Did you know that some parts of the Bible are more important than other parts? Yes, all the Scriptures are God-breathed, infallible, inerrant, sufficient and authoritative, but some parts are more important (not more God-breathed, etc.). The Holy Spirit had the Apostle Paul pen these familiar words: For I deliveredContinue Reading
The parable of the Good Samaritan is generally understood to be an ethical teaching of Jesus that challenges us to love our neighbour better. Most teachings on the parable are moralistic, leaving the impression that the imperative to “go and do likewise” is the sole aim of what Jesus isContinue Reading
What is a parable? A parable is a flexible term; it can stretch to include a variety of things. But, at its base, a parable is a metaphorical story or saying. By using a metaphor, a parable compares two things. It describes one thing by likening it to something else.Continue Reading
Tom Hervey There is a common idea in the contemporary Presbyterian Church in America that our people should be winsome, particularly in their polemics and intra-denominational disagreements. Thus we find, for example, two Covenant College professors lauding a controversial figure in the denomination as winsome in the course of aContinue Reading
[The] gospels do not speak at length or even frequently about Jesus “hanging out” (as people say) with prostitutes or even with sinners. When we account for the repetition of the same narratives in the synoptic gospels (i.e., Matthew, Mark and Luke), we can focus on three passages: Matthew 9:10, 32-32; and LukeContinue Reading
Pastor and church historian R. Scott Clark has completed a series of podcasts on the Apostles’ Creed. Dr Clark writes: “I chose the title for this series for two reasons: (1) Since I began pastoral ministry in 1987, it is one of the questions I have received most often. (2)Continue Reading
The New Testament teaches that Jesus is the true Israel and David’s greater son (Matthew 2:15 as a fulfilment of Hosea 11:1; Acts 2:29-33, Galatians 3:16, Philippians 3:3; Hebrews 8-10 as a fulfilment of Jeremiah 31:31-34). It is in Christ’s church — as Jesus’ mystical Spirit-filled body — that weContinue Reading
Just pause and think of what it meant for the Lord Jesus to obey for us, in our place. For thirty years he never once said or did anything wrong. More than that, at every single moment he positively said and did exactly the right thing, in the right way,Continue Reading
There is much more to “end-times” or ultimate things (eschatology) than what we say actually happens in the last days. We say what we do about eschatology because of what we think God is doing in history. At the centre of the debate is the question of “the Israel ofContinue Reading
All forms of the social gospel that pervaded the mainline churches in America throughout the twentieth century were built on the idea that Jesus’ death was primarily concerned with world peace and the reconciliation of men to men through the example of Christ. This is not the teaching of theContinue Reading