Tim’s Blog

Galatians Conference

November 24, 2013

Just a note that I will be speaking on Galatians at a conference in New Hampshire in February 2014.

Host church is Tri-City Covenant Church in Somersworth, New Hampshire. There will be four conference sessions on Saturday, Feb 8, as well as men’s dinner on Friday. I will also be doing adult Sunday School and preaching on Feb 9.

I don’t have any other registration details at this time. If you’re interested, I suggest you call the church at 603-692-2093.

As far as the talks themselves, this is what I have:

Conference title—Galatians: Living in the Messiah’s New World

Main Sessions:

  1. The Crisis and Conflict of Galatians
  2. Dimensions of Faith in Galatians
  3. Abraham’s Release and Abraham’s Blessing
  4. “Yet Not I”: Live Jesus

If I recall correctly, there will also be a question and answer session following each talk.

I will try to post more info as I get it.

Announcing … Paul’s Travail

November 21, 2013

Paul's Travail book coverIn one way or another, much of my life has revolved around Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

When I was a teenager, Galatians 2:20 became my favourite Bible verse.

Much later, back while I was an avid “theonomist” (think “Christian Reconstructionism”), it was Galatians that confronted me. I wrestled with how Paul could construct the letter the way he did if he really agreed with my position.

That wrestling ultimately led to a two credit hour independent study during my final year of seminary, supervised by my NT prof, Dr Nelson Kloosterman. The resulting paper was 110 pages, 1 1/2 spaced with 11 point type (actually, blockquotes were single-spaced with 10 pt), containing two parts: a verse-by-verse commentary on Galatians 3, and a brief synthesis of Paul’s view of the Mosaic law.

That work in turn led to a further-developed treatment of Paul’s view of the law, leading to the publication of my short book, These Are Two Covenants, within which Galatians played the largest role.

In the meantime, starting in 2006, I preached through the letter in my (then) home church, Christ Covenant Church of Grande Prairie. Some 35 sermons later, the series wrapped up in 2011.

So far as scholarly labours go, the culmination of my love for Galatians is the new commentary, Paul’s Travail: A Reintroduction to Galatians. While I still plan further, less technical, work based on Galatians, in many ways this is the climax of many years of study. I hope that it will provide many people with better understanding of this difficult but critically important letter of Paul.

For more information on Paul’s Travail, please visit this page on my publishing site:

http://pactumbooks.com/books/paulstravail.php