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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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In Christ

Scot Hafemann has recently published a collection of previously published essays on Pauline themes, Paul’s Message and Ministry in Covenant Perspective . Hafemann’s characteristic themes are here, most reflected in the title: A covenantal understanding of Paul’s gospel and theology, a pastoral focus, an emphasis on the role of suffering…

February 16, 2015

Victor

The first six chapters of Revelation are a pep talk. Again and again, Jesus makes promises to the victors, those who overcome ( nikao ). They’ll get the tree of life, escape the second death, eat hidden manna, gain authority over the nations, receive a white robe, become pillars in…

February 16, 2015

Voice, Angel, Thunders

Revelation 10 opens with a vision of an angel coming down from heaven. If the angel isn’t Jesus, he is Jesus’ doppelganger: Clothed in a cloud, with a rainbow crown, voice like a lion, carrying a book, like the one the Lamb opened (Revelation 5-7). When the angel speaks, seven…

February 13, 2015

Must the Stretching Stop?

In his recent study of John of Damascus, Perichoresis and Personhood , Charles Twombly expresses concern that contemporary theologians use traditional concepts and formulae “in a manner that betrays little understanding of how they actually developed.” By attending to the way John uses the term, we can “lay claim to…

February 13, 2015

Harmony of the Universe

A lovely passage on Providence from Augustine ( City of God , 5.11). God cannot leave the kingdoms of men, “their dominations and servitudes,” outside His providence. That is not the kind of God He is. Instead: “God supreme and true, with His Word and Holy Spirit (which three are…

February 13, 2015

Barth the Catholic

Donald Norwood’s Reforming Rome is a study of Karl Barth’s contributions and responses to Vatican II. At the outset, Norwood has to establish that Barth, polemical as he was, was truly a catholic theologian. He offers several lines of argument: “In his first teaching post at Gottingen in 1921 [Barth]…

February 13, 2015

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