Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In this essay we will think about how the whole Bible is structured as one Word of God. To begin with, there is only one Bible, not two. While we divide the Bible into Old and New Testaments, that division has no more meaning than divisions into chapters and verse,…
How should one badly bruised and inadequate church relate to another? (I am not addressing the blessed possessors of absolutely perfect churches, naturally.) I believe there are three things to bear in mind. First, we must be open to the values in other Christian traditions - even Roman Catholic and…
The third and sixth day have a second creative act. Note the chiastic arrangement of the material in these special acts and the parallelism between them, see the figure below. The author arranges the description of each day as a chiasm. Each line in the chiasm is mated with a…
Now the two of them were naked, the man and his woman, and they did not sense shame (Genesis 2:25) The nakedness of Adam and Eve requires several comments. First of all, against those who think that nakedness is what God intended for humanity as a permanent estate, we have…
I’ve been reflecting on the meaning of integration, and our longing for integration in a fragmented world. I’ve been connecting my own covenant epistemology further with the thought of scientist-philosopher Michael Polanyi, artist Makoto Fujimura, and Classical Christian metaphysician D.C. Schindler. In my last post , and now in this…
Luke 13:31-33 is one of the strangest passages in the Gospel of Luke. It begins with a time note that sounds emphatic “At that very hour.” Then, we are told of Pharisees bringing a message that Herod wants to kill Jesus! In His answer, Jesus speaks of a three day…
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Cristina Conti of th Salvation Army Seminary in Buenos Aires offers an interesting chiasm of James (Global Bible Commentary, Abingdon Press). Here is an abbreviated form of the chiasm: A. Joy in trial, 1:2-8 B. Rich fade, 1:9-11 C. Lustfulness, 1:12-15 D. Perfect Gift, 1:16-25 E. Restraining the tongue, 1:26…
Eric Enlow writes, in response to my post on Gary Gilmore: “The Law actually can and has done quite a bit about the Gilmore situation to address responsibility that flows to the family as a whole. For example, early Germanic law imposed criminal liability on families not individuals. Thus, each…
INTRODUCTION The split within Israel continues to widen. Chapter 12 ended with Jesus teaching about His re-constituted family (12:46-50), and the end of chapter 13 reiterates that a prophet is without honor in His home town (13:53-58). Jesus appears in “their synagogue” for the last time in 13:53-58. With Israel…
Matthew 12:42: The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. As I mentioned in the sermon, 1…
Matthew 12:45: the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Jesus spends most of the debate in our sermon text talking about the generation of Israel that saw His coming, witnessed the powerful signs He performed, heard the good news, and yet failed to repent. When he…
In our sermon text, Jesus repeatedly evaluates “this generation.” “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign,” He says in response to the scribes and Pharisees. The men of Nineveh will rise in judgment against this generation, along with the Queen of the South, the Queen of Sheba, to…
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