“Complementarians look at biological sex and gender, the psychosocial aspect of sex, through a teleological lens. We believe there’s a God-designed link between being male or female and the doing roles God has called us to inhabit as men and women.” - TGC
Published as a single article in DBSJ 2 (Fall 1997): 81–103. Used by permission.
Part 2 concluded that speaking of the believer as having “two natures” is not contrary to Scripture, but that a defective theology exists that happens to also use two-nature terminology. Here, Part 3 aims to “look more carefully at the scriptural descriptions of the believer’s struggle with sin” as groundwork for examining that defective theology.
Published as a single article in DBSJ 2 (Fall 1997): 81–103. Used by permission.
Part 2 continues Part 1’s consideration of what “nature” means in the “one or two natures” question.
As was previously noted, the use of the term nature as it relates to the question of one or two natures does not stem primarily from a particular text. Instead, it can more correctly be viewed as a theological term, essential to the discussion at hand, but whose meaning is generally derived from its common, ordinary usage. Webster, for example, defines nature as “the inherent character or basic constitution of a person or thing: essence, disposition, temperament.”1 Smith helpfully observes that
except when it is used for the material world or universe, the term “nature” does not designate a substance or an entity. Instead, it is a word which refers to the inherent or essential qualities of any substance or entity.2
Published as a single article in DBSJ 2 (Fall 1997): 81–103. Used by permission. Read the series.
In recent times the popular radio preacher and author, John MacArthur, has attacked the idea of two natures in the believer. He says at one point: “If you are a Christian, it’s a serious misunderstanding to think of yourself as having both an old and new nature. We do not have a dual personality!”1 Similar attacks have come from a number of others. J. I. Packer says: “A widespread but misleading line of teaching tells us that Christians have two natures: an old one and a new one.”2 John Gerstner labels the two-nature viewpoint “Antinomianism.”3 Are these attacks justified? Is it unbiblical to speak of two natures within the believer? This essay purposes to tackle the issue.
“The diploid alignment was even more dramatically divergent, showing a difference of 16.11% between humans and chimps. When sex chromosomes were analyzed, chimpanzee X chromosomes were over 20% different from ours, and Y chromosomes were an astonishing 95.68% different!” - Breakpoint
“We all wrestle with rules — especially the ones that tell us no. But what if the freedom we all seek isn’t in fighting of every perceived restriction but embracing the rules from the loving rule of the Creator that created us and the universe we occupy.” - Premier Christianity
“For fun, let’s explore some options…. Vocatio a Deo (from the Latin words vocatio for “calling” and a Deo for ‘from God,’ for ‘calling from God’)….Oikonomology … Praxiology…. Ergology (from ergon – Greek for ‘work’ or ‘deed’).” - IFWE
“The Church must have a theology of the body, or ‘disturbing’ science will fill in the blanks.” - Breakpoint
“Business harnesses human creativity and energy to benefit mankind in unique and powerful ways. Far from being immoral, business and markets help people develop virtue as they create value and wealth for themselves and others.” - L&L
“the creation mandate is nonetheless rightly called the dominion mandate, at times—and the cultural mandate, as we’ll see.3 It could just as easily be called the ‘multiply mandate’ or the ‘subduing mandate.’” - Mark Ward
