SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY

THE GOSPEL

• What is the Gospel? (April 2010)

• Beware of “Do-It-Yourself Christianity” (May 2010)

• What is a Christian? (May 2010)

• Why then the Law? : Counter-Intuitive, Gospel Logic (June 2010)

• The Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Better Investment Than Gold (December 2010)

• What is the Gospel? (June 2013)

• The Gospel Perfectly and Proportionately Humbles and Exalts (June 2013)

• Matthew’s Gospel: A King and His Kingdom  (July 2013)

• Gospel Logic and Revelational Beauty: John Stott on Romans 1:16-20 (November 2013)

• Spotting Counterfeit Gospels (May 2014)

• The Gospel Is Better Than Amnesty – Guest Blog by Jonathon Woodyard (April 2015)

• The Gospel at Thanksgiving (November 2015)

 

Theological Triage

• Reflections from Together for the Gospel

• Theological Triage (pt. 1): Rightly Dividing Truth from Error

• Theological Triage (pt. 2): Unity in the Gospel, Separation in the Church

• Theological Triage (pt. 3): Love Covers a Multitude of Differences

 

DOCTRINAL LOCI

Prolegomena & Theological Method

• Receiving and Believing the Word of God (July 2009)

• The Insufficiency of Biblical Theology ? (July 2009)

• The Theologian’s Task (June 2009)

• Herman Bavinck on Scripture’s Fuller Sense (June 2009)

• The Ways of Our God: An Approach to Biblical Theology (May 2009)

• Worship Tests Truth :: Doctrine Determines Doxology  (December 2008)

• Postfoundationalism as Spiritual Adultery (June 2008)

• Christianity goes back…back…back…back (November 2011)

• Truth and Tradition: Or what Francis Turretin might say to Pope Francis (March 2013)

• Taste and See the Sweet Layers of Scripture (June 2013)

• How Can We Know an Invisible God? (October 2013)

• Evangelical Theology’s Prolegomena: Strong on the Gospel, but Suspect on Its Sources (November 2013)

• Prolegomena Matters: Engaging with Michael Bird’s Evangelical Theology (November 2013)

• David Wells, World Vision, and the Need for Truth (March 2014)

• ‘My Inheritance’: A Necessary Approach to the Scriptures (April 2014)

• Theology is Not Just for Theologians (January 2016)

 

Bibliology: The Doctrine of Scripture

• Ten Words: Words of Life by Timothy Ward (March 2013)

• The Bible Says It, That Settles It (July 2012)

• Why Should I Read My Bible? (May 2010)

• Hungry for the Word? (February 2010)

• Herman Bavinck and Peter Enns on an Incarnational Analogy of Scripture (March 2009)

• How do you order the books of the Old Testament? (January 2009)

• Stephen Evans on Myth: An Impartial Arbitrator (January 2009)

• God’s iBible (1): Illumination and Intervention (August 2008)

• God’s iBible (2): Divine Inspiration and Information Transmission (August 2008)

• God’s iBible (3): Personal Illumination and Incredible Praise (August 2008)

• The Creative Power of God’s Word (September 2008)

• Fifteen Years of Manual Labor: How Much Is Your Bible Worth? (March 2013)

• The Bible: Literature’s Gold Standard (June 2013)

• Happily Ever After: A Meditation on God’s Word (September 2013)

• The Bible in American Public Life: Two Lessons from Mark Noll’s New Book (January 2016)

 

Theology Proper: The Doctrine of God

• Speaking of the Trinity (April 2012)

• God is a Wise Lover: A Helpful Illustration from R. L. Dabney on the Wisdom and Benevolence of God (July 2011)

• Providence & Peace(making) (April 2010)

• Responsibly Submitting to God’s Sovereignty (May 2010)

• The Trinity in Biblical Theological Perspective (1): A Mystery without mysterion (May 2009)

• The Trinity in Biblical Theological Perspective (2) (May 2009)

• The Trinity and Progressive Revelation (February 2009)

• Father, Son, & Holy Spirit by Bruce Ware (January 2009)

• Can God Suffer? (January 2009)

• More Gregory Nazianzen: The Historical Revelation of the Trinity (December 2008)

• NASA and the Spirit of Babel (May 2008)

