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  • Biola Magazine

    Mobilizing Students for Kingdom Work

    Kristina Lowen pursues her calling as Student Missionary Union’s next president

    Joanna Wu — 

    In a few short months, Kristina Lowen will step into a key role as president of the Student Missionary Union at Biola — a college she wasn’t...

  • Biola Magazine

    Another Successful Startup

    Student-alumni team wins $25,000 to launch socially conscious publishing company

    Joanna Wu — 

    Getting knocked out of the first round of the Biola Startup Competition in 2015 didn’t stop senior Jordan Perkins (’17) and alumnus John Terranova...

  • Biola Magazine

    ‘Weekend With the President’ Raises $4.2 Million

    Gathering breaks university’s single-day fundraising record

    Brett McCracken — 

    Two years ago Biola’s “Conviction and Courage Gala” in downtown Los Angeles set the record for the most money donated to the school at a single...

  • Biola Magazine

    On Higher Ground

    President's Perspective

    Barry Corey — 

    Come July, Paula and I will have been at Biola University for 10 years. A lot of wonderful developments have happened during that decade, most of...

  • Biola Magazine

    Borders and the Bible

    How can scriptural wisdom inform ongoing debates over immigration?

    Brett McCracken — 

    For Nohemi, a senior communications studies major at Biola, immigration is more than just a topic of debate. It’s real life. Nohemi’s mom was eight...

  • Biola Magazine

    Ancient Wisdom for Modern Debates

    Jason Newell — 

    Brexit. The Ban. The Wall. Over the past year, these small words have come to occupy a big place in our national and international consciousness....

  • The Good Book Blog

    Coming Soon: The Revised Apologetics Study Bible for Students

    Sean McDowell — 

    I have had the privilege of being part of many writing and curriculum projects. But there are a few that stand out in terms of how fun and impactful those projects have been. The Apologetics Study Bible for Students is at the top of my list. There are a few reasons why ...

  • The Good Book Blog

    Can There Be Forgiveness Without Repentance? Part 2

    John McKinley — 

    In Part 1, I observed that Christian forgiveness includes several conditions leading to reconciliation of a relationship that was violated by one person sinning against another. Jesus’ commands that the person wronged must “show him his fault” (Matt 18:15) as the first condition, to be followed by his repentance, and then we may respond by forgiving him. Common Christian talk about forgiveness tends not to include the necessity of repentance; consequently, many Christians attempt forgiveness and yet fail to live in it. Along with this claim that repentance is necessary to forgiveness, I am aware of the need for at least four caveats ...

  • The Good Book Blog

    If God Has Done Such Great Miracles, Why Don’t More People Believe?

    Sean McDowell — 

    Some time ago I was speaking on the evidence for intelligent design at a family camp in Michigan. Immediately after my talk—in which I discussed the evidence for design from DNA, fine-tuning, and more—a woman approached me and asked, “The evidence is really powerful. Do you think we will ever get to a point when people will have to concede there’s a God?” ...

  • Biola News

    Biola Honors 2017 Alumni Award Winners at Alumni Weekend

    Recipients honored for their work in ministry, media, healthcare and missions

    Peter Voelker — 

    The 2017 Biola University Alumni Award Winners were honored today in a ceremony during Alumni Weekend — an annual homecoming event for Biola...

  • The Good Book Blog

    Did God Overlook China?

    Weekly Q & A with Dr. William Lane Craig

    William Lane Craig — 

    Dear Dr. Craig, I'm originally from China and have lived in the U.S. for 17 years. Through a Christian friend, I've been introduced to your books and debates online. I've been going to church for two years now, getting very close to becoming a Christian. Your work has been instrumental in helping my "engineeringly" wired brain making sense of god, slowly but steadily building up my faith. For that, I'm very grateful and want to give my immense gratitude and appreciation ...

  • The Good Book Blog

    Can There Be Forgiveness Without Repentance? Part 1

    John McKinley — 

    The problem I notice is that many times Christians have ongoing difficulty in forgiving those who have wronged them. The strain may go on for many years even as they keep trying to forgive. They frequently assume that there is something wrong with them as being hardhearted and otherwise unloving. They fault themselves for not being able to forgive others. Perhaps these unforgiving Christians are trying to do something that God has not called them to do. Perhaps one-sided forgiveness is actually impossible in the absence of a necessary condition for forgiveness ...

  • Student Life Blog

    Preview, Read and Recall

    Louie Chong — 

    Trouble reading textbooks? Try this method to improve reading efficiency

  • The Good Book Blog

    Jesus in Genesis 3:15?

    Jeffrey Volkmer — 

    In a post on his blog, "Jesus Creed," eminent New Testament scholar Scot McKnight seems to agree with some of the findings of Claude Mariottini's book Rereading the Biblical Text: Searching for Meaning and Understanding which argues that Gen. 3:15 is not in fact messianic. McKnight further points out that such a conclusion agrees with Old Testament luminaries Gordon Wenham and Gerhard von Rad as well as some translations. These, says McKnight, conclude that the “seed” mentioned in Gen. 3:15 refers to not an individual, but rather the sum total of the descendants of both the woman and the serpent ...

