
Romans is about the good news—the gospel. The word gospel is prominent at the beginning and end of the letter. And we can summarize the bad news and the good news with four words.
For believers today, the significance of the book of Esther is that it coordinates with the rest of the Old Testament to foreshadow Jesus as deliverer and mediator for God’s people.