Reading and Studying God’s Word Communally

The more I work through John Frame's The Doctrine of the Word of God, the more impressed I am with this book. It seems that no matter what question I have concerning the Bible as inspired Scripture, Frame has provided a thoughtful and nuanced answer steeped in Scripture's own self-testimony. In preparing to teach a …

The Imago Dei and the “Humanity” of Scripture

In his contribution to the book Reforming or Conforming: Post-Conservative Evangelicals and the Emerging Church (Crossway, 2008), Paul Wells considers the humanity of scripture, a topic he contends has been left largely unexplored by conservative evangelicals when discussing the doctrine of Scripture. In writing of the dearth of detailed engagement with the humanity of Scripture, …

Who said that?

And to whom were they referring? When, however, they are confuted from the Scriptures, they turn round and accuse these same Scriptures, as if they were not correct, nor of authority, and [assert] that they are ambiguous, and that the truth cannot be extracted from them by those who are ignorant of tradition. For [they …

Al Wolters on Hermeneutics and Zechariah’s Night Visions

Al Wolters, in his very nice article “Confessional Criticism and the Night Visions of Zechariah,” (From Renewing Biblical Interpretation in Zondervan’s Scripture and Hermeneutics Series) draws out an interesting hermeneutical proposal; i.e., that of noting the coexistence of “top-down” relationships in hermeneutics with “bottom-up” relationships. Let me explain what Wolters means.  Starting at the bottom …

The Intent(s) of the Divine and Human Writers

Another great quote by Michael Horton: In scriptural discourse the original human author may never have intended his or her words to be put to use in later, often quite distanciated, contexts, but the divine speaker is doing just that.  Thus, the story of deliverance from Egypt through the Red Sea becomes not only a …