BROWSE THE COLLECTION
Author: Marc Bates
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The Hellenistic Fracture
Contemporary Christian theology confronts a crisis of identity and practice that surfaces in two seemingly opposite pathologies: antinomian “cheap grace” and esoteric Gnosticism—the attraction to cultic secret knowledge, extra-canonical speculation, and mystical elitism.
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Torah and the Coming Kingdom
This essay examines the relation between Mosaic Torah, New Covenant sanctification, and earth-centered Kingdom hope. It engages J. K. McKee’s treatment of the set-apart life, Walter C. Kaiser Jr.’s promiseplan theology, and John H. Walton’s account of Torah…
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Matthew 23: An Exegetical and Biblical-Theological Commentary
Matthew 23 marks the dramatic climax of Jesus’ public ministry and His final confrontation with Jerusalem’s religious establishment within the Temple precincts during Passion Week.
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The Typological Tapestry of Matthew’s Infancy Narrative
Matthew 1–2 is not a cluster of isolated proof-texts but a typological tapestry in which Jesus of Nazareth recapitulates Israel’s story and brings God’s single promise-plan to its next, irreversible stage.
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Matthew 22: An Exegetical and Biblical-Theological Commentary
Matthew 22 marks the dramatic climax of the controversy dialogues between Jesus and the Jerusalem religious leadership in the Temple courtyard during Passion Week. Following the symbolic clearing of the Temple and the initial parables of covenantal indictment…
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Archaeological Evidence for the Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Epigraphical Corroboration, Critical Realism, and the Space-Time Anchor of the Divine Promise-Plan
The historical validity of Christian theology is bound to verifiable occurrences in space-time history, most foundational among which are the earthly ministry, public trial, Roman execution, and bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
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Decoding the End Rapture Timelines, Millennial Metaphors, and the Architecture of the Promise-Plan
Modern evangelical eschatology is frequently dominated by speculative timelines and popular media that depict a secret, two-phase return of Jesus Christ and an imminent “Rapture” designed to evacuate believers before a global tribulation.
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Inventing Muhammad and the Failure of Inlibration: A Biblical-Theological and Historical-Critical Appraisal of Early Islamic Origins
This essay offers a biblical-theological and historical-critical appraisal of the origins of early Islam. It reads the late compilation of sīra and ḥadīth against the Islamic dogma of inlibration—the uncreated Word made Book—and the Christian confession of incarnation,…
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One People: The Organic Continuity of Israel and the Church within the Promise-Plan of God
Contemporary biblical scholarship frequently presents the canonical Scriptures as a fragmented compilation of competing theological traditions, contrasting an Old Testament national particularism with a New Testament universalism.
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The Beloved Community: Corporate Imago Dei, Embodied Reconciliation, and Vocational Co-Laboring within the Promise-Plan of God
This essay examines the corporate, embodied, and vocational dimensions of the imago Dei through Carmen Joy Imes’s account of “the Beloved Community” in Being God’s Image 2023, ch. 9 , locating that account within Walter C. Kaiser Jr.’s…