Boyce Digital Repository (Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
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The Tripartite Impact of Pornography Consumption in the Local Church: Brain, Body, and Balance of Life
Get PDFThe tripartite impact of pornography on the brain, body, and balance of life, as well as the impact on the local church, is in need of further analysis and study. This need grows daily due to the ever increasing availability and production of explicit material like pornography. Consuming pornography is detrimental to the brain, body, and the balance of life. Chapter 1 serves as the introduction to the thesis project, outlining both the thesis itself, along with the methodology and general summaries of research. Chapter 2 seeks to explain the impact that pornography wreaks upon the brain when left unattended, focusing mainly on the chemical interactions that occur within the brain. Chapter 3 seeks to provide how pornography impacts the body, especially in the area of healthy sexual function. Chapter 4 culminates the impact caused on the brain and the body by looking at how addiction takes control over a normal balanced life. Chapter 5 offers a Christian perspective on how pornography can be overcome, and the individual restored to a healthy life of community and recovery. Chapter 6 concludes the project by summarizing the work as a whole. While many projects have addressed the destructive nature of pornography, academia may benefit from addressing the brain, the body, and the balance of life as a whole when reviewing the devastating results of pornography on consumers
Entropy and Renewal: The Pauline Concern and Paradigm for Church Revitalization
Get PDFThat the North American church is in a season of sharp decline is a well-studied and well-established factual reality. In our own Southern Baptist Convention, studies indicate that as many as nine out of every ten churches are either plateaued or in decline. Further, analysis of the data suggests that Southern Baptist churches are closing at a disproportionately higher rate than our sister denominations. Taken together, these studies indicate that churches in need of revitalization are not the exception, but rather, the norm.The escalating crisis of church decline has prompted a plethora of descriptive and prescriptive literature related to the revitalization of the local church. While description of the problem of church decline is fairly consistent across the literature, the prescriptive thrust of church revitalization literature demonstrates far less homogeneity, and to-date the literature is largely anecdotal and case-study oriented.
The need for church revitalization is not a new phenomenon. A survey of the NT indicates that an entropic principle has been warring against the church from the very beginning of her existence. The church as a vital, healthy, spiritual organism does not naturally flourish in a fallen world. Even the earliest churches were not inexorably inclined toward health and growth, but toward unhealth, division, decline, and even death. No church established in the NT still exists today.
The purpose of this study is to establish, by means of a thorough consideration of the NT literature, that church degeneration and decline was a concern addressed from the very beginning of the Great Commission enterprise. The exemplary first Jerusalem church and the Pauline corpus provide for us an identifiable and inspired paradigm for church revitalization that is duplicable and sustainable throughout the church age
Eternal Covenant: The Trinitarian Shape of an Historic Baptist Doctrine
Get PDFThis work is embargoed by the author until 5/31/2024.This dissertation argues that the eternal covenant is the prism through which God manifests his triune glory in the missions of the Son and the Spirit. Negatively, this argument is made against the background of historical neglect of the doctrine since no Baptist has provided a substantial treatment of the pactum salutis in over two hundred years, and current Baptist systematic theologies have introduced deficient models for understanding the doctrine of the Trinity and the Scripture’s testimony to the Son’s submission. Positively, the background for this dissertation is the recent recovery by Baptists of both covenantal biblical theology and classical theism. If Baptists are to recover the doctrine, however, they will need to respond to the clear critique leveraged against it by Robert Letham, namely, that it undermines historic Christian orthodoxy and is insufficiently grounded in Scripture. Thus, by correcting a deficiency in some theological developments and embracing the advances in others, this dissertation demonstrates that biblical doctrine of the pactum salutis is worthy of recovery and fruitful for still further work
Glory and Glorification in the Gospel of John: The Granting of Δόξα to Believers in John 17:22
Get PDFThe glory given by Jesus to the disciples in John 17:22 has received little attention in Johannine scholarship. Often interpreters gloss over glory in 17:22 and direct their attention to Jesus’s prayer for unity. Others may acknowledge that glory is given as a provision for this unity but neither take the time to define glory nor to explain how its granting enables unity. This study provides an exegetical analysis of John 17:20–23 in an attempt to define glory and explain how its granting enables unity and witness. I argue that glory in John 17:22 is both the radiance of God’s character and the status of being children of God. I also undertake a study on glory and glorification in John and aim to interpret glory in John 17:22 in light of John’s entire gospel. Surprisingly, there is still no full length study on glory or glorification in John published in English. I devote several chapters to analysis of glory language in John and propose that John frames the entire ministry of Jesus as one of revealing the glory of Yahweh. Jesus’s public ministry (John 1–12) is a revelation of Yahweh’s glory in his signs. Jesus’s death, and resurrection is the climactic sign, revealing Yahweh’s glory in an ultimate act of love. In the hour of glorification, Jesus glorifies the Father, that is, he reveals the Father and honors the Father. The granting of glory by Jesus to his disciples enables Jesus to continue the glorification of the Father through them. Sent out by Jesus, they will go forth and glorify God—honoring God by revealing God—through loving one another and bearing witness
