Most of us took our church history classes¹ in Bible college or seminary (or both) because we had to complete another requirement to graduate. Of course, there were some famous episodes within the last 2,000 years of Christian history that we wanted to know about. And we were told, as the common maxim goes: “Those who do not learn from the errors of [church] history are destined to repeat them.” Also, I remember one revered seminary professor at Faith telling us that the department of church history was always the last in a…

The 6^th commandment (“You shall not murder,” Ex 20:13) seems pretty simple at first glance. Many assume that, if they have never taken a life, they have fulfilled this law.

Yes and no.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is speaking to believers about what his Christian counterculture must look like—about how believers must live as children of God. And so, when it comes to “murder,” Jesus gives us what I’ll call a “maximal interpretation” of the statute, to show us the spirit behind the letter of this law. He extends the definition of “…

By Jonathan Moreno. From DBSJ 22 (2017): 75-90. Republished with permission. Read the series.

The Complexity of the Problem

Grappling with the problem of evil is a notoriously dubious endeavor due in part to the complexity of the problem. Therefore, if any viable solutions are to be reached, the specific kind of evil must be recognized and defined, and the theological system in which that evil resides must be identified.

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