Themelios 50, 3 (December 2025)

I’m late to this, but the most-recent Themelios is online here (and available here as a single pdf), containing the below articles.

Editorial

Brian J. Tabb

Preparing Well: Encouragements for Aspiring Pastors

In every generation and in every place, there is a need to identify, equip, and encourage new leaders for Christ’s church. Where are these future pastors and teachers now? What sort of preparation and encouragement do they require to move from aspiration to faithful action? This column reflects on the need for leadership development in the church and offers encouragement for aspiring ministers.

Strange Times

Daniel Strange

The Three R’s

Andrew T. Walker & Kristen Waggoner

The Unchained Word: A Public Theology of Free Speech

This essay develops a distinctly Christian theology of free speech in response to mounting threats of censorship across Western societies. We argue that freedom of speech is not merely a political concession of liberal democracies but arises from humanity’s nature as rational agents made in the image of God, created to be seekers and speakers of truth. Speech is both a constitutive feature of human selfhood and an instrumental good through which individuals and communities pursue moral goods and the common good. After examining the biblical purposes of speech, the limits of civil government’s authority, and the moral logic of human rights, we contend that a Christian account of free speech requires a dual affirmation: positively, that individuals have a duty to speak truthfully; and negatively, that governments bear a heavy burden of proof before restricting expression. Free speech thus serves as a shield against government overreach, a safeguard of human fallibility, and a vital condition for truth-seeking in a pluralistic world. While not absolute, free speech must enjoy a presumption of liberty if societies are to order themselves toward truth and resist the perennial temptation of tyranny.

John Goldingay

Leviticus 8–10 as Narrative

Leviticus 8–10 is the one substantial narrative in Leviticus. The paper considers six contemporary approaches to the interpretation of narrative – setting, point of view, plot, theme, characters, and language – in order to see how they illumine the interpretation of these chapters. It thus further aims to see how their application to these chapters might suggest that these contemporary methods may be useful in biblical interpretation, not least in connection with narratives that might not seem to engage modern Western readers.

Jared August & Jonathan Lough

Achan and Annihilation? Hyperbolic Language and the Justice of Yahweh in Joshua 7

The conquest language of Joshua is often taken as hyperbolic, particularly in chapters 6–10. This essay attempts to apply a hyperbolic reading to Joshua 7 and the Achan account, proposing that such a reading deals best with the larger context as well as the textual details. This interpretation suggests that by making himself an enemy of Yahweh, Achan suffered the same fate as the pagan Canaanite nations: Achan, as the enemy combatant, was executed, his livestock killed, his possessions destroyed, and his family dispossessed from their inheritance in the land.

Joanne J. Jung & Eric B. Oldenburg

The Right-Side-Up Kingdom: A Lexical, Contextual, and Theological Study of Acts 17:6 and Its Implications

The kingdom of God is sometimes referred to as an upside-down kingdom. This descriptor originates from translating ἀναστατόω in Acts 17:6 as, “to turn the world upside down.” A lexical study will show that such a translation is misguided. A contextual study will show that using the phrase “upside down” to describe the kingdom is similarly problematic. Finally, a theological case will be made for prioritizing “right-side-up” over “upside-down” language for the kingdom of God. When God empowers success in our efforts to reconcile, redeem, and transform that which is upside-down, the kingdom of God is actualized in the world, and “right-side-up” is more appropriate in describing such realities.

Jonathan D. Worthington

The Pastors and Teachers in Ephesians 4:11

Paul’s reference to “the pastors and teachers” in Ephesians 4:11 is regularly discussed and often misunderstood. In conversation with some key voices in the debate, I argue this double-sided thesis: (1) Paul’s grammar portrays pastors and teachers as two recognizably distinct groups – i.e., in general, pastors are not teachers and teachers are not pastors – and (2) they nevertheless must serve the saints in closer connection together than the other groups of leaders mentioned. On this sound foundation, I offer constructive possibilities with reference to the connected Greco-Roman systems of home and education for who within Pauline circles the pastors likely were, who the teachers likely were, and how they were likely meant to work together.

Adam Ch’ng

Transposing Genre: Reading Hebrews 12:4–13 as Proverbial Wisdom

By citing Proverbs 3:11–12 (LXX) in Hebrews 12:5–6, the author of Hebrews transposes the wisdom genre of the proverb into his broader exposition (12:4–13). This article integrates and applies the theories of John Frow and Tremper Longman III, and argues that the strong literary connections between the proverb and Hebrews 12:4–13 indicate the incorporation of the wisdom genre. Accordingly, Hebrews 12:4–13 should be read as proverbial wisdom, and its characterisation of human suffering as divine discipline should be understood not as a universal theodicy but as a circumstantial truth.

Bradley Gray

From Logizomai to Luther: The Great Exchange and the Development of the Imputed Righteousness

Martin Luther’s theology of imputation, which is often understood through the paradigm of “the great exchange,” is a formative albeit misunderstood tenet of Reformation doctrine. Even though Luther never explicitly deployed the phrase, nevertheless, the gospel is conveyed in the language of a two-way transaction, wherein Christ’s righteousness is imputed to sinners as their sins are imputed to him. The pastoral necessity to preach the good news of imputation is best understood against the backdrop of historical and contemporary challenges to the doctrine itself. Imputation, therefore, remains vital not only for doctrinal clarity but for the believer’s assurance of salvation.

