Posts by Grant Van Leuven

Posts by

The New Testament's Use of the Old Testament: David Rejoiced in His Son's Resurrection:Peter's Typological Use of Psalm 16 in Acts 2

Grant Van Leuven
Dec 25, 2015
I once saw a sobering reminder of our mortality and need for the Son of David. A missionary shared his video of a dead Jamaican man lying in a simple wooden box in a walk-in freezer. Another man hammered nails into the box’s top as casually as one might prepare freight for shipping. The dead man...

Systematic Theology Safely Frames Christ in Preaching Scripture

Grant Van Leuven
Sep 18, 2015
The subject of a picture is determined by how it is cropped. So Systematic Theology guides the minister’s eye in preaching Christ through the Scriptures. And for a Presbyterian, the Westminster Standards are the thematic writings that aid his thinking through the presentation of the Bible to his...

Beware of Vain Philosophy, But Do Seek and Love True Wisdom

Grant Van Leuven
Sep 4, 2015
In Colossians 2:8, Paul warns Christians to, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Does this command preclude philosophizing? That is, does God forbid “the love of wisdom”? Hardly! The...

A Biblical Survey of Adam's Significance to the Whole Story

Grant Van Leuven
Jul 27, 2015
When a character keeps popping up from cover to cover, you know that by his recurring presence the author is binding the whole book together. So the Holy Spirit shows Adam’s real historical existence as really important to the true story of sin and salvation by his protagonist role throughout...

What Do You Do with Your Pastor's Preaching?

Grant Van Leuven
Apr 10, 2015
How should you listen to a sermon? First, realize that you are responsible to actively (and thus, actually) listen. Like anything, you get personal benefit out of the preaching by what you put of yourself into the listening. Such self-accountability applies equally to the pastor. I often say to the...