Themelios 51, 2 (Summer 2026)

The most-recent Themelios is online here (and available here as a single pdf), containing the below articles.

Editorial

J.V. Fesko

The Council of Nicaea and Christian Character

Fesko argues that the Nicene Creed required moral and ethical virtues to produce its theological orthodoxy. In simple terms, to be a good theologian requires godliness.

Strange Times

Daniel Strange

Hiding in Plain Sight

Strange reflects on the cultural fascination with horror films and their presentation of the supernatural. Biblical reality gives us a metaphysic of the Creator-creature distinction which is capacious enough to include the material and the spiritual without confusing them and without divinising them, the blurring of the Creator-creature distinction (otherwise known as idolatry).

Jan Sklar

Lamb of the Free: A Review Article

In Lamb of the Free, Andrew Rillera argues from both the Old Testament and the New Testament that Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA) is an unbiblical idea. This review considers seven key claims Rillera uses to support his arguments. It focuses on whether they successfully undercut the idea of PSA and provides positive support for seeing PSA as a biblical idea.

Samuel Beh

Sent by a Sending God: Tracing the Verbal Thread of Sending through Luke-Acts

This article establishes the language of “sending” as a significant verbal thread throughout Luke-Acts. By tracing Luke’s use of the sending word group (ἀποστέλλω, πέμπω, ἐκβάλλω, and ἀπολύω), the study demonstrates that Luke frames God’s saving purposes as advancing through a succession of divinely sent messengers, culminating in Jesus, the apostles, and the Spirit-empowered church. The insights provide an important interpretive lens for understanding Luke’s theology of mission and the church’s mandate to participate in the divine mission today.

Paul S. Jeon

The Heart Knows but Will Not Yield: Affective Suppression and the Noetic Effects of Sin in Romans 1:32

This article argues that Romans 1:32 offers a crucial entry point for understanding the affective dimensions of the noetic effects of sin in Pauline theology. Rather than depicting unbelief as a mere failure of knowledge, Paul presents it as a morally culpable resistance to a truth that is already intuited. Drawing on N. Gray Sutanto’s retrieval of the affective model of general revelation, this study reinterprets the sensus divinitatis as a dispositional awareness rooted in dependence and shaped by affective response. The analysis of Romans 1:32 – especially its use of ἐπιγνόντες and συνευδοκοῦσιν—shows that Paul’s concern is not ignorance but a willful suppression motivated by fear, shame, and disordered desire. This reframing challenges dominant rationalist interpretations of the noetic effects of sin and aligns with the broader Reformed tradition. The article concludes by exploring the implications of this affective reading for theological anthropology, apologetics, and Christian witness, arguing that the remedy to such suppression lies not merely in argumentation but in the proclamation of the gospel—a message that convicts the heart and heals through grace.

Kenneth Berding

Echoes of Cain in James 3:7–5:9 and the Problem of James 4:5

James undergirds his exhortations in the middle portion of his letter (3:7–5:9) with a narrative subtext—namely, the early chapters of Genesis, and, in particular, the person and story of Cain as it would have been understood in James’s interpretive environment. An acknowledgment of this subtext resolves most of the interpretive and translational difficulties associated with James 4:5, which should read: “The [human] spirit which he [God] made to dwell in us desires with envy.”

Craig Fredrickson

The Word’s Transforming Work: Sanctification by Scripture in 1 Peter 1:22–2:3

In 1 Peter 1:22–2:3, Peter presents the word of God as the divinely appointed instrument of both regeneration and ongoing sanctification. Souls are purified by obedience to the truth, born again through the living and abiding word, and sustained by an infant-like craving for its pure spiritual milk. Read alongside Calvin, Owen, and Watson, the passage locates the word’s sanctifying power in the union with Christ that Scripture mediates by the Spirit, correcting therapeutic, contemplative, and pragmatic alternatives that displace Scripture from its formative work.Contemporary evangelicalism faces a quiet but urgent crisis of sanctification. While many churches remain committed to justification by faith alone, their approaches to spiritual growth increasingly drift from Scripture’s own design. Therapeutic spirituality, with its focus on emotional healing, and contemplative practices drawn from medieval mysticism now shape much of the discipleship landscape. These trends, though often well-intentioned, mark a subtle departure from the Reformation principle of sola scriptura—not only as the church’s epistemological foundation, but as God’s appointed means for ongoing transformation.

