Pastoral Theology

Women are not second-class citizens in the Kingdom of God ruled over by Jesus Christ. There are two errors which we can fall into when we consider the role of women’s ministries in the church. We can either ride roughshod over the limits which God in Scripture places on the role of women in the...

Why do some pastors so strongly emphasize the “means of grace” or God’s “ordinances”—God’s word, the sacraments (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper) and prayer? It boils down to this: humans are dead in their sin, wholly corrupted in their soul, and the only source of life—God—has given to his church...

Professor Harro Hopfl identifies the following three signatures of political Calvinism that would be timely if part of network coverage of the Inauguration of the new President: Calvin detested as much as anything rulers who acted as if their will made right ( sic volo sic iubeo ). Because no...

Note: all quotes are from sources as noted. The only fictitious elements in these diary posts are to treat these as letters from John Calvin. I send greetings to all Protestants at the Inauguration of the 45th President of the US. Believe it or not, some of our tradition’s ideas have led you to...

If all your paperwork rolled like a sea upon your desk, you’d struggle to navigate and prepare your tax returns. If you blanketed your computer’s desktop with all your digital files, you’d smother the writing of a departmental report. So is any unorganized library a maze of confusion. This is why...

This week on Theology on the Go, our host, Dr. Jonathan Master is joined by Dr. Mark Dalbey, president of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO. Dr. Dalbey was a pastor and Bible instructor prior to his coming to Covenant Theological Seminary. He holds an MDiv from Pittsburgh Theological...

When considering the matter of our application of Scripture, or what we can call our doctrine or theology, we really do need to think about it. Think about this—God only gave us ten commands for all life and then reduced them to two, both about what we love. Every situation you have ever found...

One of my favorite passages to preach for an ordination or installation service is 2 Timothy 4:5. The context is significant, since in it Paul acknowledges the challenges of pastoral ministry and the apparent success that many false teachers will achieve. In essence, the verse is set against the...

Sometimes when people first hear the term “irresistible grace” they think that this means people are forced to take salvation against their will. They may erroneously think that people are dragged kicking and screaming into God’s kingdom even though they do not want it. Nothing could be further...

In the midst of the final week of our Lord’s earthly ministry in his estate of humiliation, Jesus has an interesting exchange with Peter about his forthcoming denial. Luke 22:31-34 recounts some of the details of this conversation and they are very interesting indeed. We usually focus our attention...