John Mark Hicks

Psalm 135, along with Psalm 136, is the Great Hallel, the praise and blessing the pilgrim offers in the temple courts (where God dwells). Those who have ascended the holy mountain and now stand at the top of the steps in the court with the priests and Levites declare God’s goodness, beauty, and election of […]

(An English version is available here.) Dios nos elige en Cristo por medio de la fe y nosotros conocemos nuestra elección en Cristo por medio de la fe. A partir de Génesis 11, la condición humana estaba llena de violencia, poder (imperio) e inmoralidad. La aparente desesperanza de Génesis 11 —aunque la gracia está presente […]

Paul opens the letter with a long blessing or doxology that is a single sentence (from verse 3 to verse 14). While our English translations do not reflect this (because that would be bad English), the rhetorical flare of the single Greek sentence is magnificent, explosive, and comprehensive. Summary Opening the letter by blessing God […]

This is lesson was delivered at the Northwest Christian Convention in Turner, Oregon, on June 28, 2023. The message is based on Ephesians 1:3-14.

Review of Jacob Arminius: Theologian of Grace, by Keith D. Stanglin and Thomas H. McCall.  New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.  This review first appeared in Restoration Quarterly 56 (2014): 258-259. This book is long overdue. While the shelves are filled with scholarly summaries of Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and Wesley, this is the first book-length […]

Everyone wants to be chosen, especially those who feel marginalized or undervalued. Many of us remember what it feels like to be the last one chosen in a pickup game of basketball or uninvited to the school party. Sometimes we feel like outsiders, and sometimes we are treated like outsiders. Sometimes we simply are outsiders. […]

The opening line is simple, direct and profound: “I have loved you, says Yahweh.” That should be good news, but there are times when it may be heard with a bit of skepticism or even bitterness. It is a difficult word to hear when someone has just told you in the previous breath that your […]

[Note: I am attempting to keep these SBD installments under 2000 words each, but that is–of course–quite inadequate for the topics covered. Consequently, these contributions are more programmatic than they are explanatory or defenses of the positions stated. You may access the whole series at my Serial page.] God elects us in Christ through faith […]

In my first post in the series on Arminianism and Calvinism, I suggested that at the heart of Calvinist theology is the desire to preserve the glory of God as the sole cause of salvation and that the heart of Arminian theology is the desire to preserve the faithfulness of God to his own relentless […]

All who persevere in faith are elect. Both Calvinists and Arminians can agree with the above statement. For the Calvinist, those who do not persevere in faith, though they at one time seemingly had faith, never possessed authentic faith in the first place (e.g., Calvin’s own example is Simon Magus in Acts 8). For the Arminian, those […]