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Biblical Theology

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August 2023

August 22, 2023

Romans 7 Does Not Say People Have a Sin Nature

Christians have long taught that humans have a “sin nature.” Countless people debate about precisely...

June 2023

June 06, 2023

The Unforgivable Sin? Rejecting the Sign of the New Covenant

Jesus says one sin is unforgivable— blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. In general, commentators are...

November 2022

November 01, 2022

Think Broadly on Contextualization and Biblical Theology

We previously considered several studies that highlight the benefits of “broad thinking” on creativity. Scholars...

September 2019

September 11, 2019

Biblical Theology for Oral Cultures

I wanted to write this chapter for a long time. Finally, I got my chance....

August 2019

August 21, 2019

Must we choose either biblical theology or missions?

A few years ago, I sat in the lobby of a Thai hotel talking with...

January 2019

January 09, 2019

Relating All the Stories within the Grand Biblical Story

Countless models attempt to present the biblical narrative in a coherent way but usually “systematize”...

May 2018

May 03, 2018

Clothing the Grand Biblical Story with Honor and Shame

A student working with Muslims wanted to develop a story that takes honor and shame...

September 2016

September 21, 2016

Building the Biblical Story

In order to teach the Bible and share the gospel, we do best to understand...

August 2016

August 03, 2016

What the Gospels Teach about Contextualization

The Bible not only gives us our message; it should shape our methods. In One...

December 2015

December 01, 2015

Israel’s Honor and Shame (Part 3)

Honor and shame permeate the story of Israel. Although God chose this particular people to...

November 2015

November 18, 2015

Israel’s Honor and Shame (Part 2)

In the last post, I began retelling Israel's story from the perspective of honor and...

November 11, 2015

Israel’s Honor and Shame (Part 1)

What does Israel have to do with honor and shame? Ironically, they do have at...

September 2014

September 02, 2014

How does God seek "face"?

A few weeks ago, I released a video explaining how honor-shame might influence our gospel...

August 2014

August 26, 2014

The Biblical Story is Collectivistic

From beginning to end, the Bible primarily talks about groups, not individuals. This is...

August 06, 2014

Why Not Begin with Babel?

Previously, I examined common problems that emerge when we start with the Adam story (Part...

February 2014

February 12, 2014

Free book — Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church

Logos is giving away a helpful little book all about biblical theology! I have...

September 2013

September 12, 2013

Doing Biblical Theology from Outside the Box

Ideally, we can share the biblical story orally and visually. In other words, what people...

September 10, 2013

Gathering the Nations in the New Creation

以辱为荣：Honored through Shame Jesus overturns the world’s understanding of honor and shame. When people give...

September 05, 2013

The Resurrection and Restoration of God's People

How are we to understand Christ within the grand narrative of Scripture? After all, Jesus...

September 03, 2013

Why Israel? Recovering the Bible's Forgotten Middle

This post depicts Israel within the biblical story. The summary follows the picture below. God...

August 2013

August 29, 2013

How Do We Do “Theology from a Box”?

Today, I begin to explain step by step how to tell the whole story of...

August 27, 2013

Keeping the Biblical Story Coherent and Balanced

If you would like to download the graph above, click here (a bigger picture) or...

August 22, 2013

The Biblical Story in the Context of Honor and Shame

It’s asking a lot of a single model to capture the whole biblical story in...

August 20, 2013

What Comes First? Biblical Theology or Evangelism Methods?

Although many can recite a set evangelistic presentation, fewer people could comfortably make sense of...

August 15, 2013

A Model to Explain the Entire Bible (a new series)

This is the first post of a series that introduces a new tool that helps...

August 06, 2013

Is Our Theology Enslaved to the Law?

How do the various biblical metaphors and word pictures relate to one another? Click on...