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Grace. Law. Righteousness. Faith. These key terms, expressed in Martin Luther’s Death to the Law, encompass much of Luther’s theology and its relationship to Paul’s letters. This paper will explain how Luther’s use of the aforementioned terms has parallels with Paul’s writings, yet Luther’s theology is a significant departure from Paul’s. Beginning with the Law,…
Among the scholarly debates about Paul’s theology, one question is whether Paul’s model for salvation is primarily rooted in Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, or if the central point is about becoming a new creation through Christ’s death and resurrection. This paper will briefly discuss the key distinctions between the two positions, as well as…
In his Catholic apologetics work, Patrick Madrid often uses the sentence, “I never said you stole the money” to show how phrases in the Bible can take on multiple meanings, based on word emphasis in the sentence. Does it mean he never accused the person of stealing the money, or was it he who said…
Similar to the Catholic view of devout, baptized believers as those who have been saved, are being saved, and will be saved, Paul claims in 1 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians that devoted Christians are being transformed before Christ’s return and will experience a final transformation after. This paper will show the relationship between…
Introduction It has been said that the Church is a hospital for sinners and not a museum for saints. In the fourth century AD, under the Roman empire’s reign, the Catholic Church faced off with the Donatists over this very dilemma: limit the church to the righteous and pure, or keep its arms open to…
Introduction Considered a well-educated physician, detailed historian, and influential writer, Luke — who is attributed to authoring the longest of the four Gospels, as well as the Book of Acts (Brown 225, 226) — fuses his Gospel with parts of Mark and the mysterious source known as “Q” (Brown 225, 265). Luke’s work not only…
A couple of pages into the chapter on glossolalia, Stendahl uses a term that is key to Paul’s concerns about how the early Christians used this gift from the Spirit, and why the Church today must be mindful of practices that can potentially lead to ego-centric sensationalism. That word is ‘triumphalism’ (111). But what is…
Right out of the gate, one of the problems with applying ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ labels to Paul, and then trying to map these terms to modern day definitions, is whether the terms would have had the same meaning then as they do now. Using the modern-day, dictionary definitions, ‘conservative’ means to hold to traditional values,…
Hi Letitia, Like Paul’s use of the words ‘flesh’ and ‘works’ in Scripture, ‘law’ is yet another word that incites an interpretation bonanza among scholars. But there is hope: In Anthony C. Thiselton’s book, Discovering Romans: Content, Interpretation, Reception, the chapter on Romans 7 features a well-rounded look at the word ‘law’ and how Paul’s theology…
A few months ago, one of my favorite YouTube channels, ‘How to be Christian’, put out a video titled, “What Does ‘Eat my Flesh’ Mean?” — referring to the ‘Bread of Life Discourse’ in John 6. Ferris, the host of ‘How to be Christian’, and who is both outstandingly thorough and pretty hilarious in his…