• Theo-logy: Let Us Press on to Know and Love the Lord (July 2008)

• How Can We Know an Invisible God? (October 2013)

• Crossing the Creator-Creature Distinction (June 2013)

• The Doctrine of the Trinity: God is One God (November 2013)

• The Doctrine of the Trinity: Three Distinct Persons (November 2013)

• The Doctrine of the Trinity: Three Perichoretic Persons (November 2013)

• Our Sovereign God (November 2013)

• Divine Weightlessness: The Fundamental Problem in Evangelicalism (March 2014)

• Without Holiness . . . (April 2014)

• Food for Thought: The Fear of the Lord (May 2014)

• Seeing God’s Holiness in the Pentateuch (August 2014)

• Life is Good? How God’s Goodness Redefines the Good Life (April 2015)

• A Severe Mercy: Rediscovering the Holiness of God (May 2015)

• Creation, the Trinity, and the Incarnation: What “God with US” says to “ME and God” (December 2015)

• Is God the Author of Sin? (January 2016)

 

Cosmology: The Doctrine of Creation

• Creation by the Numbers (January 2011)

• The Glory of God In The Heavens (December 2011)

• Psalm 104 and Genesis 1 in Graphic Display (December 2011)

• God’s Wise Restraint: Reflections on Common Grace (April 2012)

• Aesthetics Is Not Optional (July 2012)

• Aesthetics 101: Learning to Look for the Beauty of Christ (July 2012)

• What Happened “Before the Foundation of the World”? (August 2014)

• The Doctrine of Creation: A Necessary Part of Our Worship and Evangelism (June 2015)

• Don’t Waste Your Blizzard: A Snowy Meditation on God’s Power and Purity (January 2016)

 

Anthropology: The Doctrine of Humanity

• Pascal on the Glory and the Garbage of the Universe (February 2010)

• Gender-Specificity and the Gospel of Jesus Christ (August 2008)

• Last Things First: Meditations on the Image of God (October 2008)

• Sola Humanus: A New Sola for Those Always Reforming (October 2013)

• God’s View of Gender — Sermon Audio (October 2013)

• The Imago Dei: Surveying the Options (October 2013)

• The Image of God: A Covenantal Proposal (October 2013)

• The Image of God: Re-Imaging Our Personal Identity (October 2013)

• The Image of God and Public Theology (October 2013)

• Christ Did Not Come for Chimpanzees (November 2013)

• The ‘Heart’: A Biblical-Theological Sketch (March 2014)

• What is Evangelical Feminism? And Where Did It Come From? (November 2014)

• Thinking Biblically About Transgenderism (May 2015)

• The Priestly Aspect of the Imago Dei (July 2015)

 

Hamartiology: The Doctrine of Sin

• What Total Depravity Is Not (October 2013)

• Five Truths About the Sinfulness of Sin (May 2015)

 

Christology: The Person of Jesus Christ

• Jesus Has Absolute Authority (January 2010)

• Bauckham’s Jesus and The God of Israel (1): God Crucified (March 2009)

• Bauckham’s Jesus and The God of Israel (pt. 2): Other Studies in NT Christology (March 2009)

• Gathercole’s The Preexistent Son: Excellent Exegesis, Transcendent Theology, and a Methodological Model (March 2009)

• Martin Bucer on Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King  (October 2010)

• Ten Cultural Christs (July 2011)

• Jesus Knew His Calling: A Missional Christology (October 2013)

• The Word of God: Written, Eternal, and Incarnate (December 2011)

• On the Incarnation: How Should We Talk About Christmas? (December 2011)

• The Beauty of the Incarnation (August 2012)

• The Ongoing Priesthood of Jesus Christ (March 2013)

• More Than Baby Talk: A Primer on the Incarnation (November 2013)

• The Incarnation: Getting a Handle on Five Heresies (November 2013)

• One Solitary Life (December 2013)

• Exploring Kenotic Christology: A Book Review (March 2014)

• The Maleness of Christ: A Typological Necessity with Vast Ethical Implications (July 2015)

 

Christology: The Work of Christ

• Beware of ‘Airy Nothings’: Hugh Martin on the Atonement (September 2010)

• God’s Love: Particular in Its Design, Infinite in Its Offer (July 2012)

