Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Why was Abel’s offering approved and Cain’s rejected? This question has been debated for many centuries. Some have argued that Cain’s offering was rejected because it was not a bloody offering; others that Cain’s offering was rejected because it was not from the firstfruits; others that Cain’s offering was rejected…
Last year I had occasion to work through the book of Luke as I did some work for one of my editorial clients, and this year my pastor has been preaching through Luke. Thus, I have twice been reminded of the Parable of the Unjust Steward (Luke 16:1-13), a parable…
We come now to what some have called the "Gordian Knot" of Biblical chronology: the period of the kings of Israel and Judah. We do not have a summary figure that tells exactly how long this period of time was. The book of Kings provides the years each king reigned,…
In an earlier article , while examining the biblical symbolism of dew, I noted the parallel in Psalm 133 between the dew upon Mount Hermon and the oil poured upon the head of Aaron. Both the dew of Hermon and the oil of ordination are compared to the pleasantness of…
The Covenantal Gospel was the last book written by the remarkable South African theologian and exegete Cornelius van der Waal. Two other works of van der Waal’s have been translated: Hal Lindsey and Biblical Prophecy , and Search the Scriptures . Because this book was written in 1979, it does…
A year or so ago, my wife and I were invited to a Christian school in order to preview a film on drug abuse that was going to be shown to our children. One of the children in this film turned out, of course, to be using drugs. This child’s…
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David Cunningham writes, “What was one a ‘kiss of peace,’ uniting bodies in an almost frighteningly intimate way, now often consists only of a tentative handshake and a mumbled greeting.  Of course, this does still provide an opportunity to meet the other face to face, body to body; and so…
In his Adults and Children in the Roman Empire (1989), Thomas Wiedemann remarks on the difference between pagan and Christian conceptions of infant death: “For the pagan, premature death was a disaster because the child’s life was wasted; for Augustine, a child who died prematurely might have had as complete…
A friend, Aaron Cummings, writes in response to my comments about Derrida and prodigal words: “A few days ago, you alluded to Derrida, that words run prodigal from the speaker/writer. You said that this was true of Mankind’s words, but not of God’s. It seems to me that this is…
For Athanasius, creation’s multiplicity is not a defect but part of its glory.  No created thing supplies all need; no single light illuminates day and night.  So there are many lights.  Each light is its own essence, but these essences cooperate to fill what is lacking in the others.  The…
Arianism is not just about Christology.  It’s about theology proper. Arius said that God made His Son before the creation because the creation could not endure the “untempered hand” of the Father.  It needed the Son as mediator.  Athanasius sees in this a false idea of God.  God, He says,…
Athanasius notes that before the incarnation humanity was under the dominion of false gods, enslaved to corruption and idolatry.  The Word took flesh to deliver us from that slavery, and the form of that deliverance was an act of worship: “in this body offering Himself for all, He might deliver all from false worship and…
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