Biblical Studies – Page 2

Beyond the Current Confusion toward a Coherent and Scripturally Sound View of the Final Judgment

Oct 21, 2024

This note contends that telescoping all final judgment of both believers and non-believers alike before one final apocalyptic tribunal at the end of the age following Christ’s return has yielded a number of unfortunate consequences, which include: (1) creating an unnecessary tension between the doctrines of judgment according to works and salvation by faith; (2) scripturally fabricating the need for some form of a completely unnecessary Intermediate State following one’s physical death; (3) minimizing and...

A Quick Summary in Plain English Why the Conventional Translation of 2 Cor. 5:10 is So Wrong, and Possible Reasons Why It Has Nonetheless Held Up For So Long

Oct 5, 2024

Photo Credit: “Courtroom” by ☺ Lee J Haywood is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Here is the Greek text of this verse, with the crucial subordinate clause in italics. Don’t worry if you don’t know Greek. You’ll be able to follow along anyway. The key words are in bold print. τοὺς γὰρ πάντας ἡμᾶς φανερωθῆναι δεῖ ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ βήματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἵνα κομίσηταιἕκαστος τὰ διὰ τοῦ σώματος πρὸς ἃ ἔπραξεν, εἴτε ἀγαθὸν εἴτε φαῦλον. Readers might be surprised...

Book Review and Essay on The Role of Works at the Final Judgment, edited by Alan P. Stanley.

Sep 28, 2024

Four Views On the Role of Works at the Final Judgment. Edited by Alan P. Stanley. Counterpoints: Bible and Theology. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013. Paperback ISBN: 0310490332. Contains contributions by Robert N. Wilkin, Thomas R. Schreiner, James D. G. Dunn, Michael P. Barber, and Alan P. Stanley. Here, in this well-conceived 275-page book (page numbers are from the Kindle edition which roughly approximates the print version), four prominent scholars advance different views on the role...

The Transfiguration of Christ: A Book Review with Reflections on Judgment

Sep 20, 2024

In his wonderfully fascinating new book, The Transfiguration of Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Reading, by Patrick Schreiner (Baker Academic 2024), Dr. Schreiner demonstrates in minutely researched detail how the transfiguration of Christ reveals Christ’s preexistent glory, while also foreshadowing his messianic function of bringing about a transformed and reworked creation in which heaven and earth are united, and in which everything in this broken world will be set right. Professor Schreiner’s main point (page...

A Modest Critique of N. T. Wright’s <i>Surprised by Hope</i> from the Perspective of Paradise and the Final Judgment

A Modest Critique of N. T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope from the Perspective of Paradise and the Final Judgment

Sep 13, 2024

Professor Wright has given us all a precious gift by “reminding” us and, more importantly, by explaining to us in persuasive detail that Jesus on Easter did not pass into some vague spiritual netherworld, but rather rose bodily from the dead. The resurrection, Dr. Wright correctly proclaims, represents the defeat of death and the inauguration of a new and transformed cosmos, both of heaven and earth, in which those who believe in him, each of...

The Divine Heartset in Philippians with Dr. Crispin Fletcher-Louis (Podcast)

Sep 4, 2024

In this episode we’re joined by Dr. Crispin Fletcher-Louis, who is a Fellow at the University of Gloucestershire and the author of the book that we’re discussing in this episode, The Divine Heartset: Paul’s Philippians Christ Hymn, Metaphysical Affections, and Civic Virtues (published by Cascade). Over the course of our conversation, we talk about Dr. Fletcher-Louis’s massive volume on the Christ Hymn in Philippians 2, in which he makes several fascinating exegetical decisions rooted in...

Embedded Genres with Professor Jeannine Brown (Podcast)

Aug 28, 2024

In this episode we’re joined by Professor Jeannine Brown, who is David Price Professor of Biblical Foundations at Bethel Seminary, a member of the NIV translation committee, and the author of a number of books on Hermeneutics and the Gospels as well as the book that we’re excited to discuss in this episode, Embedded Genres in the New Testament: Understanding Their Impact for Interpretation (published by Baker). In our conversation we talk about the interpretative...

Do Near-Death Experiences Conflict with the Biblical Notion of the Final Judgment?

Aug 26, 2024

A near-death experience (NDE) is generally defined as what people experience after they have been pronounced clinically dead, that is, with no brain waves or heart function, and who are later resuscitated. It is important to note here that Jesus did not resuscitate, but resurrected. He is the only one in human history to have done so. All those who experience NDE’s come back to their earthly bodies and later die. Jesus died fully, but...

Modern Genre Theory with Rev. Dr. Andrew Judd (Podcast)

Aug 21, 2024

In this episode we’re joined by Rev. Dr. Andrew Judd, who is Deputy Principal and Lecturer in Old Testament at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia, and the author of the book we’re discussing in this episode, Modern Genre Theory: An Introduction for Biblical Studies (published by Zondervan Academic). Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Judd talks with us about the weird ways that scholars in biblical studies talk about genre, which is not often...

Postscript to an Article on the Judgment Seat of Christ in 2 Cor. 5:10

Aug 9, 2024

In response to my full article on a new reading of 2 Corinthians 5.10 (which you can read here in full), Dr. Garland wrote: “Tom rightly points [out] that one’s unexamined presuppositions about what the text says tends to predetermine the reading of the Greek grammar. If one assumes the interpretation is correct, one is less likely to probe as exhaustively as Tom has done [on] the grammatical complications” (his full reply to the short...