James Montgomery Boice relayed the account of Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, conversing with his chaplain concerning the reliability of the Scriptures.1 always precedes orthopraxy.2 Correct doctrine always precedes correct practice. No one can function with biblical practice and methodology without first having correct beliefs...
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Fulfilled Messianic Prophecies from the Book of Zechariah
By Dr. Keith Kobelia / September 15, 2025
Among the most intriguing prophetic sections of the Bible are the prophecies of Zechariah which are contained in the book that bears his name. Zechariah is teeming with Messianic prophecies,...
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Israel’s Future Enemy: The King of Babylon in Isaiah 14:4–21
The Bible has much to say about Israel—past, present, and future. This small plot of land, this scattered people throughout the world, are precious in the sight of the Lord (Zech 2:8). The prophets prophesied a bright future filled with abundance and blessing. On the eve of blessing, however, will be a time of great trial. The persecutor of Israel will prevail, conquering rulers, brutally ruling over his own people, and leading a worldwide persecution of the Jewish people.
Israel’s deliverer will not come from a political alliance, but from the true King of Kings who will usher in a time of eternal blessing.
God’s Kingdom Program in the New Testament: A Biblical Theological Overview Part 2
Introduction
The kingdom of God is a complex biblical theme that spans across the two testaments. This article continues a very brief biblical/theological overview of the kingdom theme. The former article considered precursors to the kingdom theme, the foundation of the kingdom of God theme in the Davidic Covenant, and selected predictions of the kingdom in the Prophetic Books. Specifically, the previous article concluded that the concept of the kingdom of God (which is different than His sovereign rule over all creation), takes on definite shape in the Davidic Covenant, which promises that David will have a descendant who will rule over an earthly and eternal kingdom (2 Sam 7:16).
God’s Kingdom Program in the Old Testament: A Biblical Theological Overview Part 1
Introduction
The kingdom of God is a prominent and multi-faceted biblical theme. Kingdom concepts can be found in virtually every biblical book, and it touches on a wide range of biblical ideas. While it is debatable whether the kingdom of God is the over-arching theme of the Bible, it certainly is a theme that transcends several eras of biblical history and binds together several strands of biblical revelation.
The goal of this article is to give a brief biblical/theological overview of the kingdom theme in the Old Testament.
Preparing for Life’s Final Transition: God’s Expectations to Honor Aging Parents
My wife, Tricia, and I have been in an interesting and important phase of our lives for the last few years—caring for aging parents. In 2020, Tricia’s parents, Larry and Nancy, moved in with us, and we became their primary care providers. Just over five short months after they moved in with us, Nancy unexpectedly passed away. Larry, who struggled with Parkinson-like symptoms, stayed with us through the next year, but eventually his health and care needs reached a point where we needed to transition him to a care center.
Worship God: Comparing Worship Then and Now
Worshipping God is fundamental to God’s people. God wants the redeemed of all ages to honor and serve Him with reverence and joy. Unfortunately, worship is one of the most controversial subjects in churches today. Instead of uniting the church, “worship wars” have scarred denominations and fragmented the church. These types of disputes are nothing new. The fault lines of worship controversies have marred nearly every turning point in church history. In this article I would like to compare the worship between Israel and the church.
Fundamentalism and the Hermeneutics of Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism
Introduction
Fundamentalism has never embraced one uniform system of theology. My purpose here is to provide an overview and comparison of Covenant Theology (henceforth, CT) and Dispensational Theology (henceforth, DT) used by many fundamentalists throughout its history. While some fundamentalists today attempt to eschew any (rigid) theological system, in actuality everyone uses some type of grid (a set of suppositions) to interpret Biblical passages. Often the difference between those who embrace established theological systems and those who do not is that the latter do not realize they are using such a grid and have not thought through the Bible in a systematic way.
Sound Exegesis— Sound Living
Shaky Exegesis— Shaky Living
During the earthquake of modernism that shook and collapsed the orthodoxy of many churches and denominations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, another earthquake was also taking place off the shores of Christianity—the birth of modern secular psychology. This earthquake happened along similar fault lines as the earthquake of theological modernism. Its upheaval ultimately resulted in a tsunami—Christian integrationist psychology—that not only swept over many evangelical churches and parachurch organizations, but also swept into fundamentalism.
The Baptist Fundamentals (1920/1921) and Hermeneutics
In 1920 Curtis Lee Laws proposed that those who cling to and earnestly contend for “the great fundamentals” of the Christian faith be called “fundamentalists.”1 For twenty-five years, Laws served as the editor of the Watchman Examiner, a Baptist publication. The most commonly cited list of the “fundamentals of the faith,” however, is the Five Point Deliverance (1901) used in the fundamentalist-modernist debates within the Presbyterian denomination.2 Yet in June of 1920, conservatives within the Northern Baptist Convention hosted a “Pre-convention Conference on Fundamentals of Our Baptist Faith” in Buffalo, New York, that resulted in a volume entitled Baptist Fundamentals (Judson Press, 1920).
The Task of Exegesis
One of the hallmarks of The Fundamentals1 was its high view of Scripture. This emphasis resulted naturally from the historical challenges posed by modernism.2 With its historical skepticism, Modernism questioned not only the authorship and dates of biblical books, but also denied the supernatural content that is recorded in those books. As a result, The Fundamentals sought to defend the accuracy and authority of the Bible from its detractors.
As one peruses the table of contents of The Fundamentals, one sees a number of articles that relate directly to a high view of Scripture and its authenticity.
The Grammatical-Historical Hermeneutic
Communication involves at least two parties in its process: the communicator who delivers the message and the recipient. Both individuals must follow some basic principles for communication to occur: the communicator must express the message clearly, and the recipient must understand the communicator’s meaning in its context. If individuals follow these rules for communication, how much more significant is the practice of attempting to understand correctly what God has recorded for them in His Word? This attempt at accurate comprehension is the study of interpretation, also known as hermeneutics.
