Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Every advent of new media creates the justifiable reaction from some that the necessarily accompanied amputation may not be worth the extension made possible by the new tools. This is not unique to the Digital Age. Lamoignon Malesherbes, the French politician who was counsel for the defense of Louis XVI,…
A response to Gage Crowder's " The Hole in our Hope ?" Already, the first pages of the Bible promise a bright future. The story starts with the creation of heaven and earth, where heaven is perfect, but the earth is in a state of formless emptiness. Yet, God takes…
A rejoinder to Bubu Jarmulak's essay, " Embrace Pessimism ." Whereas calumnious critiques are reflections of more on the critic than the work criticized, good critiques are always opportunities for reassessment and improvement if they are received as such . Since its renaissance, the biblical doctrine of postmillennialism—or “optimistic eschatology,”…
Several decades ago, a pastor (and friend) mentioned in passing at one of our regular breakfasts together that he wasn’t satisfied with the usual reading of Jesus’s prayer in Gethsemane, the usual reading being that Jesus asked the Father to avoid the Cross at Gethsemane. We turned to the passage,…
On May 21, 1604, the cathedral of Toledo in Spain held job interviews for the post of choirmaster, the head of music at the church. The position had been vacated when the previous occupant, Alonso Lobo, was poached by the nearby cathedral of Seville, and Toledo needed a replacement who…
Imagine — counterfactually: on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus held up an empty hand and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant poured out for you. Drink of it.’ But there was no cup, no wine, nothing. If there’s no sign of the covenant, is there…
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When the seven bowl angels appear, the heavenly temple is filled with the smoke of God's glory (Revelation 15:5-8). This links with the consecration of the tabernacle in Exodus 40 and of the temple in 1 Kings 8. In both cases, the glory of the lord fills the house so…
Members of the Corinthian church were filing suits against one another before the Roman courts, and Paul was livid. Saints will judge the world. Saints will judge angels. Since the saints are destined for that level of judicial authority, “are you not competent to constitute the smallest law court?” (1…
During the latter part of the nineteenth century, writes Vanessa Ogle ( The Global Transformation of Time ), “saw dramatically enhanced interactions on a global scale, drawing people and regions into networks of production and exchange, into imperial and colonial careers and livelihoods, while disrupting autonomous, regional economic and political…
The word “bowl” (Greek, phiale ) is used twelve times in Revelation, almost all of them in chapters 15-16. The other main use comes in chapter 5, where the angelic choir is equipped with bowls of incense following the appearance of the Lamb in heaven. In chapter 15, the bowls…
In an essay on “The Obvious” (published in The Dialectics of Liberation ), R. D. Laing reflects on the “very low” visibility of social events: “In social space one's direct immediate capacity to see what is happening does not extend any further than one's own senses extend. Beyond that one…
In his Christians at the Borders , Guatemalan-American theologian M. Daniel Carroll addresses Samuel Huntington's claim that the newest American immigrants are not assimilating to American values and priorities. Carroll agrees that immigrants have a responsibility to assimilate to the host country, and provides a biblical argument in support. He…
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