Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Why Do Siblings Feud? Presuppositions, Principles, and Practice in Reformed-Lutheran Relationships Robert Kolb, International Research Emeritus Professor for Institute for Mission Studies, Concordia Seminary, St Louis, Missouri. Lecture Topics 1) Law and Gospel: Answering the Question Posed 2) The Lord's Supper: Christ's Presence and Promise 3) Worship and Created Things:…
From Genesis 3, West-to-East movement is always movement away from God’s presence and His house (cf. Genesis 3:24). Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden to the east, and when Cain was later cast out he was sent to the land east of Eden. The men of Babel,…
In his account of Jesus' birth, Matthew cites a prophecy assuring Judah of her victory over Israel and Aram. Immanuel is also a sign of the Lord’s judgment. When God comes near, He comes to bless and to curse, to save and to condemn, for deliverance and for judgment. The…
For many in the modern era, Christianity has been seen as an apolitical religion. Christianity is a private, spiritual religion. It's a convenient myth for modern people. After the Reformation, Europe entered a period of protracted and often vicious conflict that left large portions of Western Europe devastated. Many concluded…
The Christmas gospel announces the coming of day. Those in darkness see a great light, as the Sun rises with healing in His wings. The light has come into the world that lightens every man, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.…
How do we know God loved the world? John tells us that He demonstrates His love in sending His Son. To paraphrase Paul, God has demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ was born for us. He sent His Son to take on human…
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Joel 2:25 plays a strangely prominent role in the Arian controversy.  In the NASB translation, the Lord promises to “make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust, my great army which I sent among you.” In the Greek translations…
The priests pay Judas 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus (Matthew 26:15).  The amount of the payment takes us back to Exodus 21:32 and Zechariah 11:12-13.  Here I want to muse on the connection between Matthew and the Exodus passage. The scenario in Exodus is this: A man owns…
“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.” For nearly two millennia, Christians have been singing that every week, often without a second thought about the radical claims embedded in the hymn. In Isaiah 6, the song shakes the temple, but Christians…
Gifts blind the clear-sighted and subvert justice (Exodus 23:8).  In context, that’s statement about bribery, and the word used for “gift” here is almost invariably used for bribes of one sort or another (Deuteronomy 10:17; 16:19; 27:25; 1 Samuel 8:3; 1 Kings 15:29; 16:8; etc.). Occasionally, the reference seems a…
From Nabokov’s lectures on literature, quoted in Smith’s book: “All we have to do when reading Bleak House is to relax and let our spines take over.  Although we read with our minds, the seat of artistic relight is between the shoulder blades.  That little shiver behind is quite certainly…
Jamie Smith’s latest book ( Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Cultural Liturgies) ) is excellent.  He rightly challenges the tendency for “worldview-talk” to take a rationalist bent, and in place of the assumption that “man is a thinking being” he argues an anthropology based on the notion…
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