Reforming Virtue: Bavinck's Method of Engaging with Virtue Ethics from a Reformed Perspective
Get PDFThere is a distinct reluctance in the Reformed tradition to engage with natural theology and scholarship in the study of, among other things, virtue ethics. This thesis attempts to demonstrate that Herman Bavinck’s four pillars of reformed dogmatics allows reformed ethicists to robustly engage in the study of virtue ethics. In chapter 1, I describe the nature and impact of the widening philosophical rift between specific and general revelation in the Reformed camp which can be traced to nineteenth-century Barthian dialectics, Van Tillian presuppositionalism, and Neo-Calvinism which served to bifurcate, and not integrate, general and special revelation. As a result, ethicists are discouraged from the use of evidences, natural theology, and secular scholarship (i.e., Aristotelian-Eudaimonist virtue) in constructing a Biblical system of ethics. In chapter 2, I demonstrate how Herman Bavinck utilized a reformed framework of theology and ethics to robustly engage with the culture, politics, and science of his day. Chapter 3 analyzes the first of four pillars of Herman Bavinck’s ethical thought, namely Bavinck’s doctrine of Revelation, to demonstrate the classical reformed understanding of special and general revelation. Chapter 4 examines Bavinck’s Biblical anthropology to show prescribed ethical outlooks based upon a tiered understanding of humanity’s condition. Chapter 5 looks to Bavinck’s doctrine of Imitatio Incarnatus Christi to argue that the imitation of Christ bridges mystical and practical ethics. Chapter 6 addresses the last of the four pillars—the Kingdom of God—as a converging ethical paradigm. In chapter 7, I conclude by discussing the ramifications of applying Bavinck’s four pillars to the study of ethics for the purpose of encouraging ethicists to rigorously pursue the study of virtue not despite, but due to their Reformed heritage
Equipping People for Biblical Meditation On Creation at St. Paul’s Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Somerset, Pennsylvania
Get PDFThe Thinking Outdoors ministry project was developed to equip participants to meditate on the elements (e.g., trees, leaves, thorns) of creation at St. Paul’s EPC in Somerset, Pennsylvania. The project aimed to engage participants in creation meditation as they enjoyed their favorite outdoor recreational activities in order to equip and inspire them to meditate on Scripture and, ultimately, on God. Chapter 1 outlines the context, rationale, purpose, goals, and methodology of this project. Chapter 2 defends the biblical and theological basis for creation meditation, proposing that the biblical authors prescribe meditation on emblematic elements in creation as integrally important for enhancing believers’ understanding of, faith in, and worship of God as well as apprehension of and delight in his Word. Chapter 3 describes how creation meditation is faithfully practiced within the parameters of a biblical and historically orthodox theology and methodology. Chapter 4 details the background, development, promotion, and implementation of this creation meditation project. Chapter 5 evaluates the collected data, analyzing and reflecting upon it, for the purpose of potential future use in other settings
Contest of Civility: Conformity, Dissent, and the Struggle for Religious Liberty
Get PDFThis work is embargoed until 5/18/2025.By the early 1660s, two bordering jurisdictions in colonial America enacted fundamentally divergent political communities. Massachusetts perpetuated civility of conformity, a political formulation that fastened society around a mandated theological construct, which was enforced and nourished by the civil state. Civility of conformity posited that societal stability necessitated an established orthodoxy around which citizens committed themselves. Conversely, Rhode Island’s “livelie experiment” took some of the first steps in a new political tradition called evangelical civility. Evangelical civility rooted social concord in conscientious freedom—that the surest pathway for political stability required the liberation of the soul from the coercive powers of the state while simultaneously retaining a free public square where all citizens expressed their deepest convictions. These two incompatible consortiums emerged in colonial America as the representatives of two contrasting traditions that the Protestant Reformation birthed. The magisterial tradition and the dissenting tradition provided the theological and moral support for political life in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Soteriological assertions like justification by faith alone, the proclamation of “Christian liberty,” and the proliferation of doctrinal and denominational pluralism forced the theologians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to reexamine the Christendom thesis. The contours of that delicate relationship gripped the minds of magisterial Protestants and dissenting Protestants alike, which left an indelible mark on Protestant political theology and, perhaps more importantly, provided the societal framework for American colonies like Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Rhode Island.
