With great nostalgia, I can think back to the meals enjoyed next to the steaming trays of food delivered by Sysco Systems. And I can remember seeing the workers on the food line, who three minutes earlier, were smoking by the front door. Just ask your closest Boomer and Gen Xer, and it is likely they know exactly what I’m talking about.

In America, chain buffets had a certain vibe, and if you can’t tell that vibe included loads of calories, lots of options, and little to no concern about “clean” eating. I will leave up to you to discuss the legacy of chain buffets, but these restaurants have largely become a thing of the past.

As many consumers’ reports attest, the COVID pandemic effectively killed all but a few chain buffets. Golden Corral is still hanging on, but Old Country Buffet, Ryan’s, and others are not. Thin profit margins and other cultural pressures saw to it that chain buffets are not the place to invest your money going forward. And for those self-conscious about seed oils or afflicted by celiac or allergic to processed food, they may feel little sadness for the buffet’s demise.

Still, there is something impressive about being able to eat steak, then salad, followed by spaghetti, seafood, and then seven kinds of pie. As my wife has said, when we dine at such fine establishments—there’s still an Amish buffet we visit every summer—“I just want a taste.” And so, in dedication to those who “just want a taste” of seventeen types of food, we offer this month to you.

As an homage to the glories of chain buffets, Christ Over All is bringing you a month filled with many different delicacies. It will begin with some of the leftovers from November and our inducement to read old books about political theology. But far from just reheating dishes, these opening essays provide fresh introductions to Augustine, Pierre de La Place, and more (Lord willing). Then, after clearing the political plates, we will have essays on leisure, immigration, medieval mysteries, biblical exegesis, and more. This month will even include poetry and one short story that will call for more fiction in 2026. Finally, as we draw near to Christmas, we will finish the month with a handful of advent devotions.

In short, this month is a Christmas buffet. And we hope that you will sit down and eat, regardless of what plate comes next. I can assure you that we have cooked our fries in the purest lard, have removed all GMO starches, and refused any protein that grew up in a lab. In short, we believe the assortment of meats and sweets this month will be wholesome and edifying, and we are excited to spread the table for you.

And more, we are excited to share a few important announcements as 2025 rolls over into 2026. Check those out below.

Do the Reading: Selections in Political Theology

Before making those announcements, be sure to consider the selections of political theology offered here. From Brad Green’s overview to Marc Minter’s retrieval of Baptist political theology, we have wide variety of books you need to know and read. We also have individual essays on important works by Augustine, Calvin, Luther, and Hodge—with a few more promised in the days ahead. These older works have been coupled with more contemporary works on religious liberty, the failure of evangelical leaders, and more.

Of note, you won’t want to miss Timon Cline’s introduction to the life and work of Huguenot martyr, Pierre de La Place. While political theology often focused on the magistrates and the ministers of the state and the church, it really should include the very person in the polis. And importantly, La Place widens our vision to see the way various vocations build up the city and inform our views of politics. So take time to read this essay, as well as all the essays listed below.

• Do the Reading: Selections in Political Theology by Brad Green • Longform Essay • A curated survey of ten seminal works in Christian political theology—from Justin Martyr and Augustine to Calvin, Rutherford, and Oliver O’Donovan—highlighting the development of theological reflection on church, state, and authority across the centuries.
• 4.51 “Do the Reading: Selections in Political Theology” by Brad Green • Longform Reading • A curated survey of ten seminal works in Christian political theology—from Justin Martyr and Augustine to Calvin, Rutherford, and Oliver O’Donovan—highlighting the development of theological reflection on church, state, and authority across the centuries.
• Calvin’s Political Thought by David W. Hall • Concise Article • Explore how John Calvin’s theology shaped modern democracy. This essay by David Hall traces Calvin’s influence on limited government, decentralized authority, and republican liberty—ideas that helped form the foundation of Western political thought.
• Can Christian Politicians Reform the Church? Martin Luther’s Address to the German Nobility (1520) by Nathan Parsons • Concise Article • Martin Luther was a paradigm-shifting theologian, but his thought did not remain in the ivory tower. Instead, he had much to say about how authority in the civil realm was to be used. Read on as Nathan Parsons expounds Luther’s ideas and applies them to our lives today.
• 4.52 “Do the Reading: Selections in Political Theology” by Brad Green, David Schrock & Stephen Wellum • Interview • Listen in as David Schrock and Stephen Wellum interview Brad Green on his Longform Essay “Do the Reading: Selections in Political Theology”
• The Political Thought of Charles Hodge by James Baird • Concise Article • Who today argues for a “masculine piety in the public square,” businesses to be closed on the Sabbath, and distinctly Christian instruction in public schools? Charles Hodge, the great systematic theologian of the nineteenth century.
• The Myth of Neutrality: Carl F.H. Henry’s Case for Prayer in Public School by Caleb Morell • Concise Article • We have been told to keep religion out of schools: the Ten Commandments were taken down and prayer was removed. Read on as Caleb Morell draws from Carl F.H. Henry to show that the school is no neutral ground; it will either recognize the authority of Christ or reject it.
• Liberty, Not Separation: The Historic Development of Baptist Perspectives on Church and State by Marc Minter • Longform Essay • A historical exploration showing that Baptists long affirmed religious liberty without requiring a separation of church and state, tracing the shift in the 20th century.
• 4.53 “Liberty, Not Separation: The Historic Development of Baptist Perspectives on Church and State” by Marc Minter • Podcast Reading • A historical exploration showing that Baptists long affirmed religious liberty without requiring a separation of church and state, tracing the shift in the 20th century.
• Encouragement and Admonition from Tocqueville’s Democracy in America by Chris Brauns • Concise Article • Few books have left their mark on American Political thinking like Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. Not allowing de Tocqueville’s chronicle of his time in the US to be merely descriptive, read as Chris Brauns shows how Democracy in America offers guidance for us to heed today.
• Tim Keller, Andy Stanley, Francis Collins, and Other Christian Leaders: The Sheep Who Made Friends with the Wolves by Joshua Parcha • Concise Article • Have some Christian leaders developed Stockholm Syndrome, identifying with the church’s critics against believers? Read on as Joshua Parcha details how John G. West’s book Stockholm Syndrome Christianity sheds light on some church leaders’ questionable allegiances.
• Machen on Public Education by Douglas Wilson • Concise Article • A concise, compelling exposition of J. Gresham Machen’s vision for Christian education, liberty, and the urgent need for faithful Christian schools.
• 4.54 “Liberty, Not Separation: The Historic Development of Baptist Perspectives on Church and State” by Marc Minter, David Schrock & Stephen Wellum • Interview • Listen in as David Schrock & Stephen Wellum interview Marc Minter on his Longform essay, “Liberty Not Separation: The Historic Development of Baptist Perspectives on Church and State”
• Five Myths Secularism Wants You to Believe About America’s Religious Freedom by Marc Minter • Concise Article • Religious freedom in America is often misunderstood as religion having no bearing on the state. But is that what our founders intended? Read on as pastor Marc Minter reviews Steven Douglas Smith’s The Rise and Decline of American Religious Freedom, showing how a right understanding of America’s history of religious freedom can help guide her future.
• City of God: A Primer by Daniel Strand • Concise Article • Augustine’s City of God has withstood the test of time, exerting influence on political thought for nearly 1,600-years. In this article, scholar Daniel Strand provides an overview of Augustine’s magnum opus, discussing its background, literary genre, structure, and key themes.
• Vocation Politics: The Discourses of Pierre de La Place by Timon Cline • Concise Article • Martyred Huguenot Pierre de la Place saw politics as the harmony of all vocations. This essay uncovers his rich vision for public life, calling, and the common good.

News and Notes

First, please help us match a $25,000 gift.

In the Lord’s kindness, Christ Over All received a $25,000 matching gift, which means that for every dollar you give to our ministry this month, it will be doubled.

As we finish 2025, we at Christ Over All have come to see that this ministry is in need of finding like-minded partners who would be interested and able to support this work. Currently, our monthly operations is around $10,000/ month. This covers the cost of our editing team and all the other publishing work we are doing. And throughout 2025, our monthly support has been consistently below that amount.

For 2026, we are looking to raise $150,000 to account for these needs and the added expenses of advertising, publishing, and beginning new projects. Finishing 2025 with a strong December helps us to do that.

So please consider making a one-time end of year gift. But also, if you know someone who would be interested in supporting this work on a monthly basis, let us know, and please share this need with them. Every dollar given goes toward helping Christians to think with a consistently biblical worldview across all of life. So we appreciate any gift you can make.

Second, the Christ Over All Swag Store is here

If you haven’t seen it yet, you should! Christ Over All now has a Merch store for all who are interested. If you are looking to get Christ Over All shirts, mugs, hoodies, stickers, and hats, our apparel store is up and running.

And for those who have asked for print-friendly versions of our articles, we believe (Lord willing) those might be ready as soon as this month. We are grateful for your patience and your prayers as our editors continue to put final touches on this project.

Third, be aware of our upcoming months.

We receive submissions from faithful Christians who have thought deeply about our topics. If you have interest in one of the following topics in bold and are interested in writing for us (in line with our doctrinal distinctives), feel free to shoot us an e-mail to tell us what you are thinking. We are still taking submissions for the months in bold below:

January: Abolishing Abortion, Advocating for Life

February: God Is . . . Engaging the Doctrine of God

March: Can the Center Hold? The SBC in the Twenty First Century

April: The Resurrection in the Old Testament

May: Critiquing Eastern Orthodoxy

June: Opposing Islam

July: Celebrating America’s 250^th Anniversary

August: A Sabbath Rest

September: The Ten Commandments

Fourth, we’d love to see you face-to-face in the next few months.

In 2026, we will be visiting Southwest Florida to join the Founders National Conference in Fort Myers on January 22–24. That week, David Schrock will be one of the speakers, and we will have a booth. Sign up here to join us.

Join Trent Hunter, David Helm, and Ryan Kelly in Greenville, SC, from January 28–30, 2026, for a Simeon Trust Workshop on Leviticus. If you are a pastor, preacher, or aspiring minister of the gospel, this hands-on workshop is well worth the time.

That’s all for this month. Until next time, let’s remember that because Christ is Lord over all, we ought exalt Christ in all things.

On Tuesday, this is the man my neighbors elected to the highest legal seat in the state. Not encouraging!

At the same time, the state of Virginia also elected Abigail Spanberger to be governor, even as she refused to condemn Jones vile fantasies. Instead, she ran on a commitment, among other things, to increase access for abortion and to “codify Roe v Wade” into law. And third, Virginia also elected as Lieutenant Governor an Indian woman named Ghazala Hashmi who worships Allah and the god of LGBT equality.

In all, Tuesday’s elections in Virginia made me do some thinking, praying, and evaluating about the state of politics in the Old Dominion. It certainly made me grieve the fact that my state decided to give these three the sword to exercise justice—a point I made in my last sermon. In all, I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching, and I suspect you have been doing the same.

After all, what does it mean for America that our premier financial city, New York City, will be led by an avowed Marxist and Muslim? Less than twenty-five years after Muslim terrorists destroyed the Twin Towers, that city will now governed by someone who thanked voters from every country but America. How did that happen? And what does that mean going forward?

As we approach the two-hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our founding next year, are these elections signs of God’s judgment on America? Should we see them as hands writing on the wall, indicating our nation’s downfall? Or might the Lord permit his church to rise up, cry out for mercy, and see his hand of blessing once again? These are questions we need to be asking and prayers we need to be praying.

And for Christ Over All this month, there are books we need to be reading, if we are going to be prepared for what comes next.

Learning in War-Time: Two Thoughts from C. S. Lewis

When Britain entered World War II, C. S. Lewis stayed home. While he had served in the first world war, he was too old for the second. And so, he with his Oxford dons, remained home and taught the students who did not go to the front lines. Understandably, learning during war time needed some explanation. And ever the apologist, Lewis gave a lecture on that very subject.

