Isaiah’s basic meaning is that the Messiah will be fatherly in his love and concern for the people of God. He will care for the household of God just as a righteous and devoted Israelite dad would look after his children.   There is one passage that each of us will hear a dozen times over Christmas:... Continue Reading

Today, we stand on the other side of Christ’s first coming and long for his ultimate return. As we live in this time between Christ’s first advent and his second, the interadventum, we live in faith that although he is bodily absent from us, the ascended Emmanuel has not abandoned us.    In John‘s prologue... Continue Reading

Our people need the gospel. They need the Trinity. They need to hear about the miracle and the majesty and the mystery of the incarnation. Hunker down in Matthew 1 or Luke 2 or Isaiah 9 or Micah 5 or John 1 or in any text that will lead you to lift high the name... Continue Reading

In a turn that Orwell warned us about, dissent is considered danger, words are violence, opinions are hate, and yesterday’s truths are today’s terror. Tragedies and crises become crass opportunities to promote a viewpoint. We need not prove our ideological enemy is guilty of a crime, only that they’re on the wrong side of history.     On Thanksgiving... Continue Reading

Is there reason not to believe that God has seen fit to ensure that all who would believe (by grace) will be reached with the gospel in this life? How biblically sensible is it to believe in unconditional election but not the ordained means of reaching those who have been chosen in Christ?   When... Continue Reading

Covenants were largely conceived as something written or read; i.e., something in a book.  It is precisely for this reason that warnings were given not to change the text of the covenant (Deuteronomy 4:2), and there were concerns about it being in the proper physical location (Exodus 25:16).   Although most discussions about the development... Continue Reading

Amillennialism is indeed an eschatology perfectly suited for these last days. Opening a window onto the one true Consummation, it lets in light from God’s one true future, pouring it into the perplexing present, and filling the souls of the saints with clarity, conviction, joy, and the zeal of Christ himself.   Are we living... Continue Reading

That some now need to be able to see Jesus as female to see him as savior is nothing more than the assertion that his first-century Jewish human nature is insufficient for our present purposes. It is to demand that he be made in our image, rather than us in his.   The recent outcry... Continue Reading

John promised that whoever reads this book aloud and hears it and keeps it will receive a blessing (Rev. 1:3). We will indeed be blessed as we read it slowly, thoughtfully, and meditatively, asking what God is teaching us through the images He uses.   The whole Bible is the Word of God—inerrant, authoritative revelation. That... Continue Reading

Mary models the right posture towards God with her willingness to trust him because he is good and his word is true. While she had significant questions, she did not allow them to keep her from receiving what God had said. This was an overwhelming day for Mary. Indeed, this faithful monotheist worshiper of Yahweh had... Continue Reading