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Biblical Horizons

Hymn Bark #5: Healing Bad Eschatology

1. Come, Ye Thankful People, Come. This hymn by Henry Alford is found in many hymnals, including Cantus Christi . Yet, the last stanza radically contradicts the theological perspective of the historic faith and of the editors of this hymnal. It is a witness to how we tend to bounce…

by James B. JordanSeptember 20, 2011
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Biblical Studies

Biblical Theology Basics: Part 7

This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 7. The Literary Shape of the Covenant As we have seen, there is a succession of covenants in the Bible, each more glorious than the previous, each absorbing and transfiguring…

by James B. JordanSeptember 16, 2011
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Biblical Studies

Biblical Theology Basics: Part 6

This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 6. Covenant Phases in the Bible Thus far we have spoken of only three phases in the history of the one covenant. We must now divide the third phase into…

by James B. JordanSeptember 8, 2011
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Biblical Studies

Biblical Theology Basics: Part 5

This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 5. Priest, King, and Prophet We can begin with the phrase “prophet, priest, and king.” This is the order normally heard from preachers and theologians. But it is not really…

by James B. JordanSeptember 3, 2011
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Biblical Horizons

Hymn Bark #4: "Christian, Dost Thou See Them' & "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say"

This is a fine hymn by John Mason Neale, based on an ancient Greek church hymn. The opening question is particularly powerful: “Christian, dost thou see them on the holy ground, how the powers of darkness compass thee around?” Yes, the devil strikes in the very church and her worship…

by James B. JordanSeptember 1, 2011
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Biblical Horizons

Hymn Bark #3: It Is Well With My Soul

This syrupy piece of marijuana-haze hymnody is found in the hymnals of churches that have substituted sentiment for orthodoxy and worship. Hence you don’t find it in older Presbyterian hymnals, but in the Trinity Hymnal. Nor do you find it in Episcopal and Lutheran hymnals until very recently in some…

by James B. JordanAugust 31, 2011

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Sources of Moral Confusion

I listened to a torturous discussion last week in which Terry Gross and Northwestern's Laura Kipnis discussed Kipnis's Chronicle of Higher Education article challenging university prohibitions of romance between faculty members and students. What's the big deal? Kipnis wanted to know. In her day, sex with professors was a normal…

June 22, 2015

Confessional Cover

In his contribution to Denominatonalism , editor Russell Richey argues that mid-19th century disputes over slavery and other political questions (a series of “ultraisms,” as he puts it) did not so much create as expose “the fault line in purposive association, namely, that . . . denominations and voluntary societies…

June 22, 2015

Why Literature Matters

G lenn C. Arbery is a literature professor, and he knows his limits. Literature professors can't bestow importance on great literature, writes Arbery ( Why Literature Matters ). What they are qualified to do, he says, is to bestow honor, “because meaningful praise has to come from those who know…

June 22, 2015

Ecclesiology of Union, Ecclesiology of Mission

“Modern civilization, aghast at the results of a conflict between societies which had acknowledged no higher ideal than the pride of an ignorant nationalism, looks forward fearfully and almost helplessly to a yet mightier conflagration of the hates and passions it has nurtured. Remembering the holocaust which ethical stupidity has…

June 19, 2015

From Cold War to War on Terror

When the Cold War ended with the Berlin Wall being dismantled and the Soviet Union breaking up, the West breathed a sigh of relief. Prematurely, as it turns out. Islamicism rose hard on the heels of Communism's fall. And, according to George Friedman , the fall and the rise are…

June 19, 2015

Proverbial Abomination

In Torah, “abomination” ( to'evah ) fits into the lexicon of holiness, purity, defilement. It often describes an act that transgresses created boundaries and confuses created categories (homosexual sex, Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13; a man wearing woman's clothing, Deuteronomy 22:15). Specifically, sexual sin (Leviticus 18:26-30), idolatry (Deuteronomy 7:25-26; 12:31) and…

June 19, 2015

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