In 1939, when Britain declared war against Germany, Lewis delivered his lecture “Learning in War-Time.” In it, he commended the labors of men who did not go to war. As a loyal son of England, Lewis supported the war effort to fight Hitler, but he knew that not all men could muster for battle. And more philosophically, he reminded his audience that whoever “surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs God: himself.”^[1]

1. C. S. Lewis, “Learning in War-Time,” in The Weight of Glory (New York: HarperOne, 1980), 53.

In this caution of living entirely for any earthly cause, Lewis reminds us that the wars that go on around us are worth fighting. They are even worth losing our lives. But they cannot be the raison d’être of our living. To apply it today, we cannot give our lives always and only fighting the political foes around us—as wicked as they might be. Instead, we must have wisdom to know where to fight and when, how to engage the battle and why we might need to withdraw.

Taking our cues from Lewis, we also need to learn that running to the front lines is not the only option when war breaks out. Applied to our country, for all those who need to take a stand publicly, there are just as many (if not more) who need to do a bit of learning in war-time.

For in fact, there are many ethical, cultural, and political battles that many eager soldiers are not equipped to engage. And therefore, the first step for many who are willing to speak is to not speak, but do the reading instead. For, unless the voices who speak for Christ in public have spent the time with the great minds and the great books of those who have fought these battles before us, they will likely sound as whiny as Eustace Scrubb, who had only read the wrong books.

To borrow another thought from Lewis, he reminds us that human beings who go to war are still human beings, who must think and read and enjoy the world God made. He writes,

If you attempted, in either case, to suspend your whole intellectual and aesthetic activity, you would only succeed in substituting a worse cultural life for a better. You are not, in fact, going to read nothing, either in the Church or in the line: if you don’t read good books, you will read bad ones. If you don’t go on thinking rationally, you will think irrationally. If you reject aesthetic satisfactions, you will fall into sensual satisfactions.^[2]

2. Lewis, “Learning in War-Time,” 52.

As always, Lewis has the ability to unearth a profound point from a simple truth. Human are made in the image of their Speaking God, the one who wrote a book, and the one who demands his creatures to think in order to act. And thus, in times of warfare when volunteers are needed to step up and act, it is impossible to not read books, articles, or tweets. Yet, it is all too common to spend our time reading or listening to works that have no weight or enduring wisdom.

Returning to the Doorstep of Christian Nationalism

For the last decade or more, evangelicals have been in a tug of war with one another about politics and political theology. As I have said elsewhere, “Few things have revealed the fault lines in evangelical churches like the presence of Donald Trump.” Like him or not, Trump has been used as an acid test to discover what evangelical leaders are really like. And what the last decade has shown is that many leaders, the ones who have been identified as Big Eva, have been unprepared to engage in public theology.

That is to say, after living off the inheritance of religious liberty that was purchased by Founding Era pastors in America, we who have assumed the right to worship, assemble, and speak freely have often done so with little understanding of where those freedoms came from or, more likely, what it will take to keep them. Among Baptists, we have preached the separation of church and state so much that many have moved that separation to be our first principle. But is it?

Historically, it is better to understand the good and necessary division between church and state to be an appropriate corrective measure within Christendom, but it was never intended to separate God and state, or better Christ and state. Denying Christ his place over the state or in politics is never a Christian option. For in fact, Jesus is ruler of all kings (Rev. 1:5) and the one to whom all nations owe their existence. Thus, a far better first principle begins with Christ’s universal Lordship.

Yet, such a willingness to say “Christ is Lord” in matters of political engagement is where things get dicey. Some will say that Christ’s place is only in the church and that pressing Christ on the state actually works against the personal opportunity to share Christ with unbelievers. Others will say that it is fine for a Christian politician to confess his own faith in public, but that faith should never become the driving force for the policies he makes. And still others will make the claim, as I would, that because Christ is Lord over all, that his Lordship—revealed in nature and Scripture—should inform the way Christians govern.

At this point, it is obvious that this discussion brings us to the doorstep of Christian Nationalism. (For all who weren’t with us in the Fall of 2023, you can find a host of essays and interviews engaging that subject). For today, I simply want to make the point that whatever debates we are having within Evangelicalism on politics and public theology, most who do the talking about political theology need to do the reading. And that is why we come to this month.

Reading Old Books

There are many reasons why evangelicals talk about politics. For starters, every human being is political by nature, and thus to censor this speech is to cut off a part of our humanity. Likewise, in America, the election cycle is a constant cause of conversation and culture, and thus American Christians have always been deeply political. But most of all—at least recently—is that the leadership class of American evangelicals (what Carl Trueman labeled Big Eva) has been complacent or complicit in their politics.

Without imputing any ill intent, the softness that Big Eva pastors showed toward wokeness, the tyrannies of COVID, and the embrace of Third Wayism has led many to assume that they need to find new voices for cultural engagement and political wisdom. And I would not disagree, but I would encourage this nugget from Lewis: Read old books!

In the absence of consistent, conservative voices there have risen countless online personalities and ministries (including our own) to fill in the gap. And this is both good and challenging. While we need to new voices and help making applications to the world today, one wonders if we would not just do better to read the right old books.

As we know, social media (especially X, formerly Twitter) is more than a place for news and views, it is a place where the real world is shaped and amplified. And so, I am not suggesting that one quit the virtual world. But I am saying that wisdom for discerning and debating political theology requires reading older writers whose thought has stood the test of time. And that is the point of this month, where we will be considering the books that have been most formative for doing political theology.

As Protestants, we always affirm the priority of Scripture. It is our norming norm and our standard for all disputations about everything in life. Yet, as we learned recently with the debates about the Trinity, pure biblical scholarship that ignores classical concepts can easily lead us into distortions of the truth—even unintentionally. And I believe the same is true for political theology. For those who aspire to bring the best of biblical theology and natural law into the public square—and we need Christian voices to do that—we must do so in conversation with the past. We must learn from their erudition and their errors; we must incorporate and improve the former and avoid the latter.

So, taking seriously the need to learn from the best of Church history, we want to help you avoid the mindless clichés of our day (e.g., “Jesus does not ride an elephant or a donkey!”) and the temptation to speak dogmatically without historical awareness. Instead, we want to introduce a selection of books that will fill the soul and sharpen the mind to bring the Lordship of Christ into the public square. To that end, we ask you to join us for this month, so that wherever you live and whatever magistrates you have, you will be prepared to speak with boldness if and when the Lord calls you to stand for truth in the public square.

Biblical Theology

While the month ahead promises to help us think about political theology, the last month provided a solid foundation in biblical theology. Indeed, from defining the term and considering some of its tools (like typology), to learning the history of two of its most important purveyors (Geerhardus Vos and Graeme Goldsowrthy), to distinguishing it from other forms of theological interpretation, to affirming its ongoing relevance in the face of theologians calling for its dismissal, this theme offered a helpful introduce to biblical theology and an appraisal of its current status. Below you can find a list of all the longform essays, concise articles, and podcasts too.

• A Redemptive-Historical, Christocentric Approach by Jason S. DeRouchie • Concise Article • The only Bible Jesus had was what we call the Old Testament, and he believed many of its elements concerned him. Christ’s followers should aim to properly magnify Jesus where he is evident in the Scriptures through a multi-faceted approach that accounts for the central role Jesus plays in redemptive history.
• Biblical Theology and Theological Interpretation of Scripture by Colin Smothers • Longform Essay • Biblical Theology and Theological Interpretation of Scripture (TIS) are two dominant ways of reading the Bible. In this article, Colin Smothers compares and contrasts both exegetical methods, showing how readers should be cautious of TIS.
• 4.45 “Biblical Theology and Theological Interpretation of Scripture by Colin Smothers • Reading • Biblical Theology and Theological Interpretation of Scripture (TIS) are two dominant ways of reading the Bible. In this article, Colin Smothers compares and contrasts both exegetical methods, showing how readers should be cautious of TIS.
• Has Biblical Theology Had Its Day? by Peter Nesbitt • Concise Article • Emergency measures are not good for long-term care. Theologian Michael Allen argued that biblical theology has been a necessary emergency measure but may no longer be helpful. This essay offers an alternative, constructive vision showing that biblical theology can and should play an ongoing role in biblical interpretation.
• Postmoderns Don’t Care About Your Resurrection Evidence: A Call for Biblical-Theological Apologetics by Chris Prosser • Concise Article • A call for biblical-theological apologetics that addresses postmodern concerns by demonstrating how the resurrection fits within Scripture’s overarching redemptive-historical narrative.
• Geerhardus Vos: The Recovery of Biblical Theology from Its Corruptors (Part 1) by Ardel Caneday • Concise Article • Every now and again God raises up a deliverer. Vos was one such man, and he delivered biblical theology from the clutches of those who would have poisoned it.
• 4.46 “Biblical Theology and Theological Interpretation of Scripture” by Colin Smothers, Brad Green, and Trent Hunter • Interview • Listen in as Trent Hunter and Brad Green interview Colin Smothers on his Christ Over All Longform Essay, “Biblical Theology and Theological Interpretation of Scripture”.
• Geerhardus Vos’s Biblical Theology: Four Features, Four Insights, Four Errors (Part 2) by Ardel Caneday • Concise Article • An examination of Geerhardus Vos’s biblical theology, analyzing its distinctive features, valuable insights, and areas where it requires correction or development.
• What is the Relationship Between Systematic Theology and Biblical Theology? by Stephen Wellum • Concise Article • For systematic theology to be biblical, it must draw its conclusions from the entire canon of Scripture “on its own terms,” which is the discipline of biblical theology. Otherwise, our theological conclusions will not be warranted by Scripture, and if they are not warranted by Scripture, they do not command our faith and obedience.
• What is Typology? by David Schrock • Longform Essay • “Typology” comes up frequently in discussions of Biblical Theology, but what does it mean? David Schrock explains that typology is not merely another method of reading, but an organic structure of escalation and progression arising from God’s redemptive work.
• 4.47 “What is Typology?” by David Shrock • Reading • Typology” comes up frequently in discussions of Biblical Theology, but what does it mean? Read how David Schrock explains that typology is not merely another method of reading, but an organic structure of escalation and progression arising from God’s redemptive work.
• 4.48 “The State of Biblical Theology Today” by Brad Green • Reading • Green provides an orientation to the discipline of Biblical Theology, offering a brief historical overview through the most important books and articles that have shaped the field.
• When the Lights Came On: An Appreciation of Graeme Goldsworthy by Scott Polender • Concise Article • We should never neglect to recognize and appreciate our mentors in the faith. Some of them have taught us to read the Bible like never before. Read as Scott Polender recounts how Graeme Goldsworthy impacted his view of the Scriptures.
• 4.49 “The CSB Connecting Scripture Study Bible” by Benjamin Gladd, David Schrock and Stephen Wellum • Interview • An interview discussing the CSB Connecting Scripture Study Bible and how it helps readers trace biblical-theological connections throughout Scripture.
• Major Works in Evangelical Biblical Theology: An Overview by Brad Green • Concise Article • An orientation to the discipline of Biblical Theology through a historical overview of the most important books and articles. The historical trajectory represents the stream that has proven most fruitful and faithful to Scripture for the church.
• Seeing Christ in the Letter: A Review of Kevin J. Vanhoozer’s Mere Christian Hermeneutics by Michael Pereira and Knox Brown • Concise Article • A review examining Kevin Vanhoozer’s Mere Christian Hermeneutics and his argument that all Spirit-illumined readers share a common orientation towards Scripture as the Word of God in which Christ is revealed.
• 4.50 “The State of Biblical Theology Today” by Brad Green, Trent Hunter, & David Shrock • Interview • Brad Green, Trent Hunter, and David Schrock discuss the current state of biblical theology, its development, and its ongoing importance for faithful biblical interpretation.

