Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In our first essay in this series ( part 1 ), we saw that Proverbs 30 opens with a puzzle, a cryptic sentence that challenges the reader to search out a matter in order to gain understanding. "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory…
The story of Hezekiah’s illness and recovery is familiar to every child who has attended Sunday School. Informed that he would die, faithful King Hezekiah pleaded in tears for a longer life. God heard his prayers and saw his tears, and promised fifteen more years. As a sign that He…
1. The Blessed Hope "Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus." Titus 2:13 I was recently asked how I as a postmillennialist would preach on "The Blessed Hope." This is often a sticky question, because postmillennialists believe that…
1. Jeroboam and Ahab After Solomon died, the people came to his son, King Rehoboam, and asked for tax relief. Rehoboam refused to give it, and indeed told the people that he was going to tax them even more severely than his father had. At that point, with the blessing…
One aspect of truth is unity. It was Truth Incarnate who prayed for the unity of His people in John 17, which certainly makes unity a priority for them as well. In one sense, we know by faith that the Church is always invisibly unified in Christ, but there is…
Mr. Paul Miller of Vancouver writes that he is not persuaded by my remarks on Luke 4 on " The Son of Joseph ." He calls attention to Mark 6:1-6, where Jesus came "to His own part of the country," taught in the synagogue, and astonished many. The people said,…
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Agricultural cycles symbolize periods of time. Human projects begin with a time of sowing and planting; then a time of watering and caring and weeding and growth; and finally a time of harvest. A couple marries, they have children who grow to adulthood, in the end they reap a harvest…
William Swatos observes that “The Church of England at its inception and in the Elizabethan period — perhaps its finest hour — was ‘pure' religion as Durkheim would define it: Society writ large” (217). The Anglican church was England at prayer. Given the symbiosis of church and crown, it's not…
William Swatos sees the decline of denominations as “a significant shift in Western civilization and its culture,” tied to the changing landscape of global political and economic life (220). To grasp what is happening to denominations, Swatos directs attention to the global political and economic circumstances of their formation. Post-Reformation…
Revelation describes three scenes of singing. When the Lamb first appears in heaven, the elders and creatures and angels break out into a “new song” (Revelation 5:9). That same “new song” is heard by the 144,000, who are assembled with the Lamb on Mount Zion (14:1), and the 144,000 begin…
T he angelic announcements of Revelation 14:6–11 are an encouragement to the saints to remain steadfast. “ Here is the perseverance of the saints,” John writes (v. 12). Then he adds the defining qualities of the saints: “those who guard the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus (…
In a 1979 article in the Journal of Ecumenical Studies , Russell Richey highlighted what he considered an overlooked source for the denominational system of American Protestantism. That organization of religious groups is typically seen as the product of theories of toleration. Richey argues that “the Puritans and Evangelicals who…
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