Daniel Kirkpatrick

Will Total Depravity Fall from Grace? A Defense of the Reformed View

The doctrines of grace found in Reformed soteriology are predicated upon an understanding of humanity’s total depravity stemming from original sin. This doctrine is under reevaluation by a group of pastors and scholars concerned about the resurgence of Calvinism in the Southern Baptist Convention and broader evangelical community. This perspective initially gained attention with the 2012 release of A Statement on the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation and has been advanced through subsequent writings from Adam Harwood. By redeveloping this foundational doctrine of sin, this perspective seeks to dismantle the Reformed understandings of election, atonement, and overcoming grace. This article critiques Harwood’s perspective of original sin and seeks to defend the Reformed doctrine of total depravity against this alternative viewpoint.

Joel MacInnes

Wisdom and Folly in Laodicea: Revelation’s Message to the Laodiceans as Wisdom Discourse

This article examines Christ’s message to Laodicea as “wisdom discourse,” arguing that it employs “wisdom forms,” “allusions to wisdom literature,” and addresses “wisdom concerns.” The message highlights wisdom due to the Laodicean church’s lack of it. This study explores potential parallels between the challenges faced by the churches in Colossae and Laodicea, noting similar diagnoses and remedies. Finally, the article examines how the wisdom theme in the message to Laodicea shapes our understanding of the seven messages in the book of Revelation.

Brandon D. Smith

Retrieving Athanasius: Ruled Readings and Trinitarian Exegesis

This essay argues that evangelical retrieval of the Christian tradition finds a particularly fruitful interlocutor in Athanasius of Alexandria, whose “ruled readings” of Scripture and trinitarian exegesis model a canonically-coherent theological hermeneutic. Against lingering Harnackian suspicions that patristic theology represents a Hellenistic corruption of Christianity, the essay demonstrates that Athanasius’s theological reasoning emerges from a deeply scriptural framework centered on the unity of Scripture and scripturally-rooted doctrinal conclusions. This essay concludes by showing the ways in which Athanasius’s interpretive sensibilities can strengthen evangelical biblical, theological, and ecclesial convictions.

Drew Hunter

The Typology of Jonathan Edwards: A Rejoinder to Cameron Schweitzer

Cameron Schweitzer argues that Drew Hunter’s earlier work on Jonathan Edwards’s understanding of typology is too narrowly christological. This rejoinder argues that Hunter’s view is not narrowly christological and that Hunter and Schweitzer’s understanding of Edwards’s typological exegesis are complementary rather than in competition.

Matthew LaMaster

Mimesis and Christian Leaders: A Rhetoric of Authority and Accountability

LaMaster considers Elizabeth Castelli’s contention that Paul’s use of imitative language reinforces power in authority relationships. While Castelli has not found wide acceptance in the New Testament scholarly guild, a dismissal of her thesis contributes to an erosion of any understanding of pastoral authority in the New Testament. This paper demonstrates that Castelli was right in that imitation does reinforce pastoral authority but wrong in her mischaracterization of pastoral authority. In particular, NT mimetic use reinforces authority by limiting authority, sharing power, encouraging costly virtues, and inverting cultural norms of authority.

Dan Allen

Main-Point-Driven: A Clear Methodology for Implementing the Christ-Centered Hermeneutic

This article addresses the need for a clear methodology for implementing the Christ-centered interpretation. Without a consistent process to guard and guide interpreters, illegitimate connections to Jesus are to be expected. Therefore, the Main-Point-Driven methodology provides readers with confidence to discern how every passage directs us to Christ. Special attention is given to asking the right Christ-connection question and unpacking the C-H-R-I-S-T acronym to aid in memorizing the six possible paths to Jesus. The article closes with a brief apologetic of why the Main-Point-Driven methodology is the correct path forward.

Book Reviews

Southwestern Journal of Theology 68, 1 (2025) on Celebrating Centenaries

The latest volume of the Southwestern Journal of Theology contains the below essays on the theme of ‘Celebrating Centenaries’.

