Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
> Dave, > Jason > > I am surprised this is so hard for me to communicate effectively. Prosecuting Leithart while inwardly struggling with my questions was easy, because the issue was NEVER “Whose views are correct?” In a Reformed denomination we all operate under the supposition that our doctrinal…
Discussions on the catholicity of the church have led one RC advocate to write to me that according to 2 Timothy 1:16-18, Paul is clearly and unmistakably praying for a dead person. He points to a couple of Protestant writers who had agreed with this, though they are in a…
The great True Catholic historian, Philip Schaff, points out as regards the beginning of prayers to the saints in the post-Nicene Church: Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (Volume III, Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity A.D. 311-390, P. 409-427). In the first three centuries the veneration of the martyrs in…
The Nicene Creed states that the Holy Spirit “spoke through the prophets in (or into) one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” Contrary to usual translations, neither the Greek nor the Latin originals say “ I believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” As written, the thought of the authors…
One of the latest sectarian movements to arise around the fringes of the Christian religion is something called “family integrated churches.” What this seems to mean, depending on the advocate, is that youth groups are bad, age-segregated Sunday Schools are bad, families need to sit together in church, and even…
This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 8. Comments on The Covenantal Gospel by Cornelis van der Waal This is an excellent book, and every Bible student should read and master it. Cornelis van der Waal was…
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Finlan ( Paul’s Cultic Atonement Metaphors ) wants to distinguish sharply between sacrifice and the removal ritual of the day of atonement. He is not persuasive. He claims that “Hebrew sacrifice must be performed in the temple, and it is used to cleanse the temple, which is the center and…
Finlan doesn’t think there’s any idea of substitution in the sacrificial rites, though there is in the scapegoat ritual ( Paul’s Cultic Atonement Metaphors , 91). To see a penal substitution in sacrifice, “assumes something that is never stated in Hebrew texts: that the animal is being somehow punished.” He…
Dorothy Sayers once said that the incarnation and atonement prove that, whatever God may be up to with His world, He is determined to play by the rules. Paul would have agreed. Stephen Finlan writes ( Paul’s Cultic Atonement Metaphors , 101), apropos of Paul’s use of cultic terminology in…
Yahweh brought Israel out of Egypt “on eagles’ wings” (Exodus 19:4). John A. Davies argues ( A Royal Priesthood ) that this is no trite metaphor: “Representations of [eagles and vultures] are found in close association with royalty in both Egypt and Mesopotamia. A series of temple scenes in Egypt…
Priests have been despised throughout the modern era, but in Scripture the priest is a foretaste of the destiny of the human race. He is a sign of the restoration of the imago Dei . John Davies explains how ( A Royal Priesthood , 164-5): “Just as the original creation…
Hosea 6:7 has been a Reformed proof text of an Adamic covenant: They broke covenant like Adam. Recent commentary has been skeptical. “Adam” can mean “mankind,” rather than the individual first man. John Davies ( A Royal Priesthood , 202) thinks the older interpretation, however “unfashionable,” has something to commend…
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