News and Notes

First, the Christ Over All Swag Store Is Here

If you haven’t seen it yet, you should. Christ Over All now has a Merch store for all who are interested. If you are looking to get Christ Over All shirts, mugs, hoodies, stickers, and hats, our apparel store is up and running.

And for those who have asked for print-friendly versions of our articles, we believe (Lord willing) those might be ready as soon as this month. We are grateful for your patience and your prayers as our editors continue to put the final touches on this project.

Second, Be Aware of Our Upcoming Months.

We receive submissions from faithful Christians who have thought deeply about our topics. If you have interest in one of the following topics in bold and are interested in writing for us (in line with our doctrinal distinctives), feel free to shoot us an e-mail to tell us what you are thinking.

December 2025: Christmas Buffet

January 2026: Abolishing Abortion

February 2026: God Is . . . Engaging the Doctrine of God

March 2026: Can Anything Good Come from Nashville? An Investigation of Denominational Structures and Stewardship

April 2026: The Cross, Resurrection, Ascension

Third, We’d Love To See You Face to Face in the Next Few Months.

From November 18–20, 2025, all the Christ Over All editors will be at the Evangelical Theological Society in Boston. If you are there, please let us know, and keep an eye out for a late night meetup on Tuesday, November 19.

In 2026, we will be visiting Southwest Florida to join the Founders National Conference in Fort Myers on January 22–24. That week David Schrock will be one of the speakers, and we will have a booth. Sign up here to join us.

Join Trent Hunter, David Helm, and Ryan Kelly in Greenville, SC, from January 28–30, 2006, for a Simeon Trust Workshop on Leviticus. If you are a pastor, preacher, or aspiring minister of the gospel, this hands-on workshop is well worth the time.

Fourth, please consider supporting Christ Over All.

The easiest way to support our ministry is to tell others about us: you can forward this intermission, recommend an article, or share our content on social media. But if you or your church has benefited from our ministry, please make a donation so that we can continue to bring these resources to the church.

Every dollar given goes toward helping Christians to think with a consistently Christian worldview across all of life. When you give to our ministry, you allow us to serve more people, and make known more completely the glorious Lordship of Christ. So we appreciate any gift you can make.

That’s all for this month. Until next time, let’s remember that because Christ is Lord over all, we ought to exalt Christ in all things.

Twenty-seven years ago, having not yet finished my dissertation, I was assigned to teach a course on “Biblical Theology” for the first time. As I remember, there was no existing syllabus when I took over the class. So, in the summer before the course began I started putting together a syllabus and reading list and sketching out this new course. At the time—1998—only a few initial volumes in D.A. Carson’s “New Studies in Biblical Theology” series (IVP) had been published. And the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology (IVP, 2000) was still a few years away.

But I had stumbled upon that tradition of biblical theology which still nourishes me today—the tradition of Geerhardus Vos. I got to him indirectly, by way of a very fine book by Richard Lints, The Fabric of Theology: A Prolegomenon to Evangelical Theology (Eerdmans, 1993). Lints’s book is worth remembering, for a part of Lints’s goal in that book was to show the relationship between systematic theology and biblical theology.

In particular, Lints turned to the work of Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. (an intellectual descendant of Vos), and Gaffin’s work on the relationship between systematic theology and biblical theology. Gaffin had written a seminal essay, “Systematic Theology and Biblical Theology,” in 1976.^[3] Gaffin was himself building on the work of John Murray, who also depended on Vos. Of note was Murray’s 1963 article, “Systematic Theology: Second Article.”^[4] And fifteen years before him, Eerdmans released Vos’s Biblical Theology (1948).^[5] This volume, plus Vos’s essay, “The Idea of Biblical Theology as a Science and as a Theological Discipline” set the direction for Murray, Gaffin, and Lints—as well as Vern Poythress, who addressed many of these issues recently. Following in the tradition of Vos, Murray, and Gaffin, Poythress contributed a taxonomy of ‘biblical theologies’ to the discussion with his 2008 article, “Kinds of Biblical Theology.”^[6]

This is not the place to give a detailed history of every twist and turn in the development of what we generally call “biblical theology” today. But it is important to see how persons like Vos, Murray, Gaffin, and Poythress are central to the field of biblical theology as it has developed in the last roughly 130 years.^[7] Today, we can note the significance and importance of these men in the development of the kind of biblical theology we see in more conservative, and especially Reformed, circles.

This flowering of biblical theology can be seen in the multitude of works of someone like Australian Graeme Goldsworthy. From his According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible (originally published in 1991) to his most recent work, In These Last Days: The Dynamics of Biblical Revelation (2024), he has been joined by numerous scholars at Moore College in Sydney, Australia, to continue a tradition of Biblical Theology form a distinctively Reformed position. And the fruit of this biblical theology movement can be especially seen in series like the New Studies in Biblical Theology, which began under the editorship of D. A. Carson and is now led by Benjamin Gladd.^[8]

Most of us who have come of theological age during this renaissance of biblical theology, and have found ourselves attracted to the Vos/Murray/Gaffin/Poythress “school” of biblical theology never would have really seen a contradiction between “systematic theology” and “biblical theology.” I have taught biblical theology for twenty-seven years, and I generally spend a good bit of the first part of the semester working through fundamental questions: What is biblical theology? What is systematic theology? How to do they relate? Are they really different disciplines—or the same fundamental project seen from a different angle?

These questions become all the more interesting, and perhaps perplexing, when we see that the “father” of biblical theology, Geerhardus Vos, also wrote a Reformed dogmatics—somewhat recently translated into English by none other than Richard Gaffin (and published between 2012 and 2014).

I suspect that the discussion between biblical theology and systematic theology is, in one sense, just beginning. I suspect it will be a much longer conversation, and it will take time to continue to think through some very challenging issues. How do we move from the Bible to doctrinal construction? How does the biblical language that speaks of God “hearing,” or “reaching down,” etc., really work? I wonder if in a few thousand years (one-hundred thousand? five-hundred thousand) seminary students will be saying things like: “I have read somewhere that back in 2025 Evangelicals were really thinking through how biblical theology and systematic theology relate.” Some might even scratch their head and wonder why such a discussion even took place. We shall see.

Conclusion

Those two carts I drag into class aren’t just about showing students what books exist—they’re about helping students they’re about helping students locate themselves within a living tradition, so that they can address the present issues they face grounded in the past. The genealogy traced here from Vos through Murray, Gaffin, and Poythress to contemporary scholars like Goldsworthy and the NSBT series reveal that biblical theology, at least in its Reformed expression, has never been a rebellion against systematic theology but a framework for it. And Reformed systematic theology, for that matter, has never been a flight away from the grounding of biblical theology, but a deeper exploration of its realities.

My previous article dealt with the state of biblical theology today—the live debates and controversies surrounding its ongoing use both in the church and the academy. But the best way to address today’s questions is with an awareness of where we’ve been. Anyone seeking to address the debates today would do well to root themselves deeply in the best of sources the tradition has to offer. In this short essay, I’ve sought to provide you with a road map to do exactly that.

The historical trajectory I’ve sketched here—this particular tradition of books and thinkers—represents only one stream in the broader river of biblical-theological studies. But it is the stream that has proven most fruitful and faithful to Scripture, not only for me and my students, but for the church.

The experience was something like the blind man at Bethsaida—seeing, but only dimly, men that looked like trees walking (Mark 8:22–26). Then came the second touch, and everything sharpened into view. You may know that moment when the optometrist finally clicks the right lenses into place, and suddenly the big fuzzy E on the chart is not only an E, but it has edges sharp enough to shave with. The words of Scripture were always there, familiar even, but now they came into focus.

And more than just improved eyesight, it is an entirely new way of seeing. It was like waking up to find the sun doesn’t revolve around you after all. It was something like a Copernican shift, as if the heavens themselves had been re-ordered and the whole of Scripture burst into motion around the blazing Son.

The Teacher Who Helped Us See

At the center of that awakening, for me and many others, stood Graeme Goldsworthy. Born in 1934 in Australia, he is from the land down under. But he is not the kind of Australian found in movies, with a Bowie knife on his hip or a crocodile under his arm. No celebrity theologian, he carried no flair, no flash, and no trace of self-promotion. He was and is plainspoken, steady, and unassuming.^[1] His strength was not in dramatic delivery but in clarity. His words cut through confusion and helped people see Scripture as a unified whole.

1. This video offers a good sense of Goldsworthy’s clarity, tone, and teaching style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHr2cnrhUsY

You might expect, after all that talk of revolutions and blazing suns, a prophet with fire in his eyes and thunder in his voice. Instead, you find a humble scholar and churchman with an unshakeable confidence in God’s Word. He doesn’t look like the sort of man who would reorder how people read the Bible, but for many, he has.

For many years, Graeme Goldsworthy taught Old Testament, Biblical Theology, and Hermeneutics at Moore Theological College in Sydney. Building on the foundations laid by Broughton Knox and Donald Robinson, and working alongside contemporaries such as William Dumbrell and Barry Webb, he gave biblical theology a distinctive voice and a reach that stretched across the globe. In the years since his retirement, he has continued to write, mentor younger pastors and Christians, and to preach and lecture. Now in his nineties, his influence endures through his books, teaching, and the many students and pastors he helped train.

My own story is one small example of that influence. In 2001, I moved from Wheaton, Illinois, to Sydney to study with Goldsworthy. Having him in class, he built a biblical-theological framework in me—layer by layer, passage by passage. The lessons didn’t end when class did; our conversations outside the lecture hall were just as formative. He and his wife later invited my wife and me to visit them in Queensland. For me, and for so many others, his steady influence has been deeply personal, the kind that lingers long after the lectures end and the books are closed.

Goldsworthy’s Canon: How One Theologian Shaped Modern Biblical Theology

And yet, it’s through those very books that his influence has reached farthest. As great as his impact has been on his students, his writings have shaped the church worldwide. His books have done for many what his teaching did for me. They have helped readers see the Bible as one unified story centered on Christ.

His earliest work, Gospel and Kingdom (1981), introduced readers to the framework that would come to characterize his teaching—God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule. Gospel and Wisdom (1987) applied the same method to the wisdom literature, showing that the fear of the Lord and the pursuit of wisdom ultimately find their meaning in Christ. Wisdom wasn’t an idea after all; it was a Person. Completing his Trilogy, The Gospel in Revelation (1984) traced the same redemptive story through the symbols and visions of John’s Apocalypse, revealing the triumph of the Lamb at the center of history. Revelation, then, is not a chart of future events but a confession of present realities. It is, after all, the Revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev. 1:1).

With According to Plan (1991), Goldsworthy offered a synthesis of his teaching in an accessible textbook that remains a standard introduction to biblical theology. Likewise, Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture (1999) extended his vision into the pulpit, urging pastors to preach every text in light of Christ and the gospel.

His later works—Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics (2006) and Christ-Centered Biblical Theology (2012)—developed his mature reflections on interpretation and engaged various academic approaches to biblical interpretation. More academic in tone, these two works revealed that Goldsworthy’s earlier and accessible works were written by a man who had done his homework. In particular, these two books explored how biblical theology should shape the reading and teaching of Scripture itself. Finally, The Son of God and the New Creation (2015) distilled a lifetime of work into a concise meditation on how the theme of divine sonship runs from Adam to Christ and reaches its fulfillment in the new creation.

Among all his writings, Gospel and Kingdom and According to Plan stand out as Goldsworthy’s most enduring and influential works. In these two volumes, his vision of the Bible as a single, Christ-centered story took root in the hearts of pastors, students, and ordinary Christians, reshaping how a generation reads and teaches Scripture.

According to Plan is broader and more methodological than Gospel and Kingdom. Whereas Gospel and Kingdom serves as a concise demonstration of how to read the Old Testament through the lens of redemptive history, According to Plan steps back to explain how and why we read the Bible this way. It’s not just a survey of biblical themes; it’s a manual of hermeneutics rooted in the gospel.

