Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
To begin with the source of this narrative: Since no human being was present to observe these events, we must assume that this narrative was revealed directly by God to a human author. There are three ways this might have happened. First, we might read, "God said to Abraham (or…
The Empire Strikes Back is a movie most of us have seen more than once. It is generally regarded as the best of the three Star Wars films, which is probably due to the fact that unlike the other two, The Empire Strikes Back made use of the services of…
Now that we have examined three unacceptable approaches to the events recorded in Genesis 1, it is only fair for me to set out what does seem to be recorded there. To begin with the source of this narrative: Since no human being was present to observe these events, we…
Two books on the "Bible Code" have appeared this year. The first, a current bestseller, is Michael Drosnin’s The Bible Code (Drosnin, 1997). The other is Cracking the Bible Code (William Morrow, 1997), by Jeffrey Satinover, known to Christians for his outstanding 1996 book Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth…
Part 1: Introduction The collapse of the Western tradition in the United States, seen in the hostility to Christianity in government and education, and the elimination of "traditional" or "canon" learning from our institutions of middle and higher learning, provides a crisis and an opportunity for serious believers at the…
A Brief Defense of John Murray’s “the Free Offer of the Gospel,” & A Question About the Extent of the Atonement John Murray (1898-1975) is probably the last of the great American theologians; he belonged in the same set as that which contains such eminent Presbyterians as Charles Hodge and…
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Hobbes again ( Leviathan 41) on the Mosaic predecessors to Christian baptism: “As the children of Israel had for a sacrament of their reception into the kingdom of God, before the time of Moses, the rite of circumcision, which rite, having been omitted in the wilderness, was again restored as…
NT Wright’s thesis about the new heavens and new earth receives support from an unexpected source, Leviathan , chapter 38: “All these places are for salvation, and the kingdom of God , after the day of judgement, upon earth. On the other side, I have not found any text that…
The first time the Hebrew verb “be wrathful” ( qatzaf ) occurs with Yahweh as subject is in Leviticus 10:6. The related noun occurs for the first time in Numbers 1:53. Both, importantly, have to do with the tabernacle. Yahweh warns that His wrath might break out against Aaron’s family…
Following up an earlier post: How are we to understand the connection of the reception of the Spirit and being counted as righteous in Galatians 3:5-6? Some alternatives suggest themselves: 1) Righteousness is a status and the Spirit is the gift that God gives to those whom He counts righteous.…
Faith in Protestant theology is instrumental, the passive human means by which we appropriate the righteousness of Christ, by which we stand righteous before God. In Galatians at least, Paul’s characteristic construction doesn’t use the usual prepositions of instrumentality - en and dia . Rather, he uses ek , which…
What did God promise Abraham? Paul says that Abraham and his seed were promised an inheritance (Galatians 3:18, 29), and that inheritance includes the blessing of the nations (Galatians 3:8), the gift of the Spirit (Galatians 3:14), and righteousness (Galatians 3:6). These are not discrete gifts in Paul’s mind. The…
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