Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 06070 The Old Testament does not use a single word for sin. It uses a rich vocabulary of overlapping terms that together paint a more complete picture of what sin actually is than any single word could capture. Three of those terms recur throughout the Hebrew Scriptures — and significantly, they appear together in…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 06067 The practice of confession sits at the intersection of theology and daily Christian experience. Most believers know they should confess sin to God, but questions arise about whether that private prayer is all that is ever required — or whether Scripture sometimes calls for something more. The answer is more layered than a…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09024 Few pastoral situations are more delicate or more important than the question of what the church should do when a member sins publicly. Get it wrong in one direction — moving too quickly, too harshly, or with the wrong spirit — and the church becomes a place of fear rather than grace. Get…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 06073 Can we be genuinely guilty before God for something we did not know was wrong? The question touches on the relationship between moral knowledge, intention, and accountability, and it has direct practical bearing on conscience, on the thoroughness of Christian self-examination, and on how wide the scope of God’s grace actually is. The…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 11068 Few questions in Christian living carry more confusion than the one about anger. Some believers conclude that any experience of anger is a failure of sanctification, and they spend their lives suppressing it or feeling guilty about it. Others treat every surge of anger as righteous indignation that needs no scrutiny. Scripture is…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 06074 The doctrine of original sin addresses one of the most basic questions in human experience: why do all people sin, and why is the world in the condition it is? The biblical answer traces everything back to a historical event in a real garden, with real consequences that have shaped every human life…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 06075 “Total depravity” is a term that has generated enormous confusion, largely because the word “total” sounds as if it means human beings are incapable of any good at all. The biblical truth the phrase is trying to express is both more precise and more important than that caricature suggests – and it is…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 05008 The doctrine of total depravity is one of the most misunderstood in the whole of Christian theology. The popular caricature holds that it means every unregenerate person is maximally wicked, incapable of any moral perception, and entirely indifferent to everything spiritual. Scripture does not teach that. What it teaches is more precise and…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 6000 Hamartiology is the theological study of sin. The term comes from the Greek word ἁμαρτία (hamartia), meaning “sin” or “missing the mark,” combined with λόγος (logos), meaning “word” or “study.” It examines what sin is, where it came from, how it affects us, and why understanding it matters for the Gospel. What is…