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Writing

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

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American Culture

Arts & Play, Part 2

Gambling The Bible nowhere condemns gambling, and so we need to be careful in our assessment of it. Let me begin by making a strong case against gambling. Then I will surprise most readers by pointing out that gambling may not always be sinful. The reader should bear in mind…

by James B. JordanNovember 22, 1991
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Biblical Horizons

Tim Powers, The Stress of Her Regard

Tim Powers, The Stress of Her Regard (Ace Books, 1991). Reviewed by Jeffrey Meyers. Tim Power’s latest novel is now available in paperback. The story is set in early nineteenth century England and Italy, in the world of the poets John Keats, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron. Michael Crawford, a…

by Jeff MeyersNovember 5, 1991
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Biblical Horizons

What About Boycotting?

A close supporter of Biblical Horizons asks whether it is proper and wise to get involved in all the boycotts that Christians are being asked to observe today. She raises the point that Paul’s advice about eating meat sacrificed to idols seems relevant to the discussion. I think she is…

by James B. JordanOctober 22, 1991
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Biblical Chronology

Chronologies and Kings, Part 4: Solomon’s Disastrous Geopolitics

Solomon began to build the Temple of the Lord in the fourth year of his reign, which was 480 years after Israel came out of Egypt, the year A.M. 2993 (1 Kings 6:1). Seven years later, in the year A.M. 3000, the Temple building was finished (1 Kings 6:38). The…

by James B. JordanOctober 22, 1991
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Baptism

What Is a Sacrament? Some Problems of Definition

Several months back, a candidate for ordination was being examined for entrance into the Presbytery of which I am a member. The candidate had a good deal of trouble with the exam on the sacraments, stumbling badly as he tried to define the "nature of the sacrament." Apparently in an…

by Peter LeithartOctober 14, 1991
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Biblical Horizons

The Mabelized Church

Exploring the influence of televangelism on American religion in his book, The Struggle for America’s Soul , Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow presents a typical, though hypothetical, case study: Mabel Miller. Mabel lives alone, thousands of miles from her family. She grew up in a Baptist Church, but now, approaching 65,…

by Peter LeithartOctober 13, 1991

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Or maybe not

Christianity Today had this about rumors that Gorbachev was a Christian: Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made clear this past weekend that he is an atheist after European news agencies last week claimed that he had confirmed his Christian faith during a visit to the tomb of St Francis of…

March 26, 2008

Critical allegory

In a JSOT lecture, published in a 1989 issue of JSOT, James Barr probes Brevard Childs’s claim that “a fundamental characteristic of the critical movement was its total commitment to the literal sense of the text.” Not so, Barr argues. On the contrary, the whole impetus behind biblical scholarship since…

March 26, 2008

Penitential Seasons, 3

A couple of thoughtful observations from members at Trinity Reformed Church on Lent and penitential seasons: Hannah Grieser suggests that there is an analogy between the Lord’s Day liturgy and the church year; the church year is the Lord’s Day writ large. Since we have a penitential moment in our…

March 25, 2008

Dual identity

Daniel and his three associates each had two names - a Jewish and a Babylonian. Jim Jordan points out in his recent commentary that the Jewish names are used when the men pray and the Babylonian names when they advise the king. They apparently have no moral qualms about this…

March 25, 2008
Theology

Sovereignty and freedom

Again, a Frame move, this time from Aquinas: If “the divine will is perfectly efficacious, it follows not only that things are done, which God wills to be done, but also that they are done in the way that He wills. Now God wills some things to be done necessarily,…

March 24, 2008

Framing time

Obvious enough, but here goes: God must be outside time, Lord of time, to be within all time. If he was within time as creatures are within time, He could not be present at all times. As John Frame likes to say, our theology should be done in “because of”…

March 24, 2008

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