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

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Biblical Studies

A Daughter of Abraham

Some of the key ways Biblical writers draw attention to important details in their stories are by the use of key words, repetition, and structural devices like chiasms and parallel constructions. The Bible sounds different, even odd, to us sometimes because of the use of these and similar literary conventions.…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 16, 2019
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Autonomy

Rehabilitating Autonomy

It is pretty standard in conservative Christian circles to condemn unbelief for pretensions of “autonomy.” Cornelius Van Til famously (at least among those of us who knows who he is) said that “There is no alternative but that of theonomy and autonomy.” Greg Bahnsen appealed to this quotation by labeling…

by Mark HorneApril 9, 2019
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John

Jesus: Preacher of Paradox

Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever taught — the Light of the World, whose pure Truth brought sight to the blind (John 9). Almost no one — even those who speak openly against Him — disputes His reputation as a wise and good teacher of the way of love.…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 2, 2019
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Esther

The Book of Esther in Covenant History

It is clear that the events in Esther are an integral part of the history of the formation of the Restoration Covenant Era. Amalek attacks. Amalek is spoiled. The spoils are used to build the Temple, in the sense that the crude Temple of Zerubbabel can now be glorified with…

by James B. JordanMarch 28, 2019
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How to Worship

A Positive View of Music

It is not coincidental that John Calvin speaks most strongly in defense of vernacular language just after his defense of singing in church. "From this also it plainly appears that public prayers must be couched not in Greek among the Latins, nor in Latin among the French or English, as…

by John AhernMarch 26, 2019
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Biblical Theology

The Reopened Wounds of Jacob

In A Voyage Around the World , George Anson recounts the effects of scurvy upon an unfortunate man: But a most extraordinary circumstance, and what would be scarcely credible upon any single evidence, is, that the scars of wounds which had been for many years healed, were forced open again…

by Alastair RobertsMarch 19, 2019

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God’s freedom

Dumitru Staniloae has this to say about the asymmetry between the economic and ontological relation of Son and Spirit in Orthodoxy: “from the order in which the divine persons are manifested in the world Catholic theology infers an order of their relations within the Godhead, and admits no freedom for…

March 31, 2008

Blind obedience

According to Balthasar, the Father’s abandonment of Jesus on the cross leaves him without any knowledge - he enters a state of absolute unknowing, and in this state remains faithful and obedient to the Father. As Levering explains it, “Jesus only moves to the pinnacle of obedience (the pinnacle of…

March 31, 2008

Thomas and moral influence

Explaining the fittingness of Christ’s passion as the means for salvation, Thomas says “In the first place, man knows thereby how much God loves him, and is thereby stirred to love him in return, and therein lies the perfection of human salvation.” The “second” reason is that Christ by His…

March 31, 2008

Thomas, gift theologian

Thomas is not typically viewed as a theologian of gift, but Matthew Levering argues that Thomas teaches that the Trinity is a communion of gift-giving. Thomas says in a comment on John 5:20, “because the Father perfectly loves the Son, this is a sign that the Father has shown him…

March 31, 2008

Sermon Outline, Second Sunday After Easter

INTRODUCTION Jesus has done works of power in the cities of Galilee, but they refuse to repent (11:20-24). They are too wise to receive God’s revelation through Jesus, too proud to take on His yoke. THE TEXT “ Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His…

March 31, 2008

Reeds, Soft Clothing, Prophets

Jesus asks a series of questions about who John is, about what people were expecting from him. Did they go into the wilderness to see reeds shaken by the wind? Or a man in soft clothing? Or a prophet? The answer to the second is clearly No: John is not…

March 30, 2008

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