Theology

Christ came to free people from bondage to the law of Moses, but not through the absolute abandonment of all law. Paul’s training as a Pharisee made him the most biblically competent of the Apostles, which is reflected by his dominance as an author of the New Testament letters. My intention here is not to impose a foreign metanarrative upon the text, but to reveal the actual metanarrative of the Old Testament in the light of Christ as Paul presented it to the Galatians. That metanarrative was not what he had been taught as a Pharisee, nor what they had been taught by the Temple establishment. It was shockingly different, but it made undeniable sense of the Old Testament. The Temple establishment version was full of ancient mystery and symbolism that was difficult to understand, and cast the role of Israel as the hero of the story. Paul’s version, on the other hand, was clear, simple, and practical—though it required the abandonment of much well-established Temple superstition. Paul’s version cast the role of Jesus Christ as the hero.

While understanding the story of the Old Testament in the light of Christ is not difficult, abandoning our own false presuppositions about it requires some personal tenacity. Jesus continues to challenge our ideas about who we are and our role in history, God’s story. The story that Paul grew up with was the story about the importance and purity of the Temple. But the story that he learned from Jesus was about the corruption and failure of the Temple. Similarly, Christians today are Sunday-schooled in the importance of the institutional church, but the actual ongoing story in the light of Christ is about the corruption and failure of the church as an institution. In the following pages you will see that this story has played out over and again throughout history because of the pertinacity of sin.

“…students today have a minimum of accurate knowledge of the Bible or what Christianity is all about; they understand even less about Christian ethics. It is important to clarify what a Christian ethic should look like because there are so few exceptional examples of lived out Biblical Christianity. Most people have only a vague understanding of what Christian morality should look like. This book has as its educational purpose to bring to remembrance accurate knowledge of Christianity and of Christian ethics. It is specifically directed to those who may think they have an understanding of Christianity because they have an acquaintance with it but who are generally quite ignorant.” –from the Preface.

“…a readable, accurate, biblically-based guide to ethics … winsomely guides the uninitiated reader through the various debates about how to approach God’s Law as an ethical standard, helping the student to see the differences between legalism, theonomy and antinomianism. He draws on a variety of Christian apologists—Van Til, Schaeffer, Lewis, Bahnsen, Sire and Pink—but never overwhelms the reader. –Dr. John A. Sparks. Retired Dean of Arts & Letters and Professor of Law. Grove City College, Grove City, PA.

416 pgs. -- The purpose of this book is neither dogmatic nor academic, but is systemic in that it endeavors to provide a reading of Ephesians and a biblical perspective that issue out of the wholeness of the Bible. It labors to hold various themes, lessons, and aspects together in order to display the Bible’s sustainable depth and breadth in the light of Christ in the twenty-first century.

364 pgs. Think of this book as a contemporary edition of John Williamson Nevin’s book, The Mystical Presence—A Vindication of the Reformed or Calvinistic Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist (J.B. Lippencort & Co., 1846). It is not simply a reissue of an old book. Rather, it’s a sort of dynamic equivalence approach to editing in order to make it more available to contemporary people. I have simply tried to take Nevin’s work and make it my own, in the sense of comprehending its significance and application. In doing so, I have taken broad license to edit, interpret, clarify and expand what I think Nevin was saying.

144 pgs. This book was written by a Congregational minister at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. It covers the time from the founding of Marietta, Ohio, to about 1900. While the religious history of Marietta from that time forward is not unimportant, it follows the earlier patterns of unfolding. The historical failings of Christ’s church in Marietta can be more clearly seen and understood with the perspective that historical reflection provides. The closer to our own time we get, the more difficult it is to see past our own presuppositions and prejudices. So, I have chosen to focus on the Nineteenth Century in the hope of making certain problems and issues regarding American Christianity and the religious history of Marietta more clear.

108 pgs. The Ten Commandments are intended to be foundational for a proper understanding of biblical Christianity. They are neither comprehensive, nor complete; neither systematic, nor extemporaneous. They are, however, intended to address issues of orthodoxy and error that plague modern society and the contemporary churches. They are neither scholarly nor popular in style or content. They simply expose the Bible for what it is, and apply it to the world in which we live. Though these insights and applications will distress many people, they are an honest effort to represent Scripture in and of itself, apart from ideology and the subtle influences known as political correctnes

144 pgs. Informal Christianity reviews the personal and informal realities involved in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that provide the foundation of Christianity. It deals with personal discipleship, what it means to be born again, to live in regeneration through the Holy Spirit in a way that produces a genuine spiritual life in Christ. If spiritual discipline does not begin in one's own heart, it doesn't begin at all.

The Great Debate of the Moral Relations of God and Man

by Edward Beecher, Phillip A. Ross, Editor, 510 pages.

This is a dangerous book, dangerous because it deals with perhaps the most serious conflict in history, and I commend it with some trepidation. That conflict began in Genesis and has continued unabated through history. Many people believe it to be a conflict between believers and unbelievers, and a great many people, traditions and religions have framed the conflict in these terms. The Old Testaments prophets described the conflict as between the one true God and the many false gods, or the true prophet and the false prophets. Both conceptions are equally true, but the latter is to be preferred because the former suggests that those who oppose the God of the Bible don’t believe anything, when in fact they believe as strongly as believers, but believe falsely.

The Individual And Organic Harmony Of God And Man

by Edward Beecher, Phillip A. Ross, Editor, 540 pages.

Edward Beecher (1803-1895), a noted theologian, the son of Lyman Beecher and brother to Harriet Beecher Stowe and Henry Ward Beecher, was senior editor of The Congregationalist (1849—1855), and an associate editor of the Christian Union from 1870.

This book cannot be understood without first reading Beecher’s preceding volume, Conflict of Ages. So, if you have not read that, please do not continue. Conflict traces the problem through the history of Christianity up to the publishing of Concord, 1860. And Concord provides the solution to the problem delineated in Conflict.