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Writing

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

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Apologetics

A Sabbath Conversation: How Old is the Earth?

As Adam and Eve walked to the center of the Garden of Eden to meet with the LORD on their first Sabbath they conversed about the origin and age of the earth. Adam: You know, honey, we spent a lot of time yesterday making preparations for our house, and we…

by Jeff MeyersOctober 3, 1997
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Biblical Horizons

Psalms for Exile: The Narrative Progression in the Fifth Book of the Psalter

Some of our forefathers believed in reading/singing the psalms in order. Today, when the psalms are even used at all, they tend to be used randomly, though sometimes tied to a church calendar or to the pastor’s sermon. The Bible does not bind us to any particular practice, but there…

by James B. JordanSeptember 4, 1997
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Biblical Chronology

The Anthropomorphic Days of C. John Collins, Part 2

Dr. Collins begins his essay with a brief statement of the Day Age view and then a brief statement of the Six Day view, focussing on the challenge to that view posed by modern "science." He ends this discussion by writing: "Two crucial points are at stake here: first, the…

by James B. JordanSeptember 4, 1997
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Biblical Horizons

Paperweights and the Puzzles of Secularism

In his The Construction of Social Reality , Berkeley philosopher John Searle puzzles over the ontology of the products of human construction. Certain things – granite, platypi, weeping willows – occur naturally; while other realities – stone walls, zoos and parks, Chase Manhattan Bank – exist only as products of…

by Peter LeithartAugust 27, 1997
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Biblical Chronology

The Anthropomorphic Days of C. John Collins, Part 1

In the journal Presbyterion 20 (1994):109-130, published by Covenant Theological Seminary, Dr. C. John Collins sets forth a revision of the Day Age approach in his essay, "How Old Is the Earth? Anthropomorphic Days in Genesis 1:1–2:3." Dr. Collins’s essay has been widely accepted in evangelical Presbyterian circles as an…

by James B. JordanAugust 4, 1997
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Biblical Horizons

The Sin of Ham and the Curse of Canaan, Part 3 (An Exposition of Genesis 9:20-27)

The Righteousness of Shem and Japheth As noted above, the action of Shem and Japheth was purely symbolic. They did not need to cover Noah with a garment, for he was already covered by the tent. Their action was a symbolic affirmation of Noah’s authority, a symbolic rejection of Ham’s…

by James B. JordanAugust 4, 1997

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Justified in the Spirit

W hat is the Spirit’s role in justification—the justification of Jesus and of sinners? In Protestant theology, the Spirit is typically on the “subjective” side of justification. By awakening faith, the Spirit enables sinners to receive the justifying verdict of the Father who imputes the righteousness of the Son to…

July 11, 2017
Poetry

Butterfly Center

My grandson screams and runs away from a butterfly, flutterflower, wings fine as petals. The butterfly, gentlest creature, flies on, perhaps abashed, perhaps, feeling manly for having made a child cry, to pick a fight with a Monarch.

July 11, 2017

Paul, the Justified Apostle

A ccording to Romans 6:7, justification is God's liberating judgment that delivers the baptized from sin, death, and from the reign of injustice. By baptism, one is transferred from the realm of Adam to that of the Last Adam. As the latter half of Romans 6 teaches, the life of…

July 10, 2017
Modernity

Myth of Modernity

T he closer we look at “modernity,” argue Jean and John Comaroff in Modernity and Its Malcontents , the more “rapidly [it] melts into air” (xii, riffing on Marx). This is partly because there are always, and have always been, “many modernities” (xi). Modernity “becomes especially vague when dislodged from…

July 7, 2017

Witnesses

J ehovah's Witnesses refuse to salute the American flag. In the case of Minersville School District v. Gibitis (1940), the Supreme Court rejected the Witness argument that being forced to salute the flag was comparable to the Nazi demand that Germans acknowledge Hitler. Felix Frankfurther dismissed the analogy: “It mocks…

July 7, 2017

Christian Democracy

M aurice Glasman ( Unnecessary Suffering , 35–36) observe that the phrase “Christian Democracy” first appeared during the 1848 Paris uprising. From Lamennais, the Christian Democrats argued for democracy as a product of Christian teaching. Democracy provided a framework for negotiating competing interests in society and for the protection of…

July 7, 2017

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