Cameron Schweitzer

Does Edwards’s Exegetical Typology “Always and Only Point to Spiritual Things Related to Christ?” A Response to Drew Hunter from the Evidence of the Blank Bible

This essay responds to Drew Hunter’s 2019 article, “Hebrews and the Typology of Jonathan Edwards,” challenging his thesis that Jonathan Edwards’s exegetical typology “always and only points to spiritual things related to Christ.” Through an analysis of Edwards’s Blank Bible, the essay identifies 143 notations where Edwards employs typology to uncover antitypes that are not strictly Christological. The evidence presented suggests that Edwards’s exegetical typology is broader and more complex than the Christological framework in which Hunter situated it. This article argues that, instead, Edwards’s exegetical reflections in the Blank Bible highlight that typology was, for him, a spiritual, historical, teleological, and eschatological hermeneutic for interpreting God’s work in redemptive history.

Adrian P. Rosen

The Christocentric and Christotelic Nature of Johannine Pneumatology

Several years ago, a highly regarded Pentecostal ecumenist suggested that the Paraclete’s work in the “world” supports a more inclusive soteriology. This article responds to this proposed theological trajectory within Johannine pneumatology, seeking to contribute to broader conversations regarding christological exclusivism and pneumatological inclusivism. An exegetical survey of the Spirit’s work in John’s Gospel – including the Spirit’s activity in Jesus’s earthly ministry, within the believer, and in the world – demonstrates that Johannine pneumatology remains decidedly christocentric and christotelic from start to finish. When one gives careful attention to the text, it becomes clear that John’s view of the Spirit’s work is decidedly and firmly anchored in his christological particularism.

Brian A. DeVries

Missio Trinitatis: Theological Reflections on the Origin, Plan, and Purpose of God’s Mission

Trinitarian theology provides the basis for understanding missio Dei. The divine sendings of the Son and the Spirit explain the origin of God’s mission, while the divine council with the pactum salutis helps us comprehend the whole plan of God’s redemptive mission. God’s external work of mission, accomplished and applied across the history of redemption, highlights the eternal purpose of God’s mission and helps us align our participation in it. Using this time-tested Trinitarian language helps us avoid divergent definitions of this important concept, while clarifying ambiguities and guarding against common misuses. It also helps us better understand the church’s evangelistic witness in relation to the Triune God and his mission.

Nicholas J. Weyrens

Toward a Christian-Household Philosophy of Technology

Internet-connected digital technologies are having deleterious effects on children. In a world shaped by the digital, Christian parents have a moral duty to have an intentional philosophy of technology – a set of principles and practices – that will help their children flourish in Christ. In this essay, I propose four principles for a Christian-Household Philosophy of Technology to help parents understand how and why technologies shape children. By establishing the idea that we are what we attend to, I will connect the deformative effects of internet-based digital technologies with the spiritual deforming language of idols in Scripture. This highlights the importance for parents to protect their children’s attention and cultivate their children’s ability to attend, most notably to God, by integrating proposed practices into their own contextualized Christian-Household Philosophy of Technology.

Jon Horne

The Scandal of Marriage: Towards a Theology of Sexual Differentiation

This essay argues that monogamous sexually-differentiated marriage (MSDM) is uniquely revealed through Christ’s relationship with the church in Ephesians 5:30–32. Through a trinitarian reading, marriage is understood as the Father’s initiative, sexually differentiated because it follows the form of Christ (groom) and church (bride), and perfected by the Spirit. The bride-groom metaphor is not merely illustrative but constitutive of marriage’s form. Therefore, because Jesus is biologically male, marriage cannot be relativized to accommodate same-sex unions. This makes marriage a scandal not unlike that of Christ’s particularity (1 Cor 1:23), which resists absorption into non-Christian notions of the divine.

Book Reviews

The Master’s Seminary Journal 32, 1 (2021)

The latest Master’s Seminary Journal has been posted online. The essays are centred around the topic of justification by faith, and especially imputation, as John MacArthur makes clear in the editorial: ‘Just as justification by faith is the centerpiece of soteriology and the very marrow of the gospel, the principle of imputed righteousness is the necessary center and soul of the doctrine of justification’.

A pdf of the issue can be downloaded here.

John MacArthur

Editorial

J.V. Fesko

Imputed Righteousness: The Apostle Paul and Isaiah

The Heidelberg Catechism asks the question: “How can man be righteous before God?” To answer this question, most would refer to New Testament passages, likely in Romans or other Pauline epistles. But the New Testament writers developed their understanding of justification by reading their sacred texts – what is now referred to as the Old Testament. While the doctrine of imputation can be found throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, there are few texts as clear and rich as Isaiah 53 – the song of a coming Servant, “the righteous one” who would “make many to be accounted righteous” (53:11). This article contends that when Paul was writing critical New Testament passages on the doctrine of imputation, he was likely doing so while pouring over Isaiah 53.