Goldsworthy explicitly frames According to Plan as “a textbook of biblical theology” that deals with the principles of interpretation—how revelation unfolds, how type and fulfillment work, and how Christ is the key to understanding all of Scripture.^[2] He argues that biblical theology is not one discipline among others but the hermeneutical center of all theology. And if you are just beginning your biblical-theological journey or looking to introduce the subject to Sunday School teachers at your church, this book is ideally suited.

2. Graeme Goldsworthy, According to Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1991), Preface, p. 7.

Biblical Theology and the Story of Redemption

Spanning nearly forty years of ministry, Goldsworthy’s books unfold a consistent theology and a unified vision of Scripture where every theme finds resolution in the gospel of the Lord Jesus. In Eden, God promised that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head, and every covenant since has been a movement toward that fulfillment. Through Abraham came the promise of blessing to all nations; through Moses, a people set apart; through David, the hope of a righteous King. The Prophets sang of a coming Redeemer who would bear our sins and restore all things. In the fullness of time, Christ came, the true Adam, the true Israel, the true Son of David, fulfilling every shadow and type. By his death, he broke the curse; by his resurrection, He inaugurated the new creation. And now, through his Spirit, he gathers a people from every tribe and tongue until at last the story ends where it began, in a garden renewed as a city where God dwells with His people.

This, for Goldsworthy, is not simply a narrative but the structure of reality itself. The kingdom of God, defined as God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule, provides the pattern that holds the whole Bible together, from Eden to the new Jerusalem. Each covenant advances that pattern and reveals more clearly the character of the King. The Law exposes our need for redemption, the Prophets reveal God’s steadfast purpose, the wisdom writings teach life under His rule, and all of it culminates in the gospel, where promise becomes fulfillment and shadow gives way to substance.

Goldsworthy recognized in Jesus’s words in Luke 24:44 the hermeneutical center of Scripture. When the risen Christ explained to His disciples that “everything written about Him in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled,” he provided not merely an exegetical insight but a theological principle: all of Scripture finds its unity and meaning in him. Goldsworthy made that conviction the foundation of his approach to biblical theology. As Jesus elsewhere declared, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). The Scriptures, therefore, are not a repository of religious information but the unfolding revelation of the Redeemer. Every divine promise, as Paul later affirms, “finds its Yes and Amen in Him” (2 Cor. 1:20).

Goldsworthy’s theology insists that Christ is the interpretive key to every text and every truth. The gospel is not a topic among others—it is the lens through which all theology, ethics, and knowledge must be seen. Revelation moves toward fulfillment but never away from its center: the crucified and risen King who reigns over all and makes sense of all. To read Scripture rightly, then, is to trace this unfolding revelation until all the notes resolve in Him.

Goldsworthy in Outline

If we were to summarize Graeme Goldsworthy’s theology in outline, several key themes emerge—each flowing from his conviction that the whole Bible finds its unity and meaning in Christ. Because of his work, we who have sat under his teaching (personally or by his books) now read Scripture with far greater clarity, seeing patterns and connections to Christ that had long been obscured. The following six areas represent where his influence has most deeply sharpened our understanding of the Bible and its story.

1. Christ-Centered Hermeneutic

Goldsworthy insisted that Christ is the key to understanding all of Scripture. The Old Testament cannot be properly understood apart from Christ, and the New Testament cannot be rightly appreciated without its Old Testament roots. His simple maxim, “The whole Bible is about Christ,” gave clarity to countless readers who had struggled with piecemeal or moralistic approaches.

2. The Kingdom of God Framework

He popularized the summary of the biblical storyline as “God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule.” This became a memorable and transferable way of seeing the unity of Scripture. From Eden to Israel to the church to the new creation, the kingdom of God provided the unifying thread.

3. Progressive Revelation

Goldsworthy emphasized that God’s revelation unfolds in stages across redemptive history. This means we must read earlier passages—such as the Law, the prophets, and the historical books—in light of their place within the developing story rather than treating them as self-contained.

4. Typology and Fulfillment

He showed how Old Testament persons, events, and institutions (kings, sacrifices, temple, etc.) point forward as types to be fulfilled in Christ. These connections are not arbitrary but woven into the fabric of God’s unfolding plan.

5. The Gospel as the Interpretive Center

By now it should be clear—if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a dozen times—for Goldsworthy, the gospel is not only the heart of salvation but the heart of interpretation. Through the death and resurrection of Christ, every part of Scripture finds its meaning, unity, and fulfillment. This is genuine gospel-centeredness.

6. Accessible Biblical Theology for the Church

While many biblical theologians remained largely academic, Goldsworthy wrote with the church in mind. His works—Gospel and Kingdom, Gospel and Wisdom, According to Plan—gave pastors and laypeople practical tools for preaching and reading the Bible as one unified narrative.

The Legacy of Graeme Goldsworthy

More than forty years have passed since the publication of Gospel and Kingdom, and over thirty since According to Plan first appeared. In that time, the field of biblical theology has flourished beyond what many could have imagined. What was once the work of a few specialists has become a global movement of pastors, scholars, and readers tracing the unity of Scripture through Christ.

Among the many fruits of that renewal is The New Dictionary of Biblical Theology (IVP, 2000), which Goldsworthy co-edited, and is my favorite single-volume Biblical Theology resource. Series such as the New Studies in Biblical Theology (IVP), NAC Studies in Biblical Theology (B&H), Short Studies in Biblical Theology (Crossway), and Essential Studies in Biblical Theology (IVP) now fill the world of publishing with riches unimaginable a generation ago. Many of our own bookshelves are now lined with these volumes.

The theological resources available to the English-speaking church today are greater than any in the history of the world. And though he would never claim it for himself, part of that can be traced, in one way or another, to the quiet, steady influence of Graeme Goldsworthy. For many of us, Graeme Goldsworthy handed us the map—or walked beside us—as the sun rose and our eyes saw more clearly, renewing a sense of coherence and direction for the journey ahead.

And for that, we are personally and eternally grateful. If you haven’t read any of Graeme Goldsworthy’s books yet, don’t miss the chance to do so. They will give you a map of Scripture and one that consistently brings you to Christ.

So far this month, we at Christ Over All have covered what biblical theology is, its history, why it still matters, how it relates to systematic theology, and how to use it in preaching and apologetics. In a second article this month, I will provide a contextualized bibliography of the most important sources in the development of evangelical biblical theology. But today, my task is different. I want to orient us to the current debates surrounding biblical theology, and chart a path forward.

To grasp the state of biblical theology today requires us to look back a few years. I think it is clear that perhaps one of the most important ways to “get into” the state of biblical theology today is to grasp that there is a long and ongoing discussion about the relation of biblical theology to systematic theology. That discussion is closely related to the question or issue of the resurgent interest in, and advocacy of, “classical theism.” And that issue is closely related, or bound up with, the resurgent interest in Thomas Aquinas, and the call by some Evangelicals to essentially embrace Thomism (or a form of Thomism). We will try and briefly navigate these conceptually overlapping issues.

Biblical Theology and Systematic Theology

There has been a debate or discussion in Evangelical circles for a number of years related to the relationship between biblical theology and systematic theology. I will cursorily summarize three key exchanges and then offer three points of evaluative reflection.

John Frame, Richard A. Muller, and David Wells

First, in the 1990s there was a series of point/counter-point type of exchanges between John Frame, Richard A. Muller, and David Wells. Frame had reviewed Muller’s The Study of Theology: From Biblical Interpretation to Contemporary Formulation (Zondervan, 1991). Muller then responded in the same year in the same journal with “The Study of Theology Revisited: A Response to John Frame.” This generated a response from Frame where he defends something “close to Biblicism.” David Wells responds to Frame’s “biblicism” article in the same issue of Westminster Theological Journal. Muller then responded again, outlining his understanding of the nature of theology. Finally, in the same issue of Westminster Theological Journal, Frame wrote a reply to Muller and David Wells. Briefly put, Frame was arguing for something like “biblicism,” while Muller and Wells were arguing for something like a historically-rooted version of classical theism.

Carl Trueman and Graeme Goldsworthy

Next, a similar debate occurred in 2002 between Carl Trueman and Graeme Goldsworthy. The lines of division are not perhaps the exact same, but they are similar. In his inimitable style, Professor Trueman suggests that the “biblical-theological/redemptive historical movement from Moore College” (i.e., the general conservative Evangelical stream of biblical theology) was a welcome development in 20^th century Evangelical theology. However, we now see a kind of crisis in Evangelical systematic theology, and it seems that the discipline and tools of biblical theology are of only some use in navigating this current crisis.

The triumph of biblical theology may be leading Evangelicals to give short shrift to the historical/dogmatic tradition, which is always in need of explication, and of being applied in new situations. Perhaps the economic emphases in biblical theology are not especially helpful in hammering out the necessary ontological work of systematic theology. Trueman wants to encourage his fellow “rebels” to do more than biblical theology; he wants them to return to the creedal tradition of the church, securing ontology not simply the economy.

In a subsequent issue of Themelios, Graeme Goldsworthy responded. Goldsworthy is happy to grant that there might be a crisis in systematic theology, but he asserts that biblical theology is not to blame for that. Goldsworthy also argues—contra Truman—that biblical theology, properly practiced most certainly does not entail a rejection of ontological considerations. Goldsworthy argues for the “interdependence of ontology and economy.”

In an interesting move, Goldsworthy is quite happy (and eager) to note that biblical theology already presumes a kind of dogmatic starting point—the canon of Scripture as God’s inspired Word. As Goldsworthy notes, “The very idea of doing biblical theology can only proceed from having first formulated dogmatic constructs, however tentatively.” Goldsworthy argues that attention to the economy (especially the Son’s incarnation and earthly life, death, and resurrection) and to reflection upon the economy all drive the process of systematic theology in general and “ontology” in particular.

Goldsworthy approvingly quotes the former Moore Theological College principal, Peter Jensen: “Without biblical theology, doctrine is arbitrary, but without doctrine, biblical theology is ineffective.” Goldsworthy argues, “We cannot formulate dogma without biblical theology, but we cannot do biblical theology without dogmatic constructs.” As Goldsworthy sees it, systematic theology needs biblical theology: “Systematic theology is plainly impossible without biblical theology.” Indeed, “Biblical theology is necessary to prevent this de-historicizing of the gospel by anchoring the person and work of Christ into the continuum of redemptive history that provides the ‘story-line’ of the whole Bible.” And finally, from Goldsworthy, “You will never be a good biblical theologian if you are not also striving to be a good systematic and historical theologian, and you will never be a good systematic theologian if you ignore biblical and historical theology.”

Classical Theism and Thomism

Third, in recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in both “classical theism,” as well as Thomism.^[1] While these realities are currently “hot topics,” they seem to me to have a kind of genealogical connection to what we have just covered. But especially in terms of Thomism and Evangelicals, we might look back a few years to Arvin Vos’s^[2] Aquinas, Calvin, and Contemporary Protestant Thought: A Critique of Protestant Views on the Thought of Thomas Aquinas (Eerdmans, 1985), but more recently David Van Drunen and David Sytsma, Aquinas Among the Protestants (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017). And yet even more recently, we might think of a 2022 issue of Matthew Barrett’s Credo: “What Can Protestants Learn from Thomas Aquinas?” Crossway has even announced a five-volume series, “Thomas Aquinas for Protestants,” under the editorship of Matthew Barrett and Craig Carter.