The entire issue is available as a pdf here.

Editorial

Malcolm B. Yarnell III

From Colossae to Nicaea: Paul’s Witness to Christ’s Deity

Benjamin Hawkins

A “Tendentious Translation”?: An Appraisal of William Tyndale’s English New Testament after 500 years

Michael D. Wilkinson

Pilgram Marpeck: Theologian of the Incarnation

Mac Brunson

The Anabaptists and Their Hermeneutic

W. Madison Grace II

“Our Gospel Fellowship”: The Presidential Inaugural Address of Robert E. Naylor

Anthony Wolfe

“Irresistible Cooperation”: Intercongregational Financial Cooperation as a Spiritual Impulse and Theological Obligation according to Lee Rutland Scarborough

Coleman M. Ford

“For Us Humans and for Our Salvation”: The Beauty of Salvation in Athanasius and Gregory Nazianzus

Book Reviews

Christian History Magazine on the Council of Nicaea

The latest issue of Christian History Magazine is devoted to: ‘Debating Jesus’s Divinity: Revisiting the Council of Nicaea on its 1700th Anniversary’.

From the blurb:

‘In 2025, Christians around the world celebrated the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. This historic council of the early church (a story which Christian History first told in issue #85) dealt with a conundrum that the modern church sees as a settled matter – Jesus is God, but how? What does it mean when the Bible says he is begotten? Are there degrees of divinity? How is Jesus both God and man?

‘In this refreshed issue of CH, discover the discussions and debates that reached a boiling point in the fourth century between church leaders concerning this all-important question of Jesus’s divinity. Meet the major players at the council and discover how their involvement led to the creation of the Nicene Creed.

‘You’ll also see how the Nicene Creed wasn’t exactly the “be all, end all” of church doctrine at the time, and how more councils, creeds, and conflicts followed in the decades afterward. But from this chaos emerged the clarifying work of pro-Nicene church fathers who led the church to a strongly trinitarian consensus, giving us the legacy we treasure today.’

The whole magazine is available as a 5.33 MB pdf here.

The Master’s Seminary Journal 36, 2 (2025) on the Nicene Creed

The latest Master’s Seminary Journal has been posted online. According to the Editorial, the focus of the current issue ‘seeks to honor Nicaea for its convictional defense of Christ, conclusions about His nature, and careful approach in handling God’s Word’ (208).

A pdf of the journal can be downloaded here.

Abner Chou

Editorial: Seventeen Hundred Years After Nicaea

Nathan Busenitz

The Ground and the Pillar of the Faith: The Witness of the Pre-Reformation History to the Doctrine of Sola Scriptura

The foundation of any church creed must be its doctrine of Scripture—the view of God’s Word that dictates the creed’s composition. The Nicene Creed is only authoritative insofar as it reflects the doctrinal positions found in the Bible. No church council possesses theological authority in and of itself. God’s Word is the authority above every earthly authority. Therefore, what the authors of a church creed believe about God’s Word will inevitably shape the creed they formulate. In the case of Nicaea, the church fathers held a high view of God’s Word, such that the unspoken foundation of the creed is the doctrine of sola Scriptura. Based on evidence from the writings of the church fathers, the early church held the strong conviction that God’s Word is inspired and without error, and that it is the highest authority and final court of appeal for the establishment of sound doctrine. This article will explore that conviction as it appears in early church writings.

Abner Chou

One God in Nicaea, 1 Corinthians, and Deuteronomy: The Hermeneutic of the Biblical Writers and the Early Church

