Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
[This essay was originally published in 1988. Given the situation that our new national socialists are getting the world into, I thought it might be useful to reprint it here. – JBJordan] The Bible has quite a bit to say about gold, silver, and precious stones, and the Bible always…
I wrote this elsewhere and was encouraged to put it here. It is a comment on what a pastor is. Today, this is not very well understood, and God’s people suffer because of it. There are four professions: medicine, education, law, and religion. Each of these, when done at a…
James Jordan recently pointed out in private conversation how appropriate it is, in John’s Gospel, that Nicodemus is present both to ask Jesus about being born again, and to see Jesus re-enter the womb of the mother. Nicodemus rhetorically asks, “How can a man be born when he is old?…
This is a problematic and much discussed passage. I’ve been discussing it in another forum, and have decided to move it here and present some very preliminary observations about it. One large question is this: Who is the speaker here and what is his situation? Traditionally, the speaker is seen…
1. The current issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction includes a good fantasy novella by John C. Wright, who since his conversion has been writing Christianly. This is a fine fantasy with nods to C. S. Lewis and Antoine de Saint-Exupery, and probably Gene Wolfe as well.…
“It is an experience of our days that the spoken name of Jesus alone exercises an unforeseen power; and the effort which it cost to speak this name is perhaps connected to some faint apprehension of the power which is inherent within it. Wherever the name of Jesus Christ is…
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Leviticus 23 has five speeches of Yahweh: A. Sabbath, Passover, Unleavened Bread, vv 1-8 B. First Sheaf, Pentecost, Gleaning, vv 9-22 C. Trumpets, vv 23-26 B’. Day of Coverings, vv 26-32 A’. Booths, vv 33-44 Several links in this structure are worth noting. First, the chapter begins and ends with…
Pentecost is a bread feast, a feast of leaven (Leviticus 23:17).  Animals are brought as offerings, plenty of them, but these are brought “with the bread,” accompaniments to the bread rather than the other way round. It’s quite fitting, then, that after the leaven of the Spirit came upon the…
The presentation of the first sheaf (Leviticus 23:9-13) provides a neat little allegory of redemption.  The first sheaf is presented on the day after the sabbath, the day of resurrection.  It is the “beginning” of the harvest (v. 10), and Leviticus uses the same word as is used in Genesis…
When Paul talks about the “fullness of time,” he’s likely alluding back to the calendar of Leviticus 23.  Pentecost is calculated from the day of the first sheaf, and the time is described as a “complete” set of sabbaths.  The word translated as “complete” is tamim , which describes perfect…
Adorno neatly sums up the intention and result of Kant’s aesthetics in a cople of lines: “the significance of Kantian subjectivism as a whole lies in its objective intention, its attempt to salvage objectivity by means of an analysis of subjective moments.” And, noting that Kant “posits something as form…
1 Peter 1:3: Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. As Pastor Sumpter mentioned in the sermon this morning, Peter’s…
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