Jesus Christ

I n our previous three posts ( #1 , #2 , #3 ), we considered questions on hell from Puritan Christopher Love’s Heaven’s Glory, Hell’s Terror (1653). In this post, we will examine his perspective on the controversial doctrine of Christ’s descent into hell. Again, I will pose the question he asks (...

N o doubt Simon Peter’s most memorable words were those of his great confession in response to Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am? You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:15-16). That’s a Bible verse to memorize, isn’t it? What we don’t often realize, though, is what Jesus...

M editation is a difficult duty. Most Christians struggle even with where to begin with respect to this duty. It is particularly important for us to mediate upon the Person and work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, since beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is the primary...

Men and women were created in the image of God. [i] The image of God consists of true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. [ii] In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had true knowledge. Their minds could understand the mind of God expressed in creation. They walked and talked with God thereby they...

In this final post (see part 1 and part 2 of this series), I would like to raise three challenges to the dominance of the extrovert and entrepreneurial ideals for pastoral ministry in the American church. First, the present culture is at best ignorant of the history and tradition of pastoral...

The Protestant Reformation declared that the Scriptures displayed four perfections: authority, clarity, necessity, and sufficiency. When we say that the Scriptures are sufficient we mean that God has given us all that we need to know for salvation and life. The Westminster Confession of Faith ,...

The gospel of Jesus Christ is astounding. To think that when we were yet sinners God sent His only begotten Son to keep the law that we were unable to keep and to bear the curse we were unwilling to bear is enough to strike us dumb! And yet, that is exactly what the sovereign Creator did. Think of...

Adoption ism is an early Christian heresy regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ. This false teaching advanced the view that God the Father came upon an already-existing man called Jesus of Nazareth and adopted him as his “son” after the fact of his birth and maturation (perhaps adopting him...

This week on Theology on the Go, Dr. Jonathan Master is joined by Dr. David Garner, vice president for advancement and associate professor of systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary. Dr. Garner has a wide variety of theological interests including the doctrine of adoption, the...

Jennifer Marie, my dear wife, died on the fourteenth of September last year. [1] She was thirty-eight. We had barely made it to our eighteenth wedding celebration the month before. Our four young covenant children prepared and served us a special meal that she could eat. We dined together beneath...