Matt O'Reilly, PhD

I’m excited to announce the publication of a new collection of essays written in honor of Prof. Gary Cockerill on the occasion of his retirement. The book is called Listen, Understand, Obey: Essays on Hebrews in Honor of Gareth Lee Cockerill (edited by Caleb T. Friedeman). Dr. Cockerill has been a mentor to me for several years now, and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to contribute to this volume as an expression of gratitude for his kindness. Dr. Cockerill is a scho

There are many who are ready to tell us confidently what would and would not be worthy of God; but in fact the only way to discover what is a worthy thing for God to do is to consider what God has actually done. The person who says, “I could not have a high opinion of a God who would (or would not) do this or that,” is not adding anything to our knowledge of God; he is simply telling us something about himself. Having told us all about ourselves, Bruce goes on to talk about G

Jerry Walls is taking a turn in Rachel Held Evan’s “Ask a…” series, and he is answering question on hell, free will, and possibility of postmortem repentance. I raised a question about a surprising, if not disturbing, passage in Revelation that portrays the torment of hell as taking place eternally in the very presence of Christ. Here’s the passage from Revelation 14:9-11: Then another angel, a third, followed them, crying with a loud voice, “Those who worship the beast and i

Hebrews 2:10-18 Christians talk a lot about Jesus’ death. That is good and right. Jesus’ death and resurrection are the climax of history. Every other event pales in comparison to these. However, it may not be often enough that we stop to consider the importance of Jesus living a whole human life prior to his death. Why was Jesus born? Why did he live as an infant? A toddler? A child? A teenager? A young man? The Christmas season is an appropriate time to pause to consider th