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Advent

Advent and Christmas Music Recommendations

Inspired by our recent podcast on Christmas and Advent music recommendations, we offer here a list of excellent recordings that are sure to enrich your Advent and Christmas season. Praetorius: Mass for Christmas Morning Paul McCreesh with the Gabrieli Consort and Players Amazon | Spotify | Apple Music 2. Christmas…

by John Ahern and Paul BuckleyDecember 23, 2020
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Advent

Between the Altar and the City: Isaiah 65:17-25

In the year 1483 in the city of Nuremberg, the leaders of the renowned Saint Lawrence Church were seeking to redesign their altar, and above the table where the priests presided over the eucharist, they wanted new art installed above the prestigious Krell altar. What they decided on took everyone…

by Casey BedellDecember 22, 2020
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Advent

Why We're the Real Seventh Day Adventists

The consequences of disobedience start with exile from the garden of God and the Tree of Yahweh, but they do not end there. They cascade down through the structure of the dynastic order. Everything which had previously been given in the Kingdom of Elohim is either taken back or curtailed…

by Jerry BowyerDecember 18, 2020
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Biblical Studies

Psalm 23: A Lesson in Reading Biblical Poetry

Parallelism: A Course Correction If you have ever studied Hebrew poetry, you have probably heard its basic poetic feature described as “parallelism.” Hebrew poetry is not metered, it does not rhyme, it does not employ many of the common poetical tropes, but its distinctive (and almost universal) feature is commonly…

by Ryan HandermannDecember 15, 2020
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Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 17 and the Separation of Powers

In The Crown and the Courts , David C. Flatto traces the development of the idea of judicial independence in Jewish commentaries on the Scriptures – particularly Deuteronomy 17 – from the Second Temple and early rabbinic periods. These periods roughly span 400 BC to 300 AD. Flatto does not…

by James R. RogersDecember 11, 2020
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Advent

Zechariah and John: A Story in Names

A curious feature of the Infancy Narratives in the Gospel of Luke is the naming of John the Baptist. When the angel appears to Zechariah, he is instructed to give his promised son the name John (Luke 1:13). On the day of John’s circumcision, Luke tells us that “they [presumably…

by Rhys LavertyDecember 8, 2020

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The “N” in NGO

N ongovernmental organizations have been on my radar since I heard a pro-family activist from Ireland describe the array of forces pressing for approval of same-sex marriage—many political leaders, business leaders, some church leaders, and NGOs. Where, I wondered, do these NGOs get their resources? Who is actually funding these…

June 19, 2015

More on the “N” in NGO

According to the Agenda Europe web site , the gay rights network ILGA Europe receives most of its funding from the European Commission. To receive the funding, ILGA has to coordinate its planning with the commission, which means that “this self-described “non-governmental” organization actually appears to be something like an…

June 19, 2015

Notes Toward a Theology of Works

D iscussions of the place of good works ( erga ) in the Christian life often focus on Pauline sources. Johannine texts are equally important, and there are few passages richer in resources for a theology of works (perhaps a theology of human action) than the letters to the churches…

June 18, 2015

Evangelicals and Catholics

B efore Roe , before the culture wars, before the 60s, Will Herberg was observing social dynamics that, he argued, would initially put Protestants and Catholics more sharply at odds but eventually push them together. The key shift was the move of Catholics into the mainstream of American middle-class life.…

June 18, 2015

Enthronement

The verb “sit” ( kathemai ) is used thirty-three times in Revelation, often explicitly with the connotation of enthronement. A dozen or more times God is said to be the “One seated” (4:2-3, 9-10; 5:1, 7, 13; 6:16; 7:10, 15; 19:4; 20:11; 21:5), and twice John sees twenty-four elders enthroned…

June 18, 2015

Eating Doritos

T amar Adler reviews Mark Schatzker's The Dorito Effect in a recent edition of NYTBR . It's another book about food, but Schatzker traces the problems with food back to breeding of plants and animals. In Adler's summary: “Over the last 70 years, American animal and plant breeding has focused…

June 18, 2015

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