Led along the edge of a Libyan beach by Islamic State militants, 21 Egyptian Christians wearing the orange jumpsuits of prisoners received the white robes of martyrs. A gruesome video released in mid-February depicted their captors forcing the men to the ground and beheading them with swift, simultaneous strokes of the blade. The mass execution…
EDITOR’S NOTE: In what follows, Oren Martin, assistant professor of Christian theology at Boyce College and Southern Seminary, discusses his new book, Bound for the Promised Land, with Towers news writer Andrew J.W. Smith. AJWS: Why should the church today care about the land promise? What significance does it have for the church? OM: I think it…
Bound for the Promised Land: The Land Promise in God’s Redemptive Plan Oren R. Martin In Bound for the Promised Land, Oren R. Martin, assistant professor of Christian theology at Boyce College and Southern Seminary, presents a biblical theology of God’s promise of land for his people. Revised and condensed from Martin’s dissertation, the book is…
Jesus, Jihad and Peace: What Bible Prophecy Says About World Events Today Michael Youssef Review by S. Craig Sanders (Worthy Publishing 2015, $12) In Jesus, Jihad and Peace, Islamic scholar Michael Youssef explores the rising global tension between Islam and Christianity, demonstrating how God is displaying his eschatological purpose through current events. “In a world that…
Echoing Martin Luther, Barry Joslin tells every class he teaches never to trust a theologian who does not sing. But what Joslin’s students say they remember is how he models the singing theologian. “Worship is a natural response to theology. If anybody has taken any of my classes, they know they always hear the phrase,…
Researching the eschatological perspectives of the seminary’s founding professors is a difficult task, since none of them ever published dedicated works on the subject. The most highly regarded preacher among the early seminary faculty was John Albert Broadus, who approached the subject of eschatology with both humility and discernment, as can be seen through references…
Resurrection Stephen J. Wellum 5 Editorial: Reflections on the Glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ Mitchell L. Chase 9 “From Dust You Shall Arise:” Resurrection Hope in the Old Testament Raymond Johnson 31 Matthew 27:51-54 Revisited: A Narratological Re-Appropriation Lee Tankersley 51 Raised for Our Justification: The Resurrection and Penal Substitution A. B. Caneday …
This issue of SBJT is devoted to the theme of the resurrection and especially the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. From a number of different angles, both Old and New Testament, our authors reflect on the biblical teaching regarding the resurrection, Christ’s resurrection, and its implication for our lives as Christians. At Easter…
Introduction At the moment of Jesus’ death on the cross, after crying out with an earth-rending voice and yielding his spirit (Matt 27:50), Matthew recounts several cataclysmic events for his readers. He includes five signs ((I use “sign” instead of “symbol” since it more helpfully connotes a referent that points the reader both backward to…
What seems to have happened is that Western theology has allowed itself to be dominated by a legalistic view of sin and a forensic model of atonement which leaves little room for resurrection. When the atonement is thought of chiefly in terms of merit and the law, the cross becomes central, but the resurrection drops…
Introduction My oldest boy used to think that if he could not see the sun shining in the sky during the day, then it was not really out and shining. For him, the sun had to be visible, uncloaked by clouds. He eventually realized that the presence of the sun was evident in the light…
Introduction Long ago Rudolf Bultmann argued that Jesus’ activity as “Revealer of God” is the eschatological event, “the judgment of the world.” ((Rudolf Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament (vol. II; trans. Kendrick Grobel; New York: Scribners, 1955), 35. He states that resurrection and judgment take “place in the response of men to the word…
In orthodox Christology, the priesthood of Christ has been a regular feature of Jesus’ messianic portrait. In Reformed circles, the munus triplex goes back to before Calvin.
Karl Barth’s famous aversion to accepting biblical miracles as historically accessible included the resurrection of Jesus. This antipathy displayed itself in 1962 at George Washington University during a question-answer dialogue with 200 specially invited religious leaders. After Carl Henry identified himself as the editor of Christianity Today, he asked Barth: “The question, Dr. Barth, concerns…
SBJT: When one thinks of crucial and important chapters on the resurrection in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 15 immediately comes to mind. Briefly describe the significant contribution this chapter makes to our thinking about the theme of the resurrection. Stephen J. Wellum: It is certainly the case that 1 Corinthians 15 is of singular…
Galatians. Concordia Commentary. By A. Andrew Das. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2014, lxix, 738 pp., $54.99 hardback. A. Andrew Das serves as the Donald W. and Betty J. Buik Chair of Religious Studies at Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, IL. His fresh and substantial contribution to the Concordia Commentary series represents some of the…
When Samuel Vance walked into church in December 1996, he had his life planned out. He was 18 years old, visiting a church during his winter break from college — a hard-working student who had mapped the rest of his life during his first semester. He grew up in a working-class Christian home and professed…
