Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God…
With the surprising discovery of the Nelda Boswell scroll historians have deciphered its contents and concluded that the apostle Paul returned to the region of Galatia shortly after he wrote the letter that we call Galatians. The evidence suggests that a number of local pastors, elders, and deacons, along with…
Second Temple Judaism was a form of covenantal nomism, according to E. P. Sanders’ terminology. This means that Torah-observance was a way of expressing loyalty to the Lord of the covenant who had graciously elected Israel. I think Sanders’ view (taken up in bits and pieces and with some modifications…
We often hear that the key to Christian obedience is thankfulness for what God has done. But the Bible stresses faith and hope much more than gratitude. The Baptist pastor and author John Piper has written, “Nowhere in the Bible is gratitude connected explicitly with obedience as a motivation. We…
One of the questions that is commonly asked about Tom Wright regards his teaching about how Paul uses the term “the righteousness of God.” Since Wright’s interpretation of the term in Paul’s epistles is commonly mentioned in passing but rarely analyzed, it seems like a good idea to explicitly spell…
If God promised a certain land to the seed of Abraham, saying that it would be theirs “forever” (Gen. 13:15), why do Reformed churches teach that the Jews permanently lost their right to the land? What about all these Old Testament “forever” promises and prophesies made to the Jews? How…
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In a 2006 article in the Westminster Theological Journal , William Wilder offers a sharp interpretation of the significance of the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” and the clothing of Adam and Eve with animal skins in Genesis 3. He makes the striking point that “the most important…
James B. Jordan outlines features of the forgotten Reformation in the first of a series of essays at the Trinity House site.
Colossians 2:11: In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. You are circumcised, Paul says. You, Gentile Christians, who have been buried with Jesus in baptism, you are true Jews because by…
The liturgy is not all confession of sin, or singing, or listening, or eating and drinking. We can’t do all these things at once. We do one after another. The church year stretches the liturgy over twelve months. Each season has its own flavor. Lent is the confession of the…
It’s not difficult to see how allegorical interpretation of the Song of Songs inspires the topsy-turvy world of Jewish and Christian mysticism. The poem speaks of the veiling of the bride (1:7; 4:1, 3; 6:7). That’s natural and literal, of course, since ancient Israelite women wore veils (Genesis 24:65; 38:14).…
In her numbing account of North Korea, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea , Barbara Demick observes that what set Kim Il-sung apart among twentieth-century tyrants was his sensitivity to the uses of faith: “His maternal uncle was a Protestant minister back in the pre-Communist days when Pyongyang…
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