Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
There’s something about joy that is infectious. And occasionally, we all have the opportunity to be in someone’s presence who is so happily engaged in their work, so joyous in their pursuits, that we want to learn from them. We want to know where that joy comes from and attain…
Jesus has told us that He intends all nations to be discipled. Nations. Not just individuals. All nations as theocracies. That being the case, the Church exists for the life of the world. Being baptized is not only a matter of becoming part of a new family, it is also…
Harold Bloom’s essay on Macbeth includes the kind of penetrating insights that make Bloom the great Shakespearean scholar that he is, but it also includes his typical and intense anti-Christian bias. “If Lear was pre-Christian, then Macbeth is weirdly post-Christian. There are, as we have seen, Christian intimations that haunt…
Revelation 16 is a day of atonement text. The tabernacle of the testimony has been opened (15:5). The angels who receive the bowls are clothed in linen (15:6), the clothing of the high priest when he goes into the sanctuary on the day of atonement (Leviticus 16:4). The temple is…
From time to time, when I’ve lectured on how to read the Bible, I’ve used art-music as one example thereof. When we listen to a simple folk song, we hear the same melody over and over again, but this is not how composers write "high" music. Let me amplify. A…
"For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea-monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:40). Some reflections on Jonah’s Big Fish have led to the following essay. Let me…
Showing page 142 of 309
Showing page 11 of 43
The Hebrew in Deuteronomy 4:16-18 appears repetitive. After reminding Israel that they saw no form or likeness ( temunah ) on Sinai, Moses warns them not to “act corruptly” by making a graven image ( pesel ) of any likeness ( temunah ). A pesel of a temunah is presumably…
Homosexuality is one of the key public issues confronting today'sAmerican pastors. Nearly every pastor will counsel someone battling homosexual desires or actively engaged in a homosexual lifestyle. Compassionate, firm counsel is the least of the challenges. As the gay marriage movement makes headway, there has been subtle but relentless pressure…
During Advent, my pastor, Rich Lusk, preached on Zephaniah. A couple of his sermons are relevant to current debates concerning Christian nationalism ( here and here ). Rich’s text was Zephaniah 3, and he focused attention on verse 9: “For then I will give to the peoples purified lips, that…
Ecclesiocentrism is both a theoretical framework and a practical agenda for a Christian politics after liberalism. THEORY 1. The gospel is an inherently political message, announcing the Lordship and Kingship of Jesus. 2. Christian political theory is ecclesiology. Or, more moderately, no political theory can be Christian without a central…
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died in his residence at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Vatican City on December 31, 2022, aged 95. He was Pope from 2005 until his surprise resignation in 2013. Earlier in life, Joseph Ratzinger was an academic theologian and Archbishop of Munich, and immediately prior to…
Yahweh declares Adam alone is “not good” (Genesis 2:18). His solution is a fresh act of making. He deliberated over the creation of man with a “Let us” (1:26). He resorts again to the first person as He declares His intention to create woman: “I will make” (2:18). “Let us”…
Showing page 5 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
