Dr Paul Allen

WHAT IS SIN?   In essence, the failure or refusal of human beings to live the life intended for them by God their creator. The biblical terminology for sin as an act (and its commission) as well as a human condition is extensive. Among the Old Testament words are Heb. ḥāṭā˒ (verb) “miss the mark, fail” and related words, ˓āḇar “pass beyond, transgress” and related words, ˓āwōn “iniquity, perversion,” pāša˓ “revolt, transgress” and related words, šāgag̱ and šāg̱â “err, go astray,” tā˓â “err, wander,” ra˓ “evil,” and rāšā˓ “wicked, impious.” New Testament terminology includes Gk. hamartía (noun) and related words, ponērós “evil,” adikía “injustice, unrighteousness” and related words, parábasis “transgress” and related words, and anomía “lawlessness.” I. Nature of Sin “Sin” as a characteristic of human beings is manifested in the committing of “sins,” individual acts of rebellion against God and against expressions of his intentions for humanity. While the Bible can r...

Holy Trinity Icon Ziryanskaya. Икона «Зырянская Троица», (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) In 1991 John Piper and Wayne Grudem edited what is one of the most influential and significant books of that decade:  Recovering Biblical Manhood & Womanhood.  The book’s goal was to show that egalitarianism —the idea that men and women should not have any role differences in marriage or in church—is unbiblical. Instead, Christians should embrace complimentarianism –the idea that God designed the sexes to compliment each other through different roles in both marriage and church life. Recovering Biblical Manhood & Womanhood  dismantled egalitarianism for a generation of evangelicals. Grudem and Piper used a barrage of arguments, hunted down obscure Greek words, and built an air-tight case that men and women are of equal worth/value/dignity/honor, but have different roles. Of the book’s many postulates, one of the more lasting came from Thomas Schreiner (who at the...