Exposition of Adoption

At the start of the research it became apparent that if informed evaluation was to be made of the contributions of various pastors and theologians to the theological history of adoption, then some sense of the biblical details of adoption would be needed. Soon the research revealed how the historic neglect of adoption had resulted in a less than precise appreciation of the scriptural data. Specifically, the discipline of systematic theology has paid inadequate attention to the humanness of Scripture; notably to the redemptive-historical setting of doctrinal development, the authorial diversity of the New Testament, and the distinctive structures of their soteric models (robust metaphors).

The following articles appeared in the late 1990s and in the early 2000s as the beginning of a personal attempt to get back to the fount of Holy Scripture (the Reformed principle of ad fontes):

“The Metaphorical Import of Adoption: A Plea for Realisation (I) The Adoption Metaphor in Biblical Usage,” Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 14 (1996), 129–145.

“The Metaphorical Import of Adoption: A Plea for Realisation (II) The Adoption Metaphor in Theological Usage,” Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 15 (1997), 98–115.

“A Fresh Exposition of Adoption: I. An Outline” Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology (SBET) 23:1 (Spring 2005), 60–80.

“A Fresh Exposition of Adoption: II. Some Implications” Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology  23:2 (Autumn 2005), 194–215.