This contest of civility, moreover, never dissipated. On the contrary, the controversy surfaced repeatedly during the colonial period through the earliest decades of the American republic. The main question pertinent to this contest was the following: how much pluralism could a society sustain before it ruptured? This question lingers and remains unresolved as this perennial contest continues to saturate much of Western civilization and especially the American public square. Present-day disputes over religious liberty, the role of religion in the public square, and the divergences between religious rights and the right to a society free from discrimination all emerged from a centuries-old struggle over the limits of religious freedom and the civility required for human flourishing
Enriching the Marriages of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in the Valley, Anguilla
Get PDFThe purpose of this project was to enrich the marriages in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in The Valley, Anguilla.
Chapter 1 explains the purpose, goals, context, rationale, definitions, limitations, delimitations, and research methodology of the project.
Chapter 2 presents the biblical and theological basis for marriage enrichment. This chapter presents firstly that the Bible teaches that God has designed the institution of marriage to be the primary human relationship. Second, this chapter presents marriage as an institution based on covenantal principles. Third, this chapter contends that God designed marriage to provide intimacy between husbands and wives. Fourth, this chapter argues that God established marriage to function according to the roles he established in his Word.
Chapter 3 focuses on the theoretical, practical, historical, and developmental factors pertaining to marriage enrichment. This chapter contends that marriages usually experience challenges in the areas of communication, conflict resolution, financial management, and sexual fulfillment. These important areas are best addressed when the hearts of couples are changed and challenged by the gospel.
Chapters 4 and 5 present the specific details pertaining to the preparation, implementation, and evaluation of the project
Teaching Gospel-Oriented Ecclesiology to Members of Ichthus Mission Church in Rockville, Maryland
Get PDFThis project sought to increase congregational unity among Korean-speaking and English-speaking members of Ichthus Mission Church in Rockville, Maryland through teaching gospel-oriented ecclesiology. Chapter 1 presents the history and ministry context of Ichthus Mission Church and the goals of this project. Chapter 2 provides exegesis of four passages of Scripture (Eph 2:16-18, 4:4-6; Acts 6:1-6; Rom 12:4-5) to show that congregational unity is a central hallmark of the New Testament vision for the church. Chapter 3 presents theological, practical, and historical issues related with the unique dynamics of ethnic churches. Chapter 4 describes the project itself, recounting the content and teaching methodology of the specific course curriculum. Chapter 5 evaluates the efficacy of the project based on completion of the specified goals
None So Tender-Hearted: The Christological Pattern of Compassion in the Pastoral Care of John Flavel
Get PDFThis dissertation examines compassion as an integral component of John Flavel’s pastoral theology. The research explores the connection between Flavel’s Christology and pastoral care through a prism of three interconnected theological unions: the hypostatic union, the mystical union of believers to Christ, and the moral union of believers in Christ’s mystical body. Flavel’s Christological focus lies at the center of all his considerations of pastoral compassion. The dissertation also explores several moorings for pastoral compassion in contrast to contemporary empathy-centric approaches to soul care