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Biblical Horizons

The Peril of Weekly Communion

A while back a friend told me that his church had finally introduced weekly communion. He told me that they were having an 8:00 a.m. service on Sundays for anyone who wanted to have communion. At present only about five people were coming to this service, but he was hopeful…

by James B. JordanDecember 5, 1993
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Deuteronomy

The Structure of Deuteronomy 12

According to James B. Jordan’s outline of Deuteronomy, the first commandment section runs from 6:1 to 11:32, and the second commandment section begins with 12:1. 1 That this division of the text is sound is confirmed by a comparison of 6:1 with 12:1. Deuteronomy 6:1 announces that "this is the…

by Peter LeithartNovember 20, 1993
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Ezra

The Holy City

Calling Jerusalem the "holy city" comes so naturally to Christians that it comes as something of a surprise to realize how infrequently the phrase is used in Scripture. Not only is Jerusalem rarely called holy, but in the Old Testament this classification is found only in texts that refer to…

by Peter LeithartNovember 17, 1993
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John

Born From Above

Nicodemus’s conversation with