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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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History

Tribal Middle East

Stanley Kurtz of the EPPC has a lengthy essay review of Philip Carl Salzman’s Culture and Conflict in the Middle East (Humanity Press) in the April 14 issue of The Weekly Standard . The book comes with the endorsement of Daniel Pipes, who calls it “one of the handful of…

April 21, 2008

Sermon Outline, Fifth Sunday After Easter

INTRODUCTION In the early chapters of Matthew, Jesus is shown as the new Moses and the new Israel. The focus is shifting in chapter 12. Jesus is the “son of David” (v. 23), a warrior confronting Satan’s kingdom, and greater than Solomon (v. 42). In the following chapter, He takes…

April 21, 2008

Eucharistic meditation

Matthew 12:33 Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees here for being bad trees and producing bad fruit. Their bad fruit is primarily their words –…

April 20, 2008

Baptismal meditation

Matthew 12:28: if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. In many historic baptismal rites, there is a moment of exorcism. The candidate for baptism is asked if he renounces the devil and all his works, and all his…

April 20, 2008

Exhortation, Fourth Sunday After Easter

We don’t quite know what to do with all the talk of demons and devils in the New Testament, and we often adopt an implicitly secular understanding of the world. We don’t take much account of demonic influence on human life. We think psychologists and sociologists can explain most anything,…

April 20, 2008
Philosophy

Miracles

“Whatsoever comes to pass, comes to pass by the will and eternal decree of God.” The Westminster Confession? Nope; Spinoza. Yet, the argument where this appears is incoherent. Spinoza claims that the Bible’s attribution of miraculous events to God is an accommodation to pre-existing opinion (he somehow has extra-biblical access…

April 16, 2008

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