On the 1700th anniversary of Nicaea, there are some who celebrate this historic creed and others who critique it, claiming that this was a product of an ancient time and a new understanding of the data is warranted. The question of whether Nicaea is accurate is a hermeneutical one, an issue which, ironically, Nicaea itself was originally desiring to address. The strength of Nicaea, reflected by its inter-textuality, is its biblical and precise hermeneutic. This is evident in even the first phrase of the creed, which echoes 1 Corinthians 8:6 which in turn is an exposition of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4. In tracing this line of texts, it becomes clear that the way Nicaea read Paul is the way Paul wrote, and the way he read the Shema is the way Moses wrote it. Exegetical analysis of this chain of passages demonstrates that the notions of essence, personhood, divine simplicity, and the distinction between Christ and the Father from creation are not later formulations based upon Greek philosophy and metaphysics. Though articulated in their own way, these concepts were present in the way Moses spoke of “one Yahweh” in the Shema and the way Paul spoke of “one God” and “one Lord” in contrast with the idols who are merely called gods and lords. Therefore, Christians confess Nicaea not because of the creed itself but for the very reasons that Nicaea did what it did: its careful exposition of Scripture. The hermeneutic of Moses is the hermeneutic of Paul which is the hermeneutic of Nicaea and the Christian.

Michael Riccardi

The Eternal Generation of the Son: The Backbone of the Nicene Creed

The 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea affords an opportunity for contemporary believers to reflect on Trinitarianism as among the foundations of our theological identity. While not inspired or infallible, the Nicene Creed faithfully represents biblical teaching on the Trinity and the person of Christ. Subordinate to and expository of Scripture, the Nicene Creed is a legitimate doctrinal norm for Christians. The backbone of the creed is the doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son; it is the justification for how the Son can be consubstantial with the Father and, at the same time, distinct from the Father. This article undertakes a biblical and theological defense of eternal generation, namely, the eternal communication of the undivided divine essence from the Father to the Son. It shows that eternal generation is an essential doctrine of the Christian faith, and that it is derived from the sound exegesis of several texts from both Testaments, including Psalm 2, Proverbs 8, John 5, and others, including a lexical analysis of the Johannine monogenēs.

Mark Zhakevich

The Deity and Divine Glory of the Son

The Nicene wording “Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father” affirms the deity and glory of the Son. Echoing the language of John’s prologue (John 1:1–18), which this article examines, this portion of the creed declares that the Incarnate Christ is truly God, uncreated, coequal with the Father in glory. The creed conclusively indicates that Arius’ teachings regarding Jesus are heresy, in that they directly contradict the doctrine of Scripture. It is this emphatic declaration of the Son’s glory and essence that showcases the influence of Nicaea, even to the church today.

Peter J. Goeman

“Through Whom All Things Were Made”: Scriptural Foundations for the Son’s Uncreatedness

This study explores John’s Prologue (1:1–3) as the primary exegetical foundation for the Nicene clause “through whom all things were made” (δι’ οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο) by showing that the Logos—identified as the preexistent, divine Person of Jesus Christ—is both distinct from the Father and yet fully God. After surveying potential Greek philosophical and Jewish backgrounds (including the Aramaic Targums’ Memra and Old Testament parallels), this article argues that John deliberately uses the “Word” category to emphasize the unique role of the Son as the Creator. John places the Word “in the beginning,” and affirms “all things came into being through Him,” insisting that “apart from Him nothing came into being,” thereby excluding the Word from the created order. In so doing, John’s Prologue agrees with Paul’s affirmation in Colossians 1:15–17, that the Son is the uncreated God. These exegetical underpinnings vindicate the Nicene Creed’s confession of Christ as the Creator and uncreated equal with God.

Jesse Johnson

“For Us and for Our Salvation”: The Plan of Salvation Seen in the Incarnation

At the center of the Nicene Creed is the doctrine of the Incarnation—God becoming Man. This article argues that the Incarnation is properly located within the eternal plan of God for salvation. Thus it is seen in several New Testament texts that refer to the Incarnation as “foreknown from before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4; 1 Pet 1:20; Rev 13:8), as well as in the very first prophecy, Genesis 3:15. Moreover, pro-Nicene Trinitarian categories (such as the person/essence distinction) allow other texts in the Old Testament to be understood in light of the Incarnation. Such texts include those that refer to the appointment of the Son as the mediator (e.g., Ps 110; Zech 12:10), as well as by the existence of typology in the Old Testament. Considered as a whole, the Scriptures present the Incarnation as something planned by God before time, prophesied throughout the Old Testament, revealed in Jesus, and a reality that remains for all eternity.

