There are obviously differences between the Old and New Testaments. Augustine said that the New is in the Old concealed, and the Old is in the New revealed. Changes do indeed come through the course of redemptive history, so that there certainly are exceptions to the general continuity that characterizes the relation between Old and New Covenants. God has the right to make alterations for the New [...]

Throughout the history of the Christian church, believers have asked what their attitude should be toward the commandments of God revealed in the Old Testament. A large variety of positions have been taken regarding God’s law—stretching all the way from saying that there have been no changes in how the law should be observed (so that, for instance, animal sacrifices would be continued) to saying t [...]

Christians should be wary of allowing current events to shape the way Scripture is interpreted. There is a long history of failure. In addition to the impact such end-time views have on Christian involvement in the culture and society, there is also the impact that predictive prophecy has on those who want to discredit the Bible. But aren’t we living in the “last days”? A lot of confusion exists o [...]

Ever since the first grumblings of the modern feminist movement began in the early 1960s, the traditional roles of men and women have been under constant attack. With the gradual decline of the working class in America, our fathers have been slowly trading sweat-soaked blue-collars for permanent-press white or gray collars. Along with their uniform change they have also traded 40-50 hour workweeks [...]

Dispensationalists vehemently maintain that the Church (ekklēsia) was unknown to the Old Testament writers. The so-called church age is said to be a “mystery,” a parenthesis, a gap in prophetic time, until the pre-tribulational “rapture” when the church will be removed from the earth and God will deal with Israel again. If they are correct, then the New Testament writers were awfully confused, in [...]

Many modern Christians believe that God’s kingdom will be manifested solely in the future. This means that we are living in a purely secular kingdom with purely secular laws cut off from the governance of heaven. This is the worldview of deism! If this is the view of any part of the church, then the secularists are right in condemning the mixing of any of God’s laws with the State. How can God as [...]

A Christian should never fear having his “system” scrutinized by the plain teaching of the Bible. The rallying cry of the Reformation was ecclesia reformata quia semper reformanda est, “the church reformed because it must always be reforming.” This should be every Christian’s rallying cry. The church needs to take another look at the topic of eschatology, the study of last things. The topic has no [...]

Our forefathers in the faith did not retreat from involvement in society and politics. They did not turn civil government—the making, enforcement, and adjudication of laws—over to Satan and those who serve him. They did not surrender the ministry of civil government to those who are in rebellion against God. Instead, they sought to base civil government and law upon the truth. The founders underst [...]

The people in Jesus’ day saw the kingdom of God only in externals. They visualized the kingdom of God as coming, not through regeneration, but by revolution. Jesus said of His followers: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled” (John 6:26). It was Jesus’ message about mankind’s need for salvation and about [...]

America has entered troubling times. The massive expansion of federal government power with its destructive laws and policies is of grave concern to many. But what can be done to quell the abuse of power by civil authority? Are unjust or immoral actions by the government simply to be accepted and their lawless commands obeyed? How do we know when the government has acted tyrannically? Which action [...]

In the New Testament, Israel was controlled by the Romans. Only Roman citizens had political standing (Acts 16:37; 22:25– 29; 25:9–12). Jesus had a political trial because the Jews did not have the authority to put Him to death (John 18:30–31). His accusers brought false civil charges against Him (Luke 23:1–2) to force Pilate’s hand (John 19:12). We’re not subjects of Rome. “Render to Caesar the t [...]

Many Americans might be surprised to learn that the United States Supreme Court building has a number of depictions of the Ten Commandments and other lawgivers prominently displayed, some of which are carved in stone, adorning entryways and visible in the chamber where the justices sit. Isn’t this a violation of the First Amendment and the “separation of church and state”? Histor [...]

This is Part Two of a book review written in 2009 of the book, Dual Citizens: Worship and Life Between the Already and Not Yet. Part One can be found here. In the “Preface” to Dual Citizens, Jason Stellman approvingly quotes Dutch theologian Geerhardus Vos, who “famously said that ’eschatology precedes soteriology.” “But,” Stellman continues, “I woul [...]

Every Sunday, millions of people attend church services in this country. They usually hear a nice message about Jesus and what He did during his three-year earthly ministry. What is mostly missing is the “go and do likewise” application for each listener of these weekly sermons. What actual difference does what Jesus said and did make to 21st century Christians? A constant need is cris [...]

Many prophecy writers try to get around the biblical meaning of genea by translating it as “race” when it should be translated as “generation” since this is what the word means in the genealogy in Matthew 1:17 where it’s used four times and cannot mean “race.” There weren’t 42 races, but there were 42 generations. Wars and Rumors of Wars Skeptics read the Olivet Discourse in the right way, but com [...]

John Piper writes that Christians “exert influence as happy, brokenhearted outsiders” who should only count on having limited and temporal success this side of heaven. “American culture does not belong to Christians,” he continues, “neither in reality nor in biblical theology. It never has. The present tailspin toward Sodom is not a fall from Christian ownership, &rsq [...]

Ideas have consequences and history often provides some interesting examples. The book review below was written in 2009 and there have been several ironic turns in the intervening years. The author of the book, Jason Stellman, was a PCA minister in the Pacific Northwest Presbytery and served as the prosecutor at Peter Leithart’s trial over teaching “heresy.” Leithart was acquitte [...]

Change takes time and people are generally impatient. It is easy to get frustrated and discouraged by what we see happening around us, but Christians need to have a long-term vision. The Church has existed for 2000 years, Israel for 2000 years before that, and the patriarchs 2000 before that. We have the time; now we need the vision. Unconditional Surrender: God's Program for Victory A primer [...]

In a paper titled “Unspeakable Ethics, Unnatural Law,” law professor Arthur Leff laments the impossibility of disconnecting law and religion. In his refreshingly honest assessment of the dilemma, he wrote: My plan for this Article, then, is as follows. I shall first try to prove to your satisfaction that there cannot be any normative system ultimately based on anything except human wil [...]

As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command yo [...]