In our last episode, we laid the theological foundation for a new covenant doctrine: Christ fulfilled the Law and ratified the new covenant, which opened a new way of relating to God apart from obedience to Torah. Now we will discuss a number of texts that sometimes confuse Christians into thinking the Law is still Read more about Theology 24 — Challenging the New Covenant[…]
We are now in our second-to-last episode in this 24-part theology class, covering the major biblical doctrines as well as various counterarguments. Today we will focus our time on the New Covenant. We’ll make our way through biblical history in order to understand the grand sweep of the bible, paying special attention to the old Read more about Theology 23 — New Covenant[…]
Q: How do you know the bible is true? A: Because God wrote it. Q: How do you know God wrote it? A: Because the bible says God wrote it. Q: But, how do you know the bible is true? Here we encounter the classic circular argument for the bible’s inspiration. Surely, there’s a better Read more about 155 God’s Book (Sean Finnegan)[…]
How did Jews at the time of Jesus understand their relationship to the Law? Did they believe in “works righteousness”–the idea that only by obeying the commandments of Torah could they earn salvation? Did they believe in grace? Jerry Wierwille leads us through this important issue so that we contextualize the epistles of Paul within Read more about Interview 36: Paul and Covenantal Nomism (Jerry Wierwille)[…]
Pastor Daniel Calcagno lays out a his case for what he calls a positive view of Torah. He believes that the cleavage with Judaism in early church history is something the apostles never envisioned. Sadly, this parting of the ways led to confusion, doctrinal drifting, and persecution. Although Calcagno does not believe Gentiles need to Read more about Interview 35: Should Messianic Jews Keep Torah? (Daniel Calcagno)[…]
This is part four in our series on responding to your questions and comments. In this episode, we respond to a comment made on Off Script 37: Killing Criminals, in which we took the position that capital punishment is a biblically justifiable practice, but in America today it is fraught with problems, including the outrageous Read more about Off Script 45: Should Christians Support Capital Punishment? (Q&A)[…]