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Redemptive-Historical Hermeneutics Part 1
Print(Volume 24, Issue 4, August/September 2018) Redemptive-historical hermeneutics (RH), sometimes called Christocentric hermeneutics, has gained a lot of traction in recent years, almost exclusively within Reformed circles. It is the interpretive system used by those embracing Liberate Sanctification and is important to understand in light of recent TOTT papers on that subject. RH is also accepted by a broader spectrum of theologians, many of whom reject Liberate Theology, but to my knowledge virtually all would be adherents of Covenantal Theology. It seems to have emerged, in its modern form, from Reformed churches in the Netherlands in the 1940s in an attempt to understand how the narrative and historical sections of the Old Testament should be understood and preached. It appears to be a reaction to those who viewed the stories and individuals within Scripture as merely examples to imitate or shun. Instead the RH founders saw these narratives, and in…Read More »
Recent Articles
Sanctification Debates Part 3
Print(Volume 24, Issue 3, June/July 2018) In this concluding article on sanctification debates centered around what is often termed Liberate Theology (LT), and at other times the “grace model” or “monergistic” sanctification, the goal is to evaluate the basic teachings …Read More »Sanctification Debates Part 2
Print(Volume 24, Issue 2, April/May 2018) Liberate Theology (LT), as we saw in Part 1 of this series, is a method of sanctification which focuses on what its teachers call the indicatives of Scripture, rather than the imperatives. Indicatives are …Read More »Sanctification Debates Part 1
Print(Volume 24, Issue 1, January-March 2018) Throughout church history the issue of sanctification, how Christians change, grow and mature, has been hotly debated. Those who cling to the Reformed position on salvation, that is, salvation is a gift of God …Read More »My Favorite Books Part V
Print(Volume 23, Issue 6, November/December 2017) Since I began writing book reviews a number of years ago, it seemed to some that the majority of these reviews dealt with books that were either errant or at best mixed in their …Read More »
Recent Book Reviews
Christ-Centered Preaching, Redeeming the Expository Sermon by Bryan Chapell
PrintWhen Bryan Chapell wrote Christ-Centered Preaching he was president and professor of practical theology at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis. He now pastors Grace Presbyterian church in Peoria, Illinois. Apart from the last two chapters, this volume is a …Read More »Sister Aimee, the Life of Aimee Semple McPherson by Daniel Mark Epstein
PrintIn the 1920 and 1930s the most famous person in America was not a Hollywood star or a political leader but a young Pentecostal woman, Aimee Semple McPherson (pp. 260, 315). While pastoring a megachurch in L.A., Aimee was best …Read More »God’s Word Alone, the Authority of Scripture by Matthew Barrett
PrintGod’s Word Alone is part of the 5 Solas series published by Zondervan and edited by Matthew Barrett. This work is dedicated to Sola Scriptura often called the formal principle of the Reformation (whereas Sola Fide is known as the …Read More »Has the Church Replaced Israel? A Theological Evaluation by Michael J. Vlach
PrintMichael Vlach, professor of theology at The Master’s Seminary, addresses thoroughly and with clarity one of the major debates within conservative evangelical theology: Has the church replaced Israel? “The position that the church is the ‘new’ or ‘true’ Israel that …Read More »