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Writing

Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Abortion

Lady Macbeth Christians

I was still a high school student the first time I read Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, but I will never forget the powerful impact the book had on me. Of course, as a second year student, I did not fully digest the book. In spite of subsequent readings, I…

by Ralph Allan SmithJanuary 26, 2021
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Book Review

Embracing Orthodoxy and Complexity: A Review of Orthodox Anglican Identity by Charles Erlandson

Crises force questions of identity. Identities may remain assumed until some event, or series of events, challenge what may have been taken for granted. The search for identity is an anxious one precisely because it tends to happen in times of upheaval and uncertainty. In his recent book, Orthoxox Anglican…

by Blake JohnsonJanuary 19, 2021
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Biblical Studies

The Half Shekel Temple Tax

Peter Leithart recently wrote a fascinating short piece about the Half Shekel Temple Tax as an atonement. Leithart argues three main points. First that the Sanctuary Shekel was heavier, i.e., more valuable than the everyday shekel. Second, he offers some analysis about the order of magnitude of the purchasing power…

by Jerry BowyerJanuary 12, 2021
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Symbolism

Sandwich for a Fool

There is no denial from the careful reader that 1 Samuel 24 and 26 are telling the same story. Perhaps we should say, virtually the same story. But that the stories are cut from the same cloth is undeniable. What we have over these three chapters—1 Samuel 24-26—is a very…

by Eric RobinsonJanuary 5, 2021
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Marriage

Building Altars & Fire from Heaven: A Wedding Homily

In his novel That Hideous Strength , C.S. Lewis is able to masterfully illustrate in narrative form so many of his insights about the subversive dangers of Leftist political dogma to Christian civilization. Perceptive essays from Lewis like “The Abolition of Man” and “The Inner Ring” are fleshed out in…

by Jeff MeyersDecember 31, 2020
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Ecclesiology

10 Theses of Ecclesiastical Conservatism

At a very practical level, the Evangelical Church has been injected with counterfeit spiritualities. We are a people looking for a city, whose builder may only be in office for four years. Our temptation to veer to the side of the temporal is striking in our day, especially as the…

by Uri BritoDecember 29, 2020

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Baptized into the cloud

That Paul says that the crossing of the sea is a “baptism” is surprising enough; but then he says that the baptism is “into the cloud.” Where’d he get that? You can suss that out from the exodus story, but I suspect that Paul has conflated the exodus story with…

August 24, 2009

Sermon notes

INTRODUCTION Jesus finishes His prophetic discourse with a series of three parables – the parable of the wicked slave (24:45-51), the parable of the ten virgins (25:1-13), and the parable of the talents (25:14-30). Each of these is about expectation, and each describes how wise and faithful disciples respond to…

August 24, 2009

Temporary Special Call

A friend called attention to this remarkable passage in Calvin’s Institutes (3.24.8): “there is a universal call, by which God, through the external preaching of the word, invites all men alike, even those for whom he designs the call to be a savor of death, and the ground of severer…

August 23, 2009

Exhortation

Jesus’ Olivet Discourse is not about the end of the world. But it is about the end of a world, and because of that it instructs the church in every age. Since Jesus ascended, a number of worlds have come and gone. Most of us believe that the Roman empire…

August 23, 2009
Literature

Jane’s fame

Did Jane Austen want people to read and admire her work? Of course; she was a writer. Did she like making money from writing? Yes. She wasn’t the wispy angel that her family biographers tried to make her out to be. To this extent Claire Harman ( Jane’s Fame: How…

August 20, 2009

Sermon notes

INTRODUCTION Jesus tells His disciples what events will precede the end of Jerusalem , and He tells them that these events will take place within the generation of the apostles (v. 34). He does not, however, tell them the year or even the decade when they will occur (v. 36,…

August 17, 2009

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