Kevin D. Hall

The Nicene Creed: The Saving Work of the Son

The Nicene Creed has been a fundamental statement of the Christian faith, rooted in the truth of Scripture, since it was crafted in AD 325. Although it was written 1,700 years ago, it continues to serve the church well in affirming the truth about the Person and work of Christ. This article will focus on the Son’s saving work in the Nicene Creed and examine the core of the Christian message, reflecting on the statement, “He suffered, and on the third day He rose again, ascended into heaven…” This research will break down the statement, analyzing each event in the text of Scripture and highlighting the significance and beauty of these events, with the hope of providing understanding and encouragement about what Christ did for the believer, as articulated in this part of the creed.

John F. MacArthur

The Judgment of the Sheep and the Goats, and, Addendum: An Overview of Future Judgments

The Nicene Creed culminates with the triumphant declaration, “He [Christ] shall come to judge the living and the dead” (ἐρχόμενον κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς). This doctrine, the return of Christ in judgment, is a key component of the Bible’s presentation of Christ. Addressing the eschatological judgments revealed in Scripture, this article consists of two parts. First, it includes a discussion about the judgment of the sheep and the goats from the Olivet Discourse. Second, to provide a greater understanding of all the future judgments, it concludes with an overview of each end-time judgment. As the reader will observe, Nicaea’s declaration of Christ’s return in judgment and glory is thoroughly biblical and worthy of consideration today.

Kevin Zuber

From Nicaea 325 to Constantinople 381: Athanasius, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa on τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα: Part One

This article is Part One of a two-part series on what the church believes about the Holy Spirit. This article—Part One—has three sections. First, there is a brief examination of the question, “Why is the statement of the Nicene creed of 325 on the Holy Spirit so brief?” Second, there is a succinct excursus presenting the biblical teaching that the Holy Spirit has both deity and personhood. Third, there is the first installment of an examination of the work of four key fourth-century theologians on the subject of the Holy Spirit. This first installment examines the work of Athanasius; the other installments (constituting the whole of Part Two) examine the work of Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa. The objective of this examination of the work of these theologians is to understand how the church went from the inadequate statement about the Spirit in the Nicene Creed of 325 to produce the better statement about the Spirit in the Constantinopolitan Creed of 381. In particular, the intention of this study is to show the part Scripture played as these theologians engaged with heretical views and as they articulated their doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

Reviews

Southwestern Journal of Theology 67, 2 (2025) on Creed, Confession, and Cooperation

The latest volume of the Southwestern Journal of Theology contains the below essays on the theme of ‘Creed, Confession, and Cooperation’, with summaries taken from the Editorial.

The entire issue is available as a pdf here.

Editorial

David S. Dockery

Southwestern: A Century of Conviction, Cooperation, and Collaboration: A Time for Remembrance, Thanksgiving, and Recommitment

The first essay, preached by our President, David S. Dockery, during our Spring 2025 Convocation, sets the stage for the subsequent essays, all of which were commissioned to stress a truth emphasized in that important address.

Malcolm B. Yarnell III

Baptists Who Confess the Nicene Faith

The second essay… focuses on the universal Christian faith defined by the Nicene tradition as it has been received and affirmed by Baptists generally and by Southern Baptist theologians of the Southwest more particularly.

Michael D. Wilkinson

Baptist Convictions: The Cost of Being Baptist

The third essay… considers our Baptist convictions. Leading Baptists have courageously maintained these common convictions at great personal cost.

D. Jeffrey Bingham

Evangelicalism, the Word of God, and the Spirit

The fourth essay… considers what “Evangelicalism” means as a movement that treasures the divine Word with the divine Spirit. Engaging Martin Luther and his context, Bingham’s essay reminds us of the multivalent meanings attached to the term, “Evangelical,” alongside its core commitments to Scripture and its central place in Southern Baptist theology. 

W. Madison Grace II

Cooperation: A Baptist Essential

The fifth essay… demonstrates why cooperation is not merely a matter of convenience but an essential element of Baptist ecclesiology.

Ashley L. Allen

Collaboration for Christ

Dr. Allen’s essay on “collaboration” demonstrates its biblical basis and rightly argues that we work better when we work together

Book Reviews