Equally, we should not ignore the important book by James Dolezal, All That is in God: Evangelical Theology and the Challenge of Classical Christian Theism (Reformation Heritage Books, 2017). In this volume, Dolezal claims to detect a dangerous trend (“theistic mutualism”) in the ranks of Evangelical theologians. Dolezal defines “theistic mutalism” as “the belief that any meaningful relationship between God and man must involve God in a transaction wherein He receives some determination of being from His creatures.”^[3] Dolezal considers a wide array of Evangelical theologians, biblical scholars, and philosophers to be “theistic mutualists”: John Frame, Bruce Ware, D.A. Carson, J.I. Packer, Donald Macleod, Ronald Nash, and others. The answer to this challenge is a kind of reappropriation of Thomism. But it is worth noting that Dolezal, like Trueman, sees serious problems (or deficiencies) with a reliance on biblical theology. Dolezal writes, “The contemplative approach to theology has been somewhat obscured in recent history by the rise of biblical theology as a specialized method of theological inquiry.”^[4] And he continues:

These two approaches [“contemplative theology” and “biblical theology”] to Christian doctrine need not be in conflict. I readily affirm that biblical theology has been a profound catalyst for improving and enriching our understanding of the progress of redemption.^[5]

A nice gesture, but then:

But it seems to me that biblical theology, with its unique focus on historical development and progress, is not best suited for the study of theology proper.^[6]

6. Dolezal, All That is in God, xv.

Now we are getting to the heart of the matter:

The reason for this is because God is not a historical individual, and neither does His intrinsic activity undergo development or change. This places God beyond the proper focus of biblical theology.^[7]

7. Dolezal, All That is in God, xv.

Steven Duby has also articulated something similar to what Dolezal is arguing. When he summarizes his book, God in Himself: Scripture, Metaphysics, and the Task of Christian Theology, Duby writes:

This study has attempted to set forth a rationale for the pursuit of theologia in the strict sense of the word: knowledge of God in himself without primary reference to the economy.^[8]

8. Steven J. Duby, God in Himself: Scripture, Metaphysics, and the Task of Christian Theology. Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019), 293.

Along similar lines, we might point to two recent articles by Michael Allen—a two-part essay, simply entitled, “Systematic Theology and Biblical Theology.”^[9] Peter Nesbitt, in another Christ Over All essay, addresses Allen’s argument, so I will be brief. Allen, who is himself sympathetic to the resurgent interest in “classical theism” (and especially over against his former colleague, John Frame), is suggesting—somewhat like Trueman, that the rise of biblical theology met a need at the time, but it may be time for Evangelicals to shift focus a bit. In short, Evangelicals must always give proper emphasis to the importance and place of Christian dogmatics. There are many helpful points in Allen’s essays, but one must ask the question: Are we really at a place where we need to move on from biblical theology?

9. Part 1 is hyperlinked first, and part 2 is hyperlinked second.

Where Are We At?

I have offered a very brief genealogical sketch to try and illustrate that there is an ongoing discussion (most nicely put) or intramural skirmish (more realistically put) between two very general camps: Those who are more-or-less in the “biblical theology camp,” and those who are more-or-less in the “systematic theology/classical theism” camp. This schema is no doubt too simplistic. I am generalizing to try and get a hold of where we—as Evangelicals—are.

I find myself in an interesting position. I have over a quarter of century teaching theology, and I have taught what is generally called “classical theism.” I have utilized the works of Richard Muller, Paul Helm, Gerald Bray from our own era. I have utilized Frances Turretin and others from the Protestant Scholastics. I have utilized Muller’s superb Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms—both when teaching theology at the seminary level, and when teaching Latin at the undergraduate level. At the same time, I have utilized the works of John Murray, Cornelius Van Til, Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., John Frame, Vern Poythress, and particularly Graeme Goldsworthy. These are my people, and I will always be indebted to them.

There is a lot that might be said about the “state of biblical theology today.” Let me simply offer a few general summative thoughts about the current state of biblical theology today, focusing my attention on the current (but also ongoing and reaching back a number of years) discussion related to the relationship of biblical theology to systematic theology (and classical theism).

1. I hope that biblical theology never loses its purchase and place in Evangelical Theology.

When I read someone like John Murray or Graeme Goldsworthy, the great value is that it appears I am trying to work to theological conclusions that inextricably flow from, and are grounded in, the biblical text. I understand that my systematic theology/classical theism friends will immediately thrust up their hands and say, “Me too!” Granted. My point is this. Having been in this world for over thirty years (if we go back to Ph.D. days), it is completely possible and virtually likely that, depending on one’s context, one could do a Ph.D. in theology at a prestigious school, and do very little meaningful work in the biblical text. One of the reasons I will be eternally grateful for stumbling upon Goldsworthy’s According to Plan many years ago is that I was forced to reckon with the centrality of the Bible. And this leads to my next point.

2. The importance of attending to the structure of the biblical canon should never be abandoned.

Again, my systematic theology and classical theism friends (and they are my friends) are raising their hands. Fair. My point is this, biblical theology nourishes the theological endeavor by keeping front and center that it is not just “abstract” notions with which we are concerned, but that it is necessary to attend to what we have in front of us—the biblical canon. Vos was clear that both biblical theology and systematic theology are “biblical.” The difference is that biblical theology is more of a “line” and systematic theology is more of a “circle.” That is, both biblical theology and systematic theology “transform” the biblical material. They do something with it. As Vos sees it, “In Biblical Theology this principle is one of historical, in Systematic Theology it is one of logical construction.” ^[10] When I hear certain persons warning that attention to the economy is not very helpful for “contemplative theology,” I get nervous. If “true” or “contemplative” theology is not nourished by close attention to attending to what God has done in history, I am concerned.

10. Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2014), 25.

3. The best way to relate biblical and systematic theology will continue to be an essential issue.

I do not see this issue going away anytime soon, and it should not. Perhaps those of us who teach in both of these areas can be of help. We shall see. At best these disciplines should be friends. And most persons in this discussion—if I understand them—would essentially agree. For these two disciplines to mutually reinforce each other, Goldsworthy (cheekily?) suggests the imagery of “perichoresis,” a term he borrows from systematic theology. Indeed, it will require theologians who have some expertise or capability in both fields. And I believe the best of Evangelical theology will always be flipping back in one’s Bible to think, re-think, and re-think again whether one’s theological construction or suggestion really flows from the biblical text.

Affirming a Bible-in-hand type of systematic contemplation, I think Michael Allen may have overshot things just a bit. For in one sense, I think the world of biblical theology is just getting started. Let me offer an example.

I have spent some 30 years reading Augustine, writing on Augustine, and teaching Augustine. It would have been quite easy to—early on—simply decide to be an Augustine scholar and not really be too concerned with the minutiae of the actual biblical text. But if one is a true theologian, and is reading Augustine, one must always be asking: “Did Augustine get things right here?” “Why is Augustine one of the patron saints of Roman Catholicism?” “Was Warfield right when he said that the Reformation was the victory of Augustine’s doctrine of grace, while Roman Catholicism is the victory of Augustine’s doctrine of the church?” These questions drive the historical and systematic theologian back to the Bible.

In short: the Evangelical theologian must always be doing the hard work of re-thinking and re-working one’s theological constructions according to Scripture. He or she will always be aware that even the greatest of our theological heroes could be woefully and tragically mistaken. And thus, in keeping with the Reformation, we will semper reformanda—always be reforming.

Conclusion

There is much more that could be said, but I hope biblical theology continues to develop and strive and blossom—and I hope systematic theology does the same. We must practice biblical theology and systematic theology in such a way that these two streams interpenetrate one another again,^[11] so that both continue to grow and thrive. May God bring it about.

11. Again, think Goldsworthy’s image of “perichoresis.”

Just as it is possible to overindulge on chocolate cake, or to feed a nursing infant prematurely, so it is possible to overload sermons with biblical theology and to overburden Christians with an endless array of canonical connections. I’ve seen it done, and I am guilty of doing it myself. So, for as much as I want to commend the practice of biblical theology in the church, I want to offer a few cautions (along with accompanying encouragements) before the eager biblical theologian opens a can, as they say.

In what follows, I will offer seven practical cautions for bringing biblical theology to church. In all, I hope this essay offers the novice and the seasoned pastor helpful reflections on bringing biblical theology to church, so that everyone might benefit.

Seven Cautions for Biblical Theology

1. Don’t overload your sermons with biblical theology.

As long as I have been preaching, I have loved tracing biblical themes from one side of the Bible to the other. But one thing I have learned over time is that such “road trips” are not easy to follow. And this is especially true for the young Christian who is still using the Table of Contents to find the Psalms. Thus, the wise pastor will know his sheep and where and how much to illustrate preaching with biblical-theological themes.

Biblical theology is like salt. A pinch gives the dish flavor, but too much makes the meal inedible. I would encourage pastors to season their preaching with biblical theology, but not to make biblical theology the main course. As a rule of thumb, I try to limit myself to one main biblical-theological connection per sermon.

Letting the congregation rest in one text is usually more effective than flipping all over the Bible. Practically then, when supporting texts are needed, I will either mention them (and encourage the church to read them later), read them without turning to the passage, or will include the text on the screen. Whenever possible, our church will also read a related text earlier in the service, so that as I preach, I can call to mind a passage that everyone just heard.

Beware of turning a text into a springboard for biblical theology and chasing down passages from all over the Bible. Biblical theology should season the text you are preaching, but the text should never be a caddie for your typological fancies or biblical theological interests. Don’t overload your sermons with biblical theology; instead, let biblical theology flavor your preaching.

2. Don’t limit biblical exposition to only explaining one verse at a time.

Expositional preaching can easily get stuck in the rut of verse-by-verse-by-verse teaching. While such preaching ensures that every verse is covered, it quickly devolves into mere commentating. Commentaries are good for the shelf, but not for the pulpit. Preaching requires inflaming the affections of our hearers for God, not just giving them information. But preaching that merely explains one verse at a time without consideration of the larger structure or over all thrust of the passage often turns the message into a bare information transfer. And unless preachers can discern the difference, their love for studying the Bible can easily fail to stoke affections in their hearers.

Preaching effectively, therefore, requires the preacher to identify the claim the text makes upon the hearer, and then the preacher should make the same claim in the sermon.^[1] Doing this requires attention to the larger structure of the passage, the role it plays in its context of the book, as well as its placement in the biblical canon. Hence, biblical theology will always play a part in the preparation of a sermon, even if it doesn’t make an appearance in the final manuscript.

1. I am grateful for Mike Bullmore and his recent teaching at our church on this point.

Accordingly, preachers should let the text decide the way a sermon should be preached, more than deciding ahead of time to preach a verse-by-verse exposition. Just the same, while some expositional preaching dives deep into a single verse, it should also tackle whole books. As a preacher, you should look for ways to preach bigger chunks of Scripture, as this will help your church see the whole Bible.

To be sure, you can make mistakes here, too—like when I preached 150 psalms in 5 sermons—but the bigger mistake is not preaching larger sections of Scripture. More positively, when you do preach smaller sections, always help your people see the bigger picture of the book. This means studying books as literary units and helping your people see how the trees fit into the forest.

So, don’t limit biblical exposition to only explaining one verse at a time, but let your growth in biblical theology help you preach larger sections of Scripture to show the goodness and glory of the whole Bible.

3. Don’t decide your preaching calendar only by what your congregation wants.

In most cases, those who go to church in our modern, sound-bite world want sermons that are enjoyable (or entertaining) and quickly applicable. But is this what they need? Preachers, as shepherds who feed their flock, should always prayerfully consider the “dietary” needs of their church. Preaching series and selecting books should be chosen for the purpose of providing a healthy diet, more than placating the wishes of semi-mature sheep.

Every church needs the undiluted word of God—all sixty-six books of the Bible. But sadly, it is possible to be a lifelong expositor and only give the church one testament, or those parts of the Bible that are most familiar. But such a truncated diet leaves out critical nutrients.

Mature disciples of Christ are formed by the whole Bible, which presents the whole character of God in Christ. As the Lord allows, pastors should find a way to preach the whole counsel of God’s Word, even if the congregation is not craving this (yet!). In time, a congregation led by the Spirit of God will desire both testaments, especially when they are preached with clarity.

Thus, when a pastor who is convicted to bring biblical theology to church, he should do so in a way that is palatable to his congregation. Knowing that he is competing against appetites for other forms of preaching, he should labor to make his preaching as compelling as possible, so that the fruits of biblical theology are sweet to the hearer.