  • The Good Book Blog

    Critical Tactic: Surfacing the Question Beneath the Question

    Sean McDowell — 

    One difficult lesson I have learned in apologetics and evangelism is to identify the question beneath the question. To be honest, I have spent considerable time answering questions I thought people were asking, but because I was operating under false assumptions, I missed the heart of their query. Have you ever made this same mistake? Here are three examples from my own life and ministry, and the brief lesson I learned from each of them ...

  • The Good Book Blog

    How Can We Be Commanded to Believe in God?

    Weekly Q & A with Dr. William Lane Craig

    William Lane Craig — 

    Dear Dr. Craig, Thank you for your work in theology. I am grateful for your broad contributions to discussions about theology and religion in public life. Your philosophical and theological ventures are welcoming, thoughtful and substantive. My question concerns a remark you made in a recent podcast. You mentioned that God commands us to believe in Him. God commanding us believe in Him seems problematic. It is notably articulated by Hasdai Crescas ...

  • Talbot Magazine

    No Disconnect

    How Online Learning Can Build Character and Community

    Joanne Jung — 

    Creating an effective communal environment for learning can be challenging. Technology used well, however, has proven instrumental in addressing and accomplishing these tasks.

  • Talbot Magazine

    YHWH & Genocide

    Reflections on an Unpleasant Topic in the Old Testament

    Charlie Trimm — 

    While the old testament contains multiple “unpleasant” topics for modern readers of the Bible, most likely none are as serious as the question of YHWH’s commanded destruction of the Canaanites. To say the point bluntly, YHWH’s commands to Israel in Deuteronomy 7:1–2 sound suspiciously like genocide: “You must devote them to complete destruction” (Deut. 7:1–2, ESV). The people of Israel followed those instructions when they conquered Jericho (Josh. 6:20–21).

  • Talbot Magazine

    Shelf Life

    Recent publications from our very own Talbot Faculty.

    Gary McIntosh, Ryan Peterson, Scott Rae, Kenneth Way — 

    Growing God’s Church: How People Are Actually Coming to Faith Today; Introducing Christian Ethics: A Short Guide to Making Moral Choices; The Imago Dei as Human Identity: A Theological Interpretation; Judges and Ruth, Teach the Text Commentary Series

  • Talbot Magazine

    Book Excerpt: The Empowering Spirit

    Excerpt adapted from "Ephesians (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament)," by Clinton E. Arnold

    Clinton E. Arnold — 

    Ephesians has much to say about the nature and work of the Holy Spirit, but one of the most important features of the Spirit’s work is that he represents the empowering presence of God in the lives of believers.

  • Talbot Magazine

    Best of the Blog

    Biblical Necessities? Or Theological Explanations?

    Kenneth Berding — 

    In recent years, I have been helped in my study of the Bible by employing an informal distinction between “biblical necessities” and “theological explanations.” Of all the classes I teach at Talbot, this distinction has been most helpful to students taking a class I teach called “Pauline Theology: Romans.” Since some of my students have benefitted from this distinction, I thought you might appreciate reading about it.

  • The Good Book Blog

    What Pliny the Younger Learned When He Interrogated Christians (ca. A.D. 110)

    Kenneth Berding — 

    For many years I have been curious about a Roman governor known to us from history as Pliny the Younger. My interest initially arose because I resided for four years in one of the principal cities he governed—not to mention that one of my four daughters was born in that city. Moreover, since I have expended significant effort studying the writings of the earliest Christian authors after the period of the apostles (those authors known as the “Apostolic Fathers”), I continue to be intensely interested in learning anything I possibly can about the lives of Christians who lived during the first half of the second century ...

  • The Good Book Blog

    Warfare in the Ancient Near East and the Old Testament 3: Fighting Chaos

    Charlie Trimm — 

    The second chapter of my book on warfare in the ancient Near East (see an overview to the book in a previous post) studies the casus belli of the ancient kings. Although presumably kings often went to war to gain plunder, this was not frequently stated in such bald terms. Instead, the most commonly stated reason for warfare was that the king fought to defeat chaos and preserve order in the world. In this post we will look at the Egyptian and Assyrian claims for preserving order as their goal for war and how these claims help us understand Scripture ...

  • Talbot Magazine

    News Briefs

    M.Div. Program Reduced From 96 to 79 Credits, M.A. Programs Reduced From 64 to 49 Credits, Talbot Rolls Out Three Fully Online M.A. Program Concentrations

    Talbot Magazine Staff — 

    Over the past two years, Talbot faculty have been working hard and creatively to streamline the curriculum in the Master of Divinity program.

  • Talbot Magazine

    Faculty Profile: Michael Thigpen

    Executive Director of ETS Joins Talbot’s Faculty

    Jeanette Pifer — 

    Michael Thigpen, one of Talbot’s newest faculty members, not only transplanted himself from Kentucky to California, but he has also brought the main office for the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) as he maintains his role as its executive director.