Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
During one of my AAPC lectures I read a portion of Richard Mitchell’s provocative little book The Underground Grammarian . Here’s the portion I read: The mind is a rudderless wanderer blown here or there by any puff of breeze. If I mention watermelons, you must think of watermelons; if…
This is the donation thank-you essay for January 2008. Our studies in the Psalms go out month by month in response to donations. I’m putting this one up here as an example, and also because the version I actually mailed out contained several egregious arithmetical errors! So, here is the…
Part 1: Introduction The collapse of the Western tradition in the United States, seen in the hostility to Christianity in government and education, and the elimination of “traditional” or “canon” learning from our institutions of middle and higher learning, provides a crisis and an opportunity for serious believers at the…
While “forgiving oneself” is widely accepted in the secular world as a legitimate and needful thing to do, Christians are rightly suspicious. After all, God is the one who forgives. When we sin against other people, we need to seek their forgiveness, not our own. Nevertheless after looking at Vine’s…
This was originally published as HIStory in the column, “A Pastor’s Perspective” in Ligonier Ministrie’s Tabletalk Magazine . I am not sure of the date but it was probably published in 1999 or 2000. Quick! What’s the basic message of the Bible? Summarize it in as few words as possible…
A Brief Explanation of What a Presbytery Is & Why Pastors in Presbyterian Denominations are Members of Them A belief in the primacy of the local congregation of the Church, I think, reflects the gut feeling of most North American Evangelicals. As a result, the form of Church government universally…
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Stephen Finlan ( Problems With Atonement , 20-29) offers a sixfold typology of “spiritualization” of sacrifice that includes “moralizing interpretation of ritual,” “internalizing,” the use of ritual imagery for non-ritual realities, at the extreme an outright “rejection of ritual.” What he identifies as “spiritualization” is certainly present in both Jewish…
Stephen Finlan ( Problems With Atonement , 30-31) observes that “Paul not only interprets OT types, he sometimes sees the antitype in the type.” The Rock that followed Israel was not simply a pointer to Christ but was Christ. Israel already experienced baptism and enjoyed spiritual feasts in the wilderness.…
At the Trinity House site this morning, Joe Anderson and Tim Nichols argue that catholicity, like love, begins with those nearest to us.
Does everything always participate in a cosmic liturgy? Maybe. But that’s not the picture we get from Revelation 4-5. Instead, we get a progression. Initially, only the four living creatures worship (4:8), then the twenty-four elders (4:10), then both together (5:8), then myriads of angels (5:11), then everything created in…
In a 2001 article in JSNT , Russell Morton analyzes the Jewish and Hebrew-Bible background for the scene in Revelation 4-5. But this does’t explain every detail. In particular, “the acclamation of ‘worthy’ is not found in the hymns of the Hebrew Bible” but is “a typical feature of Hellenistic/Roman…
In a piece at the New York Magazine site , Matthew Hutson reviews evidence that overconfidence increases the confidence that others place in you. He cites a Berkeley study from 2012 that showed “that overconfidence increases one’s status. Subjects who overestimated their abilities at group tasks were more respected and…
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