In the end, don’t decide your preaching calendar only by what your congregation wants, but with prayer and patience, show them the goodness of the whole Bible.

4. Don’t ignore the condition of your flock.

If preaching the whole counsel of God’s Word is your goal, as it should be, this doesn’t mean you should start with a two-year trek through Exodus or a Martyn Lloyd-Jones-paced exposition of Romans.^[2] Be wise. Just as Scripture speaks of milk and meat for various levels of maturity, so pastors must understand what kind of exposition their people can digest.

2. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, pastor of Westminster Chapel in London, England from 1938–68, preached 366 sermons on Romans over the course of twelve years (1955–68).

To a church that has never had exposition, smaller letters from Paul, a short series in the Psalms, or a selection from a Gospel (like the Sermon on the Mount) may be better than tackling a long book. As churches grow in their delight in God’s Word, they will grow in stamina, too. Equally, young pastors would do well to master smaller books before trekking through longer ones. In short, pastors should know their flock (and themselves) and preach such that their church can follow along—and want to come back for more!

To frame the idea differently, when our church goes through a book of the Bible, I see it as an exodus-like, whole-congregation journey. As a pastor, I don’t want to preach at my people; I want to lead them in God’s Word on a journey towards the Lord. Like a wise trainer knows the pace that he prescribes for his runners, so pastors should equip the saints with God’s Word at a pace that will stretch them, but not sideline them.

So, don’t ignore the condition of your flock, but let the maturity of your church set the pace for preaching with biblical theology.

5. Don’t be satisfied with preaching the whole Bible.

To preach Christ from all corners of the Bible is hard work. It takes time to learn how each book of the Bible fits into a canon that leads to Christ. It also takes time to understand how each part of a book makes up the message of that book and how to move from the ext to Christ and from Christ to us.

In practical terms, Simeon Trust has been most helpful for me here. The principles provided by that ministry have furnished tools that have turned esoteric terms like “textual, epochal, canonical” into a weekly exercise for seeing Christ in all the Bible. For those who preach regularly, Simeon Trust is a helpful resource for improving your ability to read Scripture and preach the gospel from all parts of the Bible. Yet, the most important part of making connections in Scripture is not a program, but a lifetime of saturating yourself with Scripture.

Most of the connections I see in Scripture do not come from commentaries—although they often help. Rather, most connections in the Bible come from years of reading the Bible and looking for the ways in which Scripture presents the gospel through type, shadow, promise, and fulfillment. In short, biblical theology is important for preaching, but it must always lead to Christ, who is the Life and Life-Giver in any sermon.

So, don’t be satisfied with just preaching from the whole Bible, but show how the whole Bible relates to Christ and to those who are looking for him (unbelievers) and to him (believers).

6. Don’t demand that your people get biblical theology quickly.

My wife grew up in a church that loved the Bible, but such love for the Bible did not explain to her how the whole Bible fit together. In short, her church was Bible-rich, but biblical theology-poor. When she came to Bible College, it took her years of sitting under various professors and pastors before she began to see how the whole Bible fit together. In short, appreciating the Bible and understanding biblical theology are not the same. And always, understanding the Bible takes more time.

With that in mind, don’t let your passion for biblical theology overwhelm others. Instead, your passion for biblical theology should stir curiosity and interest. With patience and gentleness, introduce the ways in which the Bible fits together, but don’t be surprised if people don’t see it right away. Equally, don’t get upset if the connections you see are met with suspicion or skepticism. Instead, be humble, patient, and willing to wait on the Spirit to give light. The dearth of biblical theology is often generational and it will take time to introduce—sometimes it will take a lifetime.

Regardless, be patient and don’t demand that your people get biblical theology quickly.

7. Don’t give up!

For anyone who has come to understand biblical theology, you know it is one of the most important spiritual disciplines for reading the Bible, worshiping God, walking in truth, counseling others, and even thinking about missions, ecclesiology, and politics. For that reason, bringing biblical theology to the church is essential, not optional.

That said, biblical theology that will serve the church must not be a purely academic discipline. Biblical theology for the church must be a steadfast endeavor of helping people to read the Bible with eyes to see, know, trust, and follow Christ. And for these reasons, bringing biblical theology to the church is a test of endurance. But such a slow process is worth the time and the effort. So don’t give up.

In all, I pray these seven cautions might help you bring biblical theology to your church. For indeed, the church needs the full counsel of God, as well as pastors who will preach and pray to that end.

May God be pleased to fill his pulpits and his churches with Christ-centered biblical theology.

Across the pages of Scripture, we find public persons, historical events, and heavenly institutions, playing significant roles in their own day and for generations to come. To the sevenfold list just offered, we could add seventy-seven more. For throughout God’s plan of salvation, there are persons, events, and institutions ordained by God to give us the rise and fall of biblical history. Yet, these historical figures, and the stories that introduce them, also form the basis for biblical types that foreshadow future events.

For those who read the New Testament, it doesn’t take long to see how the Apostles explain the person and work of Jesus through the categories of the Old Testament. Jesus is a prophet like Moses, a priest like Melchizedek, a king like David, and a spotless lamb like the sacrifices of Leviticus and Numbers. Just the same, when we open the Old Testament, we find passages that resemble (or better: prefigure) the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. In a word, Scripture is unified around the revelation of God’s Son (Luke 24:27; John 5:39; Heb. 1:1–2; 2 Pet. 1:10–12), and if we are going to understand the Bible and its variegated-yet-unified message, we must come to grips with biblical types and something called typology.

But what is typology? And how do types work?

Is typology a way of reading Scripture, wherein the interpreter employs a typological method of reading? Or, is typology something we find in the text itself, a God-inspired way of writing that assumes the Spirit of God has inspired every word of Scripture, including the types and shadows that point to something later and greater? Who makes a type? Are types in the eyes of the beholder? Or are types something given to us by God and revealed to us in Scripture?

How one answers these questions will have a massive impact on how they interpret Scripture and do biblical theology. For in fact, different types of biblical theology (e.g., dispensational, covenantal, Roman Catholic, etc.) emerge from differing approaches to typology. This is a point made by Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum in Kingdom through Covenant.^[1] It is also evidenced in the way Graeme Goldsworthy introduced macro-typology as a significant pillar for his own approach to biblical theology.^[2] Likewise, biblical theologian Jim Hamilton has spent considerable time on typology, proving again that you cannot do biblical theology without having a firm grasp on typology.^[3]

But this only stresses the point: What is typology?

In this essay, I want to introduce typology as a literary feature of God’s inspired Word. Without going into all the academic debates, I will define typology and then demonstrate how typology is discerned in Scripture.^[4] Indeed, our all-wise God introduced biblical patterns (types) into history and Scripture in order to bring his plan of salvation to completion in Jesus Christ. And receiving his written revelation, Christians must now understand how typology works in the Bible so that they can make sense of the big picture and its many interconnected parts. Accordingly, seeking to understand how types work in the Bible is not just an exercise in the esoteric; it is vital for all forms of biblical interpretation and spiritual formation.

4. David Schrock, “What Designates a Valid Type? A Christotelic, Covenantal Proposal,” Southeastern Theological Review 5.1 (Summer 2014): 3–26; David Schrock, “From Beelines to Plotlines: Typology That Follows the Covenantal Topography of Scripture,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 21.1 (Spring 2017): 35–56.

With that in mind, let’s define typology.

What is a Type?

When Sam Emadi and I wrote our dictionary article on “Typology” in the Dictionary of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, we defined typology as

The study of patterns (types) in the Bible that escalate over time until they find their intended fulfillment in Christ and his Church. Like seeds planted in the soil of the OT, biblical types are persons, places, events, and institutions that develop across redemptive history until they reach full-flower in God’s climactic revelation in Christ. God designed types as a form of revelation to prepare the way for his Son and in the fullness of time, biblical types proved to be an important way NT authors demonstrated that Jesus was the Christ.^[5]

5. David Schrock and Samuel Emadi, “Typology,” in Dictionary of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2023), 897. This definition follows the train of many other scholars that conjoin textual correspondence and theological escalation across redemptive history. For instance, Leonard Goppelt’s definition is a standard, “Only historical facts—persons, actions, events, and institutions—are material for typological interpretation; words and narratives can be utilized only insofar as they deal with such matters. These things are to be interpreted typologically only if they are considered to be divinely ordained representations or types of future realities that are even greater and more complete. If the antitype does not represent a heightening of the type, if it is merely a repetition of the type, then it can be called typology only in certain instances and in a limited way.” Leonard Goppelt, Typos: The Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament in the New (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 17–18.

From this opening definition, we showed how the Spirit of Christ inspired the Old Testament prophets (from Moses to Malachi) to introduce types (persons, places, events, and institutions) in Scripture, in accordance with the details of history, such that they would form the backdrop for the Son to come into the world. Thus, we argued that types in the Old Testament are prospective, as they move from the Law through the Prophets and Writings to Jesus. Equally, we showed how the New Testament authors penned their Spirit-inspired testimony to Christ by means of applying Old Testament patterns to the person and work of Christ and his Church. In this way, we suggested the New Testament patterns of speech were retrospective. Together, the whole Bible points to Jesus Christ such that those who want to be conformed into Christ’s image must see how these types naturally lead to their divinely intended goal—namely, Jesus Christ.

Thus, types are placed in redemptive history and biblical revelation by the Spirit of God, so that those who trust in Christ might see them and understand what they are saying. Yet, believing that they are there and proving their presence is not the same. And that is where this essay picks up to offer you three characteristics of biblical types and five ways to see them in Scripture. So let’s look.

Three Characteristics of a Biblical Type

First, “type” is a biblical word.

Across the New Testament, we learn that Paul and the author of Hebrews use the Greek word typos to describe people (Adam in Romans 5:14), events (the history of Israel in 1 Corinthians 10:6), and institutions (the tabernacle in Hebrews 8:5). Yet, translated by the ESV, the English reader might not immediately make the connection to typology, because the word typos is rendered as “type,” “examples,” and “pattern, “ respectively. Likewise, when Peter compares Christian baptism to Noah’s ark, he uses the word antiypon, or “correspondence” (1 Pet. 3:21). In other words, he sees baptism as the antitype and Noah’s ark as the type.^[6]

6. For a complete exegetical investigation of the New Testament use of typos, see Richard Davidson, Typology in Scripture: A Study of Hermeneutical TYPOS Structures (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1981).

Clearly, each of these uses is unique and needs to be examined in context. But the point to be made is twofold. First, types are found in Scripture and named by various apostles. And second, without restricting types to those named in the New Testament, types can and should be defined by their use in Scripture.^[7] In other words, while many have employed various literary theories to define typology, this moves too quickly. Scripture itself is the first and best place to define typology, and so we should look there.

7. For an example of typology that is not named in the New Testament, see Sam Emadi, From Prisoner to Prince: The Joseph Story in Biblical Theology, New Studies in Biblical Theology (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2022).

Even if various literary theorists have provided worthwhile tools and concepts for furthering our understanding of typology, we must recognize that the Bible itself gives us definitions and direction for seeing what the Spirit inspired. Jesus himself taught his disciples how to read the Old Testament, and even before Christ and the gift of the Spirit, the prophets of Israel showed great sensitivity to the way in which they spoke and wrote based upon previous patterns of sound doctrine. Thus, the first characteristic of biblical types is that they are explicitly named in Scripture and we should learn from the inspired authors how to understand them.

Second, biblical types are historical realities, not metaphysical mysteries.

While philosophers like Plato have used “typology” to speak of metaphysical realities, and some biblical scholars have argued that books like Hebrews are employing platonic categories, we need to see that in Scripture, typology is always rooted in history. To put it differently, types in the Bible are not signs or symbols that point to some rational idea or moral norm outside of the Bible. Instead, they are evidences of divine revelation. As God spoke to his prophets verbally, so he also revealed himself to his prophets visually.

