Parchment & Pen Blog

I am a dispensationalist . . . I think. Below is my explanation of my view. While the term “Progressive Covenantalism” suggests a hybrid between Covenant Theology and Progressive Dispensationalism, it is not really meant to. My view is simply Progressive Dispensationalism with two changes: 1) The emphasis is on the continuity brought about by the [...]

Provided by   D.A. LaGue Can a man be a Christian and a politician?  This question plagued a rising member of the English parliament in 1785, as the young politician contemplated how he should live out his newfound faith. William Wilberforce was born in 1759 in Hull, England.  He was raised in a wealthy [...]

How can Protestants justify their belief in sola fide (salvation by faith alone) when it does not seem to be existent prior to the sixteenth century? How do Catholics explain their belief in the Assumption of Mary when it was not dogmatized until the twentieth century? How do Orthodox justify their under-developed and often unbiblical beliefs concerning the atonement?  During the recording of Theology [...]

My daughter Katelynn has always been as sharp as a whip. She loves to learn. At church, people used to get kicks out of her understanding of theological issues. When she was six she came to me and saw that I was reading the Greek New Testament and asked if she could learn. Within the [...]

In my last blog, I noted that the standard doctrine of preservation assumes that the text is accessible by God’s people down to the very words and down through the ages. But since the Old Testament text demonstrably has places in which scholars must resort to conjecture, this doctrine of preservation does not seem to [...]

What is the “True” church? #3 What is the definition of a true church? Here we will continue our discussion of what a legitimate church. Are we supposed to “start” a church in order for a church to “true” or does church simply happen? In other words we pose the question of whether a local [...]

Here is the situation: We are born with a propensity, bent, inclination to sin. Therefore, we cannot help but sin – it is our nature. Yet when we do act according to our nature and sin, we are held guilty by God and ultimately condemned to eternal punishment. Not only this, but we are already condemned for the [...]

As soon as I heard about the TIME (8-23-07) article, “Mother Teresa’s Crisis of Faith,” I commented to my husband that the publication of her personal letters telling of this decades-long “crisis” might very well become her greatest legacy. Then I read the article, which I discovered included a similar statement from Rev. James Martin, [...]

1. I will finish my series on imputation on Monday.  2. Ben Witherington writes on authorial intent hermeneutics. His three basic guidelines: 1) It means what is means, not what you want it to mean or your presuppositions determine it means. 2) Context is king. No proof texting. This is one of the biggest interpretive problems [...]

Continuing with our subject of the difficult doctrine of imputation, we now move to an interpretation of Romans 5. The question has come down to this: Is it possible that Adam’s sin has been credited or imputed to us in such a way that all men are born guilty of this sin of another before we ever exercise [...]

Provided by   D.A. LaGue In 155 A.D., an eighty-six year old man was brought out to the jeers of a crowded Roman arena.  As he was about to be nailed to a pyre and burned at the stake, he told the soldiers, ‘Leave me as I am.  The one who gives me the strength [...]

In the last post we discussed the problem of Original Sin, especially from an Evangelical Reformed perspective. Are we condemned for the sin of another. Let’s get some basic terminology down so that we can surf this wave with more balance. Proposed three types of sin: Personal Sin: Sins committed by the individual. All people [...]