God's Purpose

This teaching stream explores God’s Purpose in time-space history.

Humankind dreams of a better world, but how can that happen? God has a plan for human flourishing – a new world here and now – and it's revealed in the person of Jesus Christ and his Gospel. It is explicated through the biblical motif of 'Kingdom & Covenant'—God's Government and its Constitution as the genius of a New World Order.

5 Books on the Victorious Christian Hope for History

July 19, 2019 by Virginia Orton

The devastating effects of certain defective eschatological scenarios in the contemporary church are seen in the retreat and decline of the Christian faith and social order in our time. Eschatology is not merely a narrow view of ‘the end’ but concerns more fully the entire direction and goal of God’s purpose in history. It therefore has a profound influence on a … [Read more...]

God’s Beautiful Plan

July 17, 2019 by W. J. Ern Baxter (1914-1993)

In the face of the ugliness of a sin ravaged world, mired in wars and bloodshed, despair and disease, brokenness and corruption, Ern illuminates the beauty of God’s plan. This plan, purposed before time, began in Eden, continued in Canaan, and was fulfilled in the coming of Christ. With the inauguration of Christ’s kingdom on earth through his atoning work, God’s Spirit-filled … [Read more...]

Romans: The Problem of Sin, Part 5b

June 23, 2019 by David Orton

EXPOSITION: Chapter 6:1-23 The Definition of Sanctification The problem of sin in relation to the Christian life is generally termed “sanctification” with the term found only twice in this epistle, here in ch.6 in v. 19, 22. The Greek word hagiasmos means consecration, purification; from hagiadzo – to make holy, purify, or consecrate, which is from hagios meaning sacred or … [Read more...]

Romans: De-Creation & Re-Creation—Paradise Restored, Part 5

April 30, 2019 by David Orton

EXPOSITION: Chapter 5:1–8:39 In the next four chapters Paul takes his Gospel to the next level, to its end game: from justification to glorification, from ch. 5 to ch. 8. In fact, his language now switches from the polemical to the confessional, to a declaration of the victory of Christ in history. Having established the juridical basis of man's reinstatement as a … [Read more...]

Four Main Approaches to Interpreting the Book of Revelation: Studies in Eschatology

February 2, 2019 by David Orton

In considering principles of interpreting the Revelation of Jesus Christ (1:1), there are four major schools of thought: Futurist, Historicist, Idealist, and Preterist. FUTURIST It is conceded by this school that the messages to the seven churches had contemporary relevance to them but also represents successive ages of church history up to “the rapture” of the Church. From … [Read more...]