For instance, Moses received a vision of heaven on Mount Sinai that would correspond to the tabernacle he would build through the Spirit-filled artisans led by Bezalel. As we read in Exodus 25:9, 40, Moses was given a pattern for the tabernacle. And as Hebrews 8:5 tells it, the earthly tent was a copy of the heavenly original. But also, as Ardel Caneday has observed, this vertical correspondence between the heavenly temple and its earthly type brought into history a prophetic revelation. That is to say, the tabernacle that was revealed from heaven became a historical type that pointed to the day when Christ would first become a greater temple (John 1:14) and then enter the true temple made without hands (Heb. 9:11, 24).

To move from the specific example of the tabernacle to the ongoing pattern in the Old Testament, God introduced into history persons, events, institutions, as well as covenants, that brought redemption to Israel (think: the exodus). Yet, these historical realities also prepared the way for a greater salvation, which is why they are called types. With the benefit of historical perspective, we see that these things are prospective pointers to later and greater realities. Indeed, this heightening of expectations is called “escalation,” and it explains the historical relationship between type and antitype, or shadow and substance, as Colossians 2:17 and Hebrews 10:1 frame it.

At the same time, it is important to see that types in the Bible are more than a superficial comparison between two similar persons, events, or institutions. Rather, between Adam and Jesus there are countless “Adams” (Noah, Abraham, Melchizedek, David, etc.) who reinforce the pattern and bring the last Adam ever closer. The same is true with the tabernacle, which is followed by Moses’s tabernacle, David’s meeting house (1 Chron. 6:31–32), Solomon’s temple, the second temple, and finally Jesus and his church. Events like the Passover are also repeated in history, as Rahab’s salvation depends upon a Passover-like event (Joshua 2), and Zechariah’s visions of salvation come in the middle of the night (Zechariah 1–6).

In the end, these typological structures, which are composed of multiple, escalating types, become a significant part of reading the Bible and seeing what God has revealed. Put negatively, one cannot understand Jesus Christ as prophet, priest, king, temple, sacrifice, or anything else without a biblical typology rooted in history and the progress of revelation. In this way, biblical types are rooted in history and revealed in the text of Scripture.

Third, biblical types must be discernible from the biblical text and not just the imagination of the interpreter.

In church history and among academics, there have been many debates about what makes a type valid and how Christians can recognize them in Scripture. In the definition above, I pointed to a few things that spotlight biblical types, but now I will get more specific. Here are five ways to identify a type in Scripture.

1. Some types are explicitly identified.

As we have seen already, some types are named in Scripture. In Romans 5:14 Adam is a type of Christ; Hebrews 8:5 calls the tabernacle a type of the true temple in heaven; and Peter says baptism “corresponds to” Noah’s watery salvation as a means of salvation (1 Pet. 3:21). There are other types, however, that do not employ the word typos, but remain typological. For instance, Peter says that Jesus is a prophet like Moses in Acts 3:22–26 (cf. Deut. 18:15–18); Paul calls Jesus the Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7); Hebrews 5–7 compares Jesus to Melchizedek (cf. Genesis 14; Psalm 110). In fact, the whole book of Hebrews teaches Christians how to see the shadows of Christ surpassed in his substance, but that takes us beyond the explicit typology of the New Testament.

2. Some types are connected to a series of biblical images.

That is to say, there are certain “biblical threads” that progress throughout the Bible.^[8] Usually, these threads start with a historical person, event, or institution, they experience some form of escalation within the Old Testament itself, and then they find their greatest fulfillment in Christ and sometimes, by extension, the church. A few examples of this typology include the exodus/exile, tabernacle/temple, the promised land, priests and kings, marriage and adultery, and the biblical covenants. Indeed, every book in Crossway’s Short Studies in Biblical Theology is employing some degree of biblical typology. And if you want to see how these things develop go read one of those. Maybe start here, with my personal favorite.

8. Goldsworthy, Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics, 253–56, calls these macro-types. He lists eighteen different macro-types: God and creation; God’s breath and the creation of human beings; Eden and dominion over creation; redemption; covenant and calling; promises of land, people, name, and blessing; captivity and exodus; prophetic word; law structures; redemptive temple worship; possession of the land; nationhood and leaders; kingship, temple, and David’s throne; Solomon and national decline; destruction and exile; prophetic ministries; and return and rebellion.

While each typological thread is developed in its own way, there will be a shared pattern of development. This is something I have called “covenantal topography,” and it is the idea that each typological structure in Scripture moves through the same covenant history and thus they each, in their own unique way, will form, deform, and reform over time. Or to put it canonically,

“types” are introduced in the Pentateuch, improved or deformed in the Prophets, and fulfilled in Christ (and his church). Therefore, when identifying types, we should be aware of more than the type. We must begin to see the typological structures from which they emerge.

3. Some types are evidenced from linguistic and/or sequential correspondence.

All valid types must have significant correspondence. The question is, “What makes correspondence significant?” Is the mere Old Testament mention of the color red enough to connect it to the cross and Jesus’s blood? Some think so; I don’t. Instead, there must be something more than a superficial resemblance.

To get concrete, here are two useful tests for discerning types.^[9] The first test is linguistic correspondence, which asks the question: Are there words or phrases shared between the type and antitype? It is possible that different words or terms are being employed, but shared language heightens the correspondence. The second test is sequential correspondence, which looks for a common arrangement of events. Of course, later sequencing could actually reverse an earlier referent, if the author was being ironic. For instance, Jeremiah 4:23–26 reverses the days of creation in order to prove de-creation. Nevertheless, the reversal is the point and one cannot fully understand the prophet’s message without identifying his dependence on Genesis 1.

9. These tests are derived from James M. Hamilton Jr., “Was Joseph a Type of the Messiah? Tracing the Typological Identification between Joseph, David, and Jesus,” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 12.4 (2008): 52–77.

Together, these two tests provide a good starting place for identifying types. And more, these tests show the skeptical that types are not a fanciful game that the imaginative play with Scripture. Rather, discovering biblical types and the connections between type and antitype are an exercise of faithful hermeneutics that is always governed by the text.

4. Some types are confirmed by their relationship to biblical covenants.

In addition to linguistic and sequential correspondence, we must also consider the relationship between biblical types and biblical covenants. From one angle, biblical covenants are comprised of multiple types. For instance, in the Sinai covenant, we find a marriage-like covenant at the Mountain of God (Exodus 19–20), where a mediator delivers the law of God to the people of God (Exodus 21–24, 32–34), such that God would be able to dwell with Israel (Exodus 25–40). Without even considering the typology of the redemption (i.e., the Passover, the victory at the Red Sea, water-giving rock, etc.), it is clear that this covenant sets a pattern for others and is itself formed by previous covenants too.

At the same time, biblical types are governed by the covenants in which they are formed. To say it differently, biblical covenants help situate and clarify what is significant about the relationship between the type and its fulfillment. As I have written elsewhere, the faithful interpreter “must show from the text how the type corresponds to its covenantal context.”^[10] Thus, biblical types do not simply escalate from the Old to the New; they escalate by means of biblical covenants. Hence, when students of Scripture begin to learn about types, they must also attend to the various covenants that develop in Scripture.

10. Schrock, “What Designates a Valid Type? A Christotelic, Covenantal Proposal,” Southeastern Theological Review 5.1 (Summer 2014): 5.

5. Some types aren’t types at all but another form of connection.

Finally, while biblical types are resident and repeated throughout the Bible, they are not the only way to move from one testament to the next. In fact, there are numerous ways. Some of these include promise-fulfillment (the prediction of the messiah’s birthplace in Micah 5:2 is fulfilled in Matthew 2:6), analogy (in the Old Testament Israel was called God’s bride; in the New Testament the church becomes the bride of Christ), and example (in 1 Corinthians 10 Paul uses the Old Testament as a moral example). These and other approaches to canonical exegesis are necessary for not making everything a type.

Indeed, the willingness and ability to dismiss a proposed type is what makes an interpreter credible. Truly, the Bible is filled with types and typological structures. But not everything is a type, and careful readers of Scripture will see that and help others to see it too.

Scratching the Surface, Saturating the Soul

All in all, these three characteristics of biblical types, combined with these five “best practices” for discerning a valid type, will help you get into the water of typology. Or better, they will help you swim in the water of God’s Word, an ocean filled with beautiful and challenging types (persons, events, and institutions) that reveal and conceal God’s glory (cf. Matt. 13:10–17).

Still, recognizing types in Scripture is not just a matter of mechanics. Truly, it requires Spiritual illumination (1 John 2:27) and the ongoing renewal of your mind (Rom 12:1–2), not to mention ongoing reading and reading with others. Truly, “seeing the connections” in Scripture is something that takes time and occurs when your soul is saturated with Scripture and your eyes of faith have learned from the apostles that all the promises have found their ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1:20).

Indeed, until we see Christ with our glorified eyes, let us know him more through biblical typology.

Fall has arrived, and death is in the air. The equinox has passed, and billions of leaves on millions of trees are turning colors and departing. It’s getting colder. And creation continues to groan under the weight of sin’s curse.

We have groaned, too. The untimely deaths of two allies and brothers in the faith shocked us. We did not initially plan to write on these men in our month on vocation, and yet the legacy and work ethic of Charlie Kirk (1993–2025) and Voddie Baucham (1969–2025) are worth celebrating and remembering. And while all our labors on this side of the new heavens and earth will culminate in death, our great hope lies beyond the grave in a living savior.

What do we do when a luminary’s light fades? We get to work, even as the days are getting shorter.

It takes work to understand what the Bible teaches about our labor, but by God’s grace, we got a lot done. This past month we defined how our vocation includes more than just our job, and we painted a picture of what faithfulness in our vocation looks like—which includes a rejection of Marxism and a long obedience in an “ordinary” labor. We outlined the needed attributes of godly ambition and risk-taking, and considered practical wisdom on how to work harder. Not everyone’s job aspirations will look the same, and thus we addressed particular considerations for single women, aspiring pastors, and Christian businessman. If you missed any of our articles or podcasts, you can find them below, with the longforms in bold.