Tom J. Nettles

Imputation and Its Images in the Preaching of Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The cross was ever at the center of the preaching of Charles Spurgeon. He was fixated upon the reality that “as the Lord looked upon Christ as though he had been a sinner, though he was no sinner, and dealt with him as such, so now the Lord looks upon the believing sinner as though he were righteous, though indeed he has no righteousness of his own.” And as a result of that dark day upon the cross, God sees the one in whose place Christ stood and “he loves him, and delights in his perfect comeliness, regarding him as covered with the mantle of his Redeemer’s righteousness, and as having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing.” This is the beauty of the doctrine of imputation. And it pervades the thinking and preaching of Charles Spurgeon, as will be demonstrated in this article.

Peter Sammons

In My Place Obedient He Lived: Imputed Righteousness in Romans 5:18–19

The overwhelming majority of Christians would readily affirm the doctrine of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. But when pressed as to the substance of this righteousness, many would point to the transmission or imputation of an attribute of God or merely the forgiveness of sins alone with no positive imputation. These are misguided responses which produce a truncated gospel. At the center of this question is the person of Christ, who claimed to have come to “fulfill all righteousness” (Matt 3:15). This article will contend that the righteousness that is imputed to believers is Christ’s human righteousness – which is His lived-out, practical law obedience. This reality is captured in the words of Isaac Watts when he wrote: “Come naked, and adorn your souls / In robes prepared by God, / Wrought by the labors of his Son, / And dyed in his own blood.”

James M. Renihan

God Freely Justifieth…  by Imputing Christ’s Active… and Passive Obedience

This article traces seventeenth century debates surrounding the doctrine of justification. The united testimony of Reformed writers, the common consent of the English Puritan confessions, and even the startling testimony of a most important Roman apologist together provide a powerful argument: justification comes solely from the work of Christ the mediator. These debates helped to produce the beautiful words of the Second London Confession: “Christ by his obedience, and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are justified; and did by the sacrifice of himself, in the blood of his cross, undergoing in their stead, the penalty due unto them: make a proper, real and full satisfaction to God’s justice in their behalf: yet inasmuch as he was given by the Father for them, and his Obedience and Satisfaction accepted in their stead, and both freely, not for anything in them; their Justification is only of Free Grace, that both the exact justice and rich Grace of God, might be

glorified in the Justification of sinners.”

Nathan Busenitz

The Substance of Sola Fide: Justification Defended from Scripture

in the Writings of the Reformers

The doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone (sola fide) stood at the center of theological controversy during the Protestant Reformation. Men such as Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, and Chemnitz were willing to lose their lives over the doctrine of justification, for to misunderstand this doctrine was to misunderstand the very essence of the gospel. The Protestant church appreciates these men and their convictions, but many may wonder what sola fide actually means. This article seeks to express three core components to the doctrine of sola fide: (1) that justification is forensic, not formative; (2) that justification is distinct from sanctification; and (3) that the basis for justification is the imputed righteousness of Christ. These men were convinced that it was upon these articulations that the church stood or fell, and the church today would do well to remember the urgency of this doctrine.

Tom Hicks

Benjamin Keach’s Doctrine of Justification

Many Christians would recognize the name of the pastor and author Richard Baxter. Likely fewer would recognize the name of the seventeenth-century Baptist pastor Benjamin Keach. This article follows the thinking and articulation of Keach as he defends the orthodox, Reformed position of the doctrine of justification and imputed righteousness against the errant views of Richard Baxter. This article is a window into the necessity to defend this doctrine that rests at the center of the Christian faith.

Sam Waldron

Paul’s Use of Genesis 15:6 in Romans 4:3

This essay examines (1) the relevant uses of Genesis 15:6 and references to Abraham in a large group of ancient Jewish sources; (2) the immediate context of Romans 4:3; (3) the analysis of the Old Testament context of Genesis 15:6; and (4) the way in which Paul interprets and utilizes Genesis 15:6 in Romans 4:3. Paul’s use of the text is a reaffirmation of themes original to Genesis 15:6 in its OT context, and his careful use of the OT contrasts with contemporary Judaic tendencies to read the OT as supporting a soteriology of human achievement or “the works of the law.” This conclusion undermines the central premise of the New Perspective on Paul, while supporting the traditional doctrine of justification, sola fide.

E.D. Burns

Contending for Doctrinal Language in Missions: Why Imputation and Sola Fide Are Good News for Karma-Background Christians

The frontlines of missions are where theological error has a tendency to fester. New missional movements draw distinctions between the helpfulness of the Bible and theology, affirming the former and disregarding the latter. The mission field has become a place of embarrassment regarding many of the doctrines that the church fathers lived and died over. Specifically, the doctrine of imputation has been practically neglected amongst many of the frontline missional efforts. And the consequences are and will continue to be devastating. This article is a call for missionaries to reach the unreached with the beautiful and historic doctrines of the Christian faith.

Reviews