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On January 10, 2025 By In History, Theology

Why Four Gospels?

Why do we have four Gospels? Wouldn’t it have been a bit more tidy for casual readers and scholars alike if we had one Gospel that would clear up any apparent discrepancies? The Holy Spirit, guiding the writers, as well as the church, obviously didn’t think so. There was a need for four Gospels to give us different perspectives on the life of Christ, all completely consistent with one another so that they can be harmonized historically, but different so as to throw a different light on the Person and work of Christ Jesus.

The early church understood the number four to be Scripturally significant. Irenaeus, the second-century bishop of Lyons, summarizes the early church’s thought about why we have four Gospels:

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On January 2, 2025 By In Church, Culture, Postmillenialism, Theology

Maturity & Mission

One of the major themes of Scripture concerns maturity. In the beginning, the world was created infantile, something to be developed and brought to a mature condition. This story of Scripture is written into every human being conceived in the womb of a woman.

Like the creation of which we are a part and represent, we mature. We mature physiologically as our bones, muscles, and organs grow. We mature psychologically and intellectually by learning new things and growing in wisdom. Scripture’s story is written into our existence as humans.

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On December 26, 2024 By In Church, History, Theology

The Covenant Story: The New Covenant

“For all the promises of God in him are ‘Yes,’ and in him ‘Amen,’….” ~2 Corinthians 1:20

“To be continued.” This is one of the most frustrating phrases ever to be used on screen. The author immerses you in the story, takes you to the point of anxiously desiring resolution, and then leaves you hanging, waiting for all the questions to be answered in the next installment … maybe. From a marketing perspective, it is brilliant because an audience is assured for the next episode (if the story is good enough). From a viewer’s perspective, the tension is unpleasant. (And this is why we now have streaming services and “binge-watching.”)

At the end of the Hebrew Scriptures (2 Chronicles in the Hebrew order), God put a big “to be continued.” The Jews are sent back to the land to rebuild the Temple and the walls of Jerusalem. God’s people are in prominent places in the empire (such as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Esther, and Mordecai). These were golden years in some sense.

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On December 19, 2024 By In History, Theology

The Covenant Story: David & Restoration

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; And the government will be upon his shoulder … Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.” ~Isaiah 9:6, 7

From the earliest days of history, God declared his intention for his kingdom to be established on the earth and ruled by man. The original dominion mandate in Genesis 1:28 tied dominion–the establishment and maturation of the kingdom–to seed, children, being fruitful and multiplying. Men would develop and rule over God’s kingdom on earth. “The heaven of heavens are Yahweh’s, but the earth he has given to the sons of men” (Ps 115:16).

When sin entered the world, the establishment of the kingdom would have to come through the defeat of the serpent and his seed. God promised in Genesis 3:15 that he would raise up the seed of the woman to accomplish this mission. Over the next several thousand years, the story of the seed and the kingdom unfold.

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On December 5, 2024 By In Politics, Theology, Worship

The Covenant Story: Abraham’s Altars

Not long after God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees/Babylonians, Abraham started a missionary journey. He set out to be what God called him to be: a blessing to the nations. He wasted no time. He journeyed down to the land of Shechem right in the midst of the cursed line of Ham, the Canaanites. Around a terebinth tree at Moreh, Yahweh appeared to him and promised him the land where he was dwelling. Abraham’s response was to build an altar, establishing worship in the land (Gen 12:4-7).

After this, Abraham moved to the land between Bethel and Ai and built another altar (Gen 12:8). Later, after splitting up with his nephew, Lot, Abraham was promised by Yahweh again that he would possess the land. Abraham responded to Yahweh’s promise by building another altar at Hebron, near the terebinth trees of Mamre (Gen 13:14-18). The building of these altars anticipated and prepared the way for the promise of God to come to its fullness. It may have seemed small and somewhat insignificant compared to the vastness of the promise that God made that Abraham would inherit the world (cf. Rom 4:13), but Abraham started where Yahweh put him. He did what he was supposed to do in the place God, in his providence, placed him.

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On November 27, 2024 By In Christmas, History, Politics, Theology

The Covenant Story: Creation Through Noah

In the beginning, God spoke. In his words, he revealed himself, expressing the glories of his person and his eternal Triune relationship in light, darkness, the firmament-heaven, seas, dry land, vegetation, sun, moon, stars, creatures of the land and sea, and, above all, man, who is created as the unique image of God. God’s words were his bond. They not only called into existence the world and everything in it from nothing, but his word bound him to the world. His word was his covenant.

