People who have learned of God's providence will neither grumble against God for adversity nor blame him for their own wickedness as Homer's Agamemnon does, "Blame not me, but Jupiter and fate!" On the other hand, they not be like the youth in Plautus who slip into despair as if they lives are hurried away…
Only those who worship God with reverence will make good use of the doctrine of God's providence. That's why so many people rage against the doctrine, even though they give more weight to their own reasoning ability that to God. Some people criticize us for believing that God's revealed will can be known from the…
I've done things in my life that I'm not proud of, and after the fact, I have thought to myself, "That's not me." Maybe you've had a similar experience. We can probably all relate to those times when we surprise ourselves by how bad we can be. What motivates us to do those things? While…
In NT scholar Doug Moo's article, "Every Spiritual Blessing," he seeks to provide the "general contours of Paul's concept of salvation" (135). In other words, Moo wants to sketch out the basic framework that Paul used to explain what Christ had done for the church. Moo first begins explaining the idea of "new creation." New…
Peter Gentry exposits the new covenant as found in Jeremiah in his book, Kingdom through Covenant. After placing the classic new covenant text of Jeremiah 31:31-34 in its literary structure, Gentry proceeds to walk through the various elements of the covenant. Gentry contends that the phrase "days are coming" refers to a time in the…
William Dumbrell has an extended discussion on the new covenant in his OT survey, The Faith of Israel. Dumbrell points out that while Jeremiah 31:31-40 doesn't explicit speak in global terms, the emphases of the text affirms "an international context" (144). The new covenant brings with it a new creation and a New Jerusalem, the…
Tom Schreiner unpacks the new covenant in the final chapter of his book, Covenant and God's Purpose for the World. Schreiner begins making the point that the new covenant can be described various ways in the Old Testament without actually using the exact phrase, "new covenant" (89). Sometimes other descriptions for the new covenant are…
It's been about a year of COVID. To put the year in perspective, this past Sunday (March 14th, 2021) was the first time that LBC was all together for one service in person indoors since March 15th, 2020. That date will forever be burned into my memory because it was the weirdest Sunday service I've…
Stephen Dempster takes a literary approach to the Hebrew Bible in his book, Dominion and Dynasty. By retelling the storyline of the Hebrew Bible with a focus on location (dominion) and kingship (dynasty), Dempster is well-suited to discuss the Davidic covenant which brings both of these themes together. Reflecting on the importance of 2 Samuel…
Thomas Schreiner unpacks the Davidic covenant in his chapter on it in his book, Covenant and God's Purpose for the World. Schreiner sees the Davidic covenant standing in continuity with both the Abrahamic and the Sinai covenant. As king, David and his sons would "represent Israel, and the nation would be blessed through their obedience…
Raising Lazarus 