• Calvin, Indefinite Language, and Definite Atonement (December 2013)

• Putting the Resurrection on Display: Walking and Talking as Witnesses of the Gospel’s Power (January 2015)

 

Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation

• An Audio-Visual Primer on the New Perspective on Paul (September 2009)

• Sin Boldly: Because Only Sinners “Get” Amazing Grace (July 2010)

• A History Lesson on Hyper-Calvinism (July 2011)

• Robert Letham on Union with Christ (July 2012)

• What Do We Really Need? (November 2013)

• Saving Faith Savors Christ . . . and so much more (September 2014)

 

The Doctrines of Grace

• The Language of Election in the Bible: A Few Word Studies (August 2014)

• Singing the TULIP from the Baptist Hymnal (April 2015)

• What is Calvinism? (May 2015)

• The Greatest Misunderstanding About Evangelical Calvinism (May 2015)

• Two Common Confusions about Calvinism in Baptist History (June 2015)

• What Does the Bible Say about the Doctrine of Election? (February 2016)

 

Pneumatology: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit

• A Spiritual Fruit Inventory (October 2010)

• Spirit-Filled Worship is Christ-Centered Worship (July 2015)

 

Ecclesiology: The Doctrine of the Church

• To What End Is the History of Israel?

• Carl Trueman on Academics and the Local Church (December 2008)

• P.T. O’Brien, W.E. Vine, and the Heavenly Assembly (November 2008)

• Corn Creek Baptist Church and the Spiritual Gift of Listening (May 2008)

• The Living Church (January 2010)

• The Baptismal Waters are Against You, Jesus is For You (January 2010)

• The Bible Doesn’t Say ‘Join a Church,’ So Why Should I? (February 2010)

• Church Discipline? (February 2010)

• Book Review: Deep Church by Jim Belcher (March 2010)

• A Display of Glory: The Wizard of Westwood, The Wisdom of God, and The Witness of Your Church (June 2010)

• Southern Baptists: An Unregenerate Denomination? (June 2010)

• Southern Baptists: An Unfinished Denomination (July 2010)

• The Centrifugal Mission of the Church (June 2014)

• Dramatizing the Gospel: Church Membership (December 2014)

• Book Notes: Church Planting is for Wimps (April 2015)

• Confronting Falsehood in the Church (April 2015)

• On Baptism and Children (May 2015)

• Confronting the Ingrown Church (June 2015)

• Believing and Belonging: Which is the Source for True Fellowship? (June 2015)

• God’s Marketing Strategy: Christ-Like Churches (June 2015)

• Life Together: A Short Review (October 2015)

• The Body of Christ Calls for Individuality, not Individualism (January 2016)

• A Better Understanding of Baptism (February 2016)

• A Perfect Balance: The Church Universal and Local (February 2016)

• Baptism, Membership, and Life Together in the Church (February 2016)

• How Does the Church Glorify God? (February 2016)

 

Elders

• What does the New Testament say about elders? (September 2014)

• Seven Things to Know About Elders (September 2014)

• Establish Elders for the Sake of Evangelism (September 2014)

• What is an Elder Supposed to Do? (September 2014)

• What Should Churches Do Who Have Elders? (October 2014)

 

Eschatology and Protology: The Doctrine of Last Things

• Eternal Judgment: An Unbelievable Problem or A Blessed Promise? (August 2012)

• Hell: A Terrible Problem or a Beautiful Promise? (August 2012)

• Eschatology from the Beginning (July 2013)

• Thinking About ‘Near Death Experiences’ (April 2014); Competing Visions of Heaven (May 2014)

• The Ultimate Question: How Do I Know I Will Go to Heaven When I Die? (August 2014)

• Where Do Infants Go When They Die? (September 2014)

 

ETHICS

• In the Fight Against Abortion, Truth Shall Set You Free (January 2012)

• Hold Them Back (A Sanctity of Life Message by Denny Burk) (January 2013)

• The Image of God and Public Theology (October 2013)

• An Introduction to Bioethics (October 2013)

• Is Capital Punishment Biblical? (May 2014)

• Where Do Infants Go When They Die? (September 2014)

• Dying with Dignity: What Should We Think About Euthanasia? (October 2014)

• Pastor, Speak Up for the Unborn (January 2016)