Posts by Richard C. Barcellos

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I and the Father Are One

Richard C. Barcellos
Nov 10, 2020
John 10:30 was a critical verse for the early church. As believers wrestled with the documents of the New Testament in terms of their teaching about our Lord’s identity, and in relation to the Old Testament, various views began to be propagated. Some taught that our Lord was not eternal God by...

Jesus the Theologian

Richard C. Barcellos
Sep 7, 2020
Jesus Christ is the greatest theologian of all time; He read, interpreted, and applied the Scriptues in a masterful way, and taught others to do likewise. While we've already considered Jesus as a learner and teacher , it may help us at this point to think further about theology—the knowledge of...

Jesus Learned Hermeneutics

Richard C. Barcellos
Aug 22, 2020
Our Lord Jesus interpreted the Old Testament. But where did he learn how to interpret it? Did he use the same methods as the Pharisees of his day? Did the Holy Spirit reveal new interpretive principles to him in order to find the Messiah in the OT and justify his mission? Was Jesus a novel...

Words as Signs

Richard C. Barcellos
Apr 16, 2020
What Augustine Can Teach Us About Biblical Interpretation It is no secret that Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine influenced biblical interpretation for centuries to come. He influenced, for example, Thomas Aquinas, a Roman Catholic, and William Whitaker, a Protestant who influenced the formulation...

On Informed Reading

Richard C. Barcellos
Mar 12, 2020
Let’s try an experiment: How would you define the phrase “Roman Catholic”? If I put that question to a group of people, would everyone give the same definition? Most likely not, and for various reasons, such as cultural origin, previous exposure to the phrase, or religious bckground (some former...

All Things in Christ

Richard C. Barcellos
Feb 10, 2020
...which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in...

God's Forgetfulness and God's Face

Richard C. Barcellos
May 21, 2019
True believers may, and do, experience times when they feel as if God has forgotten them. They feel as if the divine no longer takes interest in them. David felt this as well. He expresses this in Psalm 31 in language that may make one wonder about God, however. There we read, "How long, O LORD?...

A Word on Women and Wives

Richard C. Barcellos
Mar 15, 2019
The Greek noun word Γυναῖκας (Gynaikas) has been translated with both the English word “women” (NASB 1995) and with the word “wives” (NKJV and ESV) in various places in Scripture. In 1 Timothy 3:11, we read: Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all...

Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs

Richard C. Barcellos
Jan 20, 2019
“ Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” (Matt. 1:23, NASB, 1977) These are the words of Matthew immediately after he wrote, “Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the...

Read Like an Apostle

Richard C. Barcellos
Nov 12, 2018
The early disciples gave evidence of the concept of Christ as the target of the Old Testament; but, should we read the Old Testament like they did? That is an ever pressing hermeneutical question. I want to suggest that the answer is a resounding "yes!" Consider John 2:13-22 as a case study: "The...

Interpreting Scripture with Scripture

Richard C. Barcellos
Aug 20, 2018
We cannot properly interpret what God does, as He has recorded it for us in Scripture, unless we know something about the God who effects what is recorded for us in Scripture. In other words, there must be a hermeneutical ( i.e. interpretive) dialogue between the text which confronts us (e.g., Gen...

It Pleased God...to Create

Richard C. Barcellos
Jul 23, 2018
The words "it pleased God...to create," in Westminster Confession of Faith 4.1, refer to divine willing, to the decree of God. Creation is due to the will of God. It is not necessary to the divine essence, however. The Triune God is God without creatures and in no absolute sense (or necessary to...

Understanding Theology Proper

Richard C. Barcellos
Jun 16, 2018
With the first verse in the Bible, we are confronted with the necessity of the interpretive priority of theology proper ( i.e. , answering that and what God is ) to account for the economy ( i.e. , answering that and what God does ): "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:...

Defining Creation

Richard C. Barcellos
May 28, 2018
What is creation? Quite often, when asked that question, everyday Christians would immediately direct attention to what has been made. One might say, "Look at the vast sky above, with its moon and stars, its sun and clouds which give rain from heaven." We might point to the ocean and all its deep...

Formulating Doctrine

Richard C. Barcellos
Apr 2, 2018
"It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning, to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very good." (...