Creation was not completed with one grand word spoken so that everything was created instantly. Rather, God progressively moved creation from immaturity–formless and void–to greater maturity over the span of six days. His creative actions set the stage for how the story of the world will unfold. Through God’s covenant words, the world will move from immaturity to maturity.

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On November 14, 2024 By In Counseling/Piety, Discipleship, Theology, Wisdom

Weighing Debts

Forgiveness and reconciliation can be a thorny issue. Many questions must be asked to determine the shape of forgiveness and reconciliation. Is sin truly involved, or is one of the people offended because of his own unrealistic expectations of the other person? That is, one person has his feelings hurt because he is overly demanding, and no one lives up to his expectations. If sin is involved, is the sin of such a nature that it can be forgiven so that the relationship can return to what it was? If one spouse speaks uncharacteristically harshly to the other, forgiveness can be granted and the sin practically forgotten. Or is the sin of such a nature that the relationship is unalterably changed even though forgiveness is granted? If a spouse is a serial adulterer/adulteress, leading to a divorce, the marriage may never go back to what it was. Is the sinning party repentant or unrepentant? What is the part restitution plays in reconciliation? What does the healing process look like after forgiveness is granted? Though we don’t need to make forgiveness more complicated than necessary, human relationships are not as simple as “do these three things and move on.” (I’ve written several articles on forgiveness at Kuyperian Commentary. You can find them here, and a series that begins here.)

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On October 31, 2024 By In Church, Counseling/Piety, Theology

My Rights

“I have my rights.” In America, yes, you do. We are a nation founded on the principle that God has granted certain inalienable rights that cannot be taken away but, rather, must be protected by the government. We have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We enshrined specified rights within the first ten Amendments to the Constitution, known as “The Bill of Rights.” We should be thankful for our rights as American citizens and continue to do everything in our lawful power to keep the government from infringing on those rights.

Rights given by God are given for his purposes. That is, he gives us personal privileges and authority to carry out the mission he gave us in the beginning. We are given rights for the purpose of taking dominion, building the kingdom. When our rights are divorced from their purpose, instead of edifying free speech, we have destructive speech, such as pornography, that cloaks itself as free speech. Instead of the true religion of the Christian faith, we have a mélange of multiculturalism that views all religions as equal. Instead of the right to pursue happiness through personal responsibility, we have the right to steal from others by voting thieves into office who will transfer wealth from those who earned it to leeches. Rights divorced from the gospel of the kingdom are used for deleterious self-consumption that eventually destroys society by implosion.

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On October 24, 2024 By In Church, Discipleship, Theology

Called Out

What if your pastor DMed you about an interpersonal relationship problem that you were having and then said, “Oh yeah, when you are finished reading this, read this or have this read to the entire church”? First, you might be a little peeved that he was digging into your business. He needs to mind his own business. My relationships at home, work, and with my friends are none of his business. Second, if you are a typical American Christian, you’d probably find another church to rid yourself of this “spiritually abusive pastor.” Then, you would get on social media and talk about how you have suffered from the abuse of spiritual power, gain a following, and start an intersectional community of all those who have been DMed by their pastor about their relationships.

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On October 18, 2024 By In Family and Children, History, Theology

Marriage is like Purgatory

“Marriage is a lot like purgatory, not many protestants seem to believe in it.” 

&

“Marriage is a lot like purgatory, everyone seems eager to end their suffering.”

This is how I facetiously began a recent sermon on Questions 108 and 109 of the Heidelberg Catechism, which address the commandment against adultery. The catechism emphasizes the call for every believer, married or single, “to keep ourselves pure and holy.”

In the context of the 16th-century Reformation, marriage and purgatory were hot-button issues. Christian marriage was central to Reformation theology—can we tell the story of Martin Luther without Katharina von Bora or Henry VIII without his six wives? In this post I’d like to explore how these two are related in some surprising ways.

On Purgatory and Reformation 

The medieval doctrine of purgatory sought to address an important dilemma: How can we reconcile the extrinsic grace of God with the ongoing imperfection and sinfulness of individual Christians? In the medieval Roman system, God’s divine justice could purge or cleanse the souls of those who trusted in Jesus, removing their individual shortcomings in an intermediate state. However, Protestants like Luther insisted that our righteousness before God is already perfected—simul justus et peccator (“simultaneously justified and sinner”).

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