I basically finished my dissertation a decade ago. Paul’s Positive Religious Affections. It’s available on Kindle and print-on-demand just in case anyone wants it. In it I basically argued that Paul is meant to be a model in his affections and not just in his theology...
Someone recently asked me for an abstract of my dissertation, Paul’s Positive Religious Affections, and I realized I’d never written one up. Here goes. Six times in the NT the Spirit of the Lord led Paul to tell his readers to imitate him (2 Thess 3:7; 1 Cor 4:16;...
In which I take students through How to Think about Others' Exegetical Fallacies and then talk through some portions of my dissertation that focused on ἀγάπη (agape) and what it "really" means. No, like, for real this time.
Regeneration secures right knowledge as well as right feeling; and right feeling is not the effect of right knowledge, nor is right knowledge the effect of right feeling. The two are inseparable effects of a work which affects the whole soul." —Cornelius Van Til...
My dissertation chapter on joy argues that the article on joy from the Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible is mistaken about much of the following. Joy. Positive human condition that can be either feeling or action. The Bible uses joy in both senses. Joy as Feeling. Joy...
The “sacraments” or “ordinances” of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are, in part, little pieces of art: miniature dramas that highlight precious truths. They are parallel in a significant way to church music, as Jonathan Edwards explains in his classic book, The...
In a section of my dissertation critiquing the view that God has no emotions, I wrote the following: If God is impassible, Zephaniah 3:17 is puzzling: “[The Lord] will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud...
As I announced previously, I successfully defended my dissertation for a PhD in New Testament on May 2. I have some corrections to make, but I'm basically done. I'm a doctor—though not the kind that anyone really cares about! Finishing five days before the 2011...
"I don’t like anything here at all." said Frodo, "step or stone, breath or bone. Earth, air and water all seem accursed. But so our path is laid." "Yes, that’s so," said Sam. "And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started." My wife and...
One of the most popular linguistic and exegetical fallacies in modern times is that the Greek word for love, agapao, carries in it the implication of a divine love that is unconditional and comes to us in spite of our sin. That is not true. Context must decide if...
A few weeks ago I got word that my dissertation defense had been moved; it's now set for Monday afternoon, May 2. Please do pray for me if you think of it. I'm busy preparing for the defense; the full defense draft should be turned in this week by Friday at the...
If you aren't meticulous in your note-taking, always using quotation marks and saving your full citation, you might accidentally do this: One of the distinguishing marks of the child of God is love, a love that originates in God, displays itself in actions of...