I’m a Christian by confession, a Pentecostal by experience, an Evangelical by doctrine, a scholar in the Hebrew Bible by trade, raised in Arminian soil, taught by non-dispensational professors, conservative in my presuppositions, liberal in my research. If you have a questions beyond these general labels, I’d be happy to tip my hand.That being said, there are a few topics that are particularly interesting to me.
Covenant
One of the least understood and most important topics of the Bible is covenant. Our culture doesn't use them in day to day life, but everything the ancients did, every relationship the ancients had, was managed by covenants. Worse, it was not until the archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century that we even had a clue what ancient covenants looked like, how they were structured, and how they operated and were implemented. To the extent that salvation is based on a covenant relationship, it is both a study both fascinating and imperative.
Pentecostalism
The Pentecostal movement is growing and changing in a variety of ways other than numbers in America. Some of this change is good and helping the movement to be more biblically based. In other ways, our many founders would not recognize our modern services. As the movement develops and matures it is vital to know what experiences and teachings are enduring and should be preserved and which mannerisms are matters of style and culture. As such, few Pentecostals have probed the Jewish backgrounds to the name sake feast, and these traditions should have a profound influence upon our identity as a movement which emphasizes the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. In some ways we were more right than we knew. In other ways, we need to re-found what the Baptism of the Holy Spirit fundamentally is and does in the life of the believer and in the structure of an institution.
The Unity between the Two Testaments
I am of the persuasion that there is nothing different between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, either in God's character, requirements, desires, or methods. I have found this to be true in the teachings of Jesus, Paul, John, Peter, Luke, etc. and I continue to test this hypothesis in new passages. As such, I find no problem in scriptural Torah observance and continually look to find the inter-connected-ness between the Elder Testament and the Younger Testament.