• August Intermission: From the Four Gospels to the Doctrine of Vocation by Kevin McClure • Concise Article • Join us as we transition from the person and work of Christ in the four gospels to the work of grasping the doctrine of vocation.
• Faithful in All Things: Vocation and Christian Callings by Rod Martin • Longform Essay • Every calling is itself sacred, every task a trust, and every laborer accountable before the throne.
• 4.39 Rod Martin “Faithfulness in All Things: Vocation and Christian Callings” by Rod Martin • Longform Reading • Every calling is itself sacred, every task a trust, and every laborer accountable before the throne.
• Pouting Pulpits and Part-Time Pastors: Projection over Proclamation by David L. Bahnsen • Concise Article • When pastors model a mediocre work ethic, their example carries through to their congregation. Inversely, when a pastor has a servant-heart, is industrious, productive, and diligent, and does so without complaining or entitlement, he sets an excellent example for his congregation.
• The Calling of the Christian Businessman: Vocation and Capital Allocation as Worship by Jonathan Wellum • Concise Article • What does the Bible have to tell us about business and investments? More than you might think! Read as Jonathan Wellum draws on decades of business experience to show how Christians should use their capital well.
• Christianity Vs. Marxism by Jonathan Wellum • Concise Article • Can we combine a theory such as Marxism with our Christian faith? In this article, Jonathan Wellum displays how Marxist thought proves antithetical to the Bible’s witness concerning wealth, property, and labor.
• 4.40 Rod Martin, Trent Hunter, & Stephen Wellum “Faithfulness in All Things: Vocation and Christian Callings” by Rod Martin, Trent Hunter, and Stephen Wellum • Interview • Listen in as Trent Hunter and Stephen Wellum interview Rod Martin on his COA Essay “Faithfulness in All Things: Vocation and Christian Callings”
• Ambition, Careers, and Marriage: What’s a Single Godly Woman to Do? by Abigail Dodds • Concise Article • You’re a single godly woman, and you want to be married, but you’re not. What should you do?
• Brothers, Play the Tortoise: A Word to Aspiring Pastors by Sam Emadi • Concise Article • The young man hopping as fast as he can through seminary often short-circuits the necessary growth and wisdom he needs to have a long pastorate. But there’s a better (albeit slower) way.
• We Can’t Replace Charlie Kirk, But We Can Honor His Legacy: Five Ways to Amplify Truth, Freedom, and the American Way by Colin Smothers and David Schrock • Longform Essay • Charlie Kirk, who influenced a generation of young men, is gone. What do we do now?
• 4.41 Colin Smothers & David Schrock “We Can’t Replace Charlie Kirk, But We Can Honor His Legacy: Five Ways to Amplify Truth, Freedom, and the American Way” by Colin Smothers and David Schrock • Longform Reading • Charlie Kirk, who influenced a generation of young men, is gone. What do we do now?
• 4.42 Scott Polender, David Schrock, Trent Hunter, and Stephen Wellum “Grieving with Hope and Getting to Work: A Tribute to Charlie Kirk” by Scott Polender, David Schrock, Trent Hunter, and Stephen Wellum • Interview • Scott Polender of Turning Point Education joins our COA Roundtable to reflect on life, work, and ministry of Charlie Kirk.
• Stay-at-home Moms, Stay-at-work Dads? A Plea for Better Thinking on Vocation by Andrew Ballard • Concise Article • When little Sally is asked, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” we need to have categories that go beyond a nine-to-five job. We need to think in the Bible’s categories about vocation.
• The Turning Point of a Generation: Remembering Charlie Kirk by Scott Polender • Concise Article • What God is stirring in this generation is bigger than any one man, and yet it bears the mark of Charlie’s faithfulness. It seems we are standing at a true turning point: A moment when the Lord Jesus is reviving His church, raising up young people, and calling everyone to repentance.
• Sanctified Self-Interest or Subtle Greed? A Pauline Guide to Wealth Management by David Scott Kotter • Concise Article • Work for Christ, not greed. Every purchase asks: am I honoring God—or feeding subtle idolatry? Discover Paul’s balance sheet for the heart.
• Working As Unto the Lord: Seven Ways to Work Harder and Be Better by David Schrock • Longform Essay • In Ephesians 6:5–9, Paul shows that good works don’t happen by accident. Christ motivates, sanctifies, and coaches believers to work harder, be better, and glorify Him in every sphere of life.
• 4.43 David Schrock “Working As Unto the Lord: Seven Ways to Work Harder and Be Better” by David Schrock • Longform Reading • In Ephesians 6:5–9, Paul shows that good works don’t happen by accident. Christ motivates, sanctifies, and coaches believers to work harder, be better, and glorify Him in every sphere of life.
• The Risk in Getting and Giving by Jason Glas • Concise Article • No risk, no reward. Risk is essential to the Christian life, and it’s essential to turning a profit. This is a call for more risk-takers in the church.
• Why Young Men Wither: A Call for a Revival of Ambition by Tyler Cox • Concise Article • The strength of young men to serve the church and build the world is being sapped, and a recovery of godly ambition is the dire need of the day.
• A North Star for Our Generation: A Tribute to Voddie Baucham by David Schrock & Trent Hunter • Concise Article • We give thanks to God for one of his faithful servants, Voddie Baucham (1969–2025), and we remember his life with honor.
• 4.44 Trent Hunter, Stephen Wellum, & David Schrock • Interview • “Working As Unto the Lord: Seven Ways to Work Harder and Be Better” by Trent Hunter, Stephen Wellum, and David Schrock • Interview • Listen in as Trent Hunter and Stephen Wellum interview David Schrock on his essay, “Working As Unto the Lord: Seven Ways to Work Harder and Be Better”.
• Which Way, Christian?: A Contrast of David Platt’s Radical and Michael Horton’s Ordinary by Chad Lawrence • Concise Article • David Platt’s Radical is a corrective against the secular American Dream—but it swings too far the other direction. There is a better and more ordinary way.

We move on now from our labor on vocation to work on biblical theology. Biblical theology is “a way of analyzing and synthesizing the Bible that makes organic, salvation-historical connections with the whole canon on its own terms, especially regarding how the Old and New Testaments integrate and climax in Christ.”^[1]

1. Andrew David Naselli, How to Understand and Apply the New Testament: Twelve Steps from Exegesis to Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2017), 235. Or another way to describe it, biblical theology “proceeds with historical and literary sensitivity and seeks to analyze and synthesize the Bible’s teaching about God and his relations to the world on its own terms, maintaining sight of the Bible’s overarching narrative and Christocentric focus.” (Brian S. Rosner, “Biblical Theology,” in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, ed. T. Desmond Alexander and Brian S. Rosner [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2000], 10.

Biblical theology is indispensable to understanding the Bible. It rightly presupposes that the Bible is a divinely-authored diverse-yet-unified book with a true and consistent narrative that spans all of history. Jesus Christ is the ultimate climax of this true story of history, and biblical theology seeks to relate each biblical text in textually-warranted ways to him. Thus, biblical theology employs a Christocentric interpretation.

Typology

How does one do biblical theology? One primary aspect of biblical Theology is typology. “Typology is the study of the Old Testament redemptive historical realities or “types” (persons, events, institutions) which God has specifically designed to correspond to, and predictively prefigure, their intensified antitypical fulfillment aspects (inaugurated, appropriated, and consummated) in New Testament redemptive history.”^[2] So, for example, Adam is a type that prefigures Jesus, who is the antitype, or fulfillment (Rom. 5:14). God’s presence in Eden is a type that is fulfilled in God’s presence through the tabernacle (Exod. 40:34–35), the temple (1 Kings 8:10–11), through God the Son (Col. 1:19), through the gathered church (Matt. 18:20), and ultimately in the new heavens and earth (Rev. 21:3). Types are rooted in history and in the text of the Bible and they are predictive; types also involve repetition of a person, event, location, or institution, they escalate in significance, and they are developed through the covenants.^[3] Some aspect of typology is found on virtually every page of the Bible, as typology interweaves the major themes of the glory of God, creation, sin, covenant, law, temple, priest, sacrifice, exile and exodus, the kingdom of God, sonship, the city of God, prophets and prophecy, death and resurrection, people of God, wisdom, holiness, justice, wrath, love and grace, the gospel, worship, mission, shalom, the consummation.^[4]

Jesus and the apostles understood the Old Testament in typological ways. They saw that God had written a true story that culminated in the Son’s person and work. Jesus teaches in Luke 24:44 that “everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”^[5] Paul likewise teaches in 2 Corinthians 1:20 that “all the promises of God find their Yes in him [=Jesus],” (and this includes Old Testament promises within the greater context of 2 Corinthians [see 7:1]).^[6] If all of the three parts of the Old Testament (Law of Moses, Prophets, and Psalms) write about Christ, and if all the promises from the Old Testament find their fulfillment in Christ, then he must be the climax of the Old Testament.^[7] Thus, if we don’t read our Bibles in a biblical theological way, then we will not understand the scriptures.

Resurgence and Reception

There are many laypeople that have never heard of biblical theology, and especially those in non-reformed and non-denominational churches. But biblical theology, and especially Christocentric interpretation, has had a resurgence in the past couple decades. From the 2000s onward, there has been a great multiplication of resources advocating Christ-centered hermeneutics, which is an outworking of biblical theology. Graeme Goldsworthy’s According to Plan (2002) and Christ-Centered Biblical Theology (2012)^[8] along with Dennis Johnson’s Him We Proclaim (2007)^[9] provided additional hermeneutical support for Christocentrism. Sydney Greidanus has written many books helpfully applying this method to particular texts,^[10] while Tim Keller—for all his cultural missteps—has also popularized the method.^[11] Beyond these resources, many institutions have advanced this hermeneutic, including Westminster Seminary, the Charles Simeon Trust, ReachGlobal (the missions arm of the Evangelical Free Church in America), The Gospel Coalition, and 9Marks, to name a few.

There are others who have moved on from biblical theology, and who no longer see it as relevant to the interpretive enterprise. Some of these voices confuse the discussion by conflating typology with allegory (which is not right!). And some are more warm towards the medieval fourfold method of interpreting scripture—literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical. The problem with this four-fold method is that there are few textual controls; who is to say that my allegory of the Good Samaritan is more valid than your different allegory of it? In this context where competing interpretations exist, a magisterium—a type of “Supreme Court” to authoritatively rule on what is valid—is needed to adjudicate between different options. And thus, the four-fold method ultimately leads to a Wild West where each free-floating and subjective interpretation vies against others, or it leads to Roman Catholicism and its magisterium.^[12] But there’s a better way, and it’s found in a close reading of scripture that does typology by means of close verbal and textual connections within the biblical canon.

This month we have a lot in store. We plan to write on what biblical theology is, how it relates to the theological interpretation of Scripture (also known as TIS), and give an overview of the current state of biblical Theology. We plan to remember the pioneers and popularizers of modern biblical theology, and to unpack some of the concepts and interpretive methods. Finally, we hope to show what biblical theology looks like in action through examples. All in all, we hope to prove that biblical theology is essential to proper biblical interpretation.

12. Knox Brown, “The Wild Wild West, The Sirens of Rome, and the Hermeneutics of Christian Platonism,” Christ Over All, August 7, 2024.

News and Notes

First, September Was Our Birthday Month!

We just recently celebrated our three year birthday in September 2025. We are grateful to God for all of those who generously gave so that we might continue our mission of helping the church to see the Christ’s lordship is over everything. By God’s grace, we will steward these funds well and

Second, the Christ Over All Swag Store Is Here

Many of you have been asking for this in the past years, and it is now here. For those looking to get Christ Over All shirts, mugs, hoodies, stickers, and hats, our apparel store is up and running!

And for those who have asked for print-friendly versions of our articles, we have been working on putting all of our monthly themes into a beautiful and downloadable pdf file that can be purchased for a small fee. Lord willing, we plan to launch this by the end of October 2025.

Third, Be Aware of Our Upcoming Months.

We receive submissions from faithful Christians who have thought deeply about our topics. If you have expertise in one of the following topics in bold and are interested in writing for us (in line with our doctrinal distinctives), feel free to shoot us an e-mail to tell us what you are thinking.

• November 2025: Do the Reading: Selections in Political Theology
• December 2025: Christmas Buffet
• January 2025: Abolishing Abortion
• February 2025: Engaging Islam 
• March 2025: Can Anything Good Come from Nashville? An Investigation of Denominational Structures and Stewardship
• April 2025: The Cross, Resurrection, Ascension

Fourth, We’d Love To See You Face to Face in the Next Few Months.

On Monday, October 27th, Steve Wellum and Trent Hunter will be speaking in Mauldin, South Carolina at the Pastors Encouraging Pastors Conference. This conference is hosted by Christ Over All author Brad Baugham at Emmanuel Bible Church, and will focus on how the Bible fits together.

Also, David Schrock will be hosting a Simeon Trust Preaching Workshop in Woodbridge, Virginia at Occoquan Bible Church on October 14–16. If you are a pastor, preacher, or aspiring minister of the gospel, this hands-on workshop is well worth the time. Come and study the book of Zechariah with David Schrock, Mike Bullmore, and Erik Raymond. Or, if October doesn’t work, you can join Trent Hunter, David Helm, and Ryan Kelly in Greenville, SC, from January 28–30, 2006, for a Simeon Trust Workshop on Leviticus.

From November 18–20, 2025, all the Christ Over All editors will be at the Evangelical Theological Society in Boston. If you are there, please let us know, and keep an eye out for a late night meetup on Tuesday, November 19.

In 2026, we will be visiting Southwest Florida to join the Founders National Conference in Fort Myers on January 22–24. That week David Schrock will be one of the speakers, and we will have a booth. Sign up here to join us.

That’s all for now. Until next time, let’s remember that Christ is over all, so in all things we ought exalt him!