The Man of God…

“This is a growing tendency to ‘deem it of prime importance that they should enter upon their ministry accomplished preachers, and of only secondary importance that they should be scholars, thinkers, theologians.’ ‘It is not so,’ he is reported as saying, ‘that great or even good preachers are formed. They form themselves before they form

Owen on Hebrews 11:6

“Many in all ages have attempted thus to please God without faith, and yet continue to do so. Cain began it. His design in his offering was to please God; but he did not in faith, and failed in his design. And this is the great difference always in the visible church. All in their

The Moral Law…

“Be careful, then, how you think. False premises produce false conclusions, even when one’s reasoning is logically sound. If you assume that the moral law had a beginning at Sinai, you might as well assume that the law had an end at Calvary. But we know that all sinned before Sinai, therefore breaking some commandment—some

Getting the Garden Right?

“If we deny Adams’s place as as federal head of a covenant that would either vindicate or condemn him according to his works, then we remove the possibility for mankind to fall in him. And if that is the case, we remove the reason for the incarnation of the eternally begotten Son of God. In

“Necessary Consequences Don’t Work for Covenants…

Too many times, systematic conclusions are included in covenant theologies without an actual necessity in the conclusion. For example, circumcision was given to Abraham as a seal (Romans 4:11). Putting aside for now the full meaning of this text in its context, some conclude that therefore all covenants have seals and apply the term to

Covenant Theology: Methodology & Hermeneutics…

“One way in which this balance has not been maintained in the past is by covenant theologies that equate the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants with the new covenant, or covenant of grace, based on the continuity of salvation throughout them and their contribution to the progressive revelation of Christ and his mission. The problem

Samuel Renihan on Typology…

“A cursory definition of typology as correspondence and escalation may give the impression that typology is simply a shift from one end of a scale to another. It paints types and antitypes as two ends of a spectrum. The type is dark, grey, and as we move up the scale or cross the spectrum, the

Covenants Are Not Natural Arrangements…

“Because covenants are not natural arrangements, the specific nature and details of any given covenant are no more and no less than what God makes them to be. Their details cannot be discovered, determined, or defined apart from God’s sovereign institution because they do not exist apart from God’s sovereign institution. They are not natural.

“A Child of Promise”

“The power of the Spirit is strongly manifested in the lives of both Isaac and Christians. Isaac’s miraculous birth took place when Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. Paul says in Romans 4:19-20 that Abraham contemplated his own body and Sarah’s womb and realized that they were both basically dead as far as producing

Calvin on Regeneration…

“Therefore, in a word, I describe poenitentia [repentance| as regeneration, of which the goal is none other than that the image of God, defiled and nearly wiped out in us by the transgression of Adam, is restored in us. And this restoration is not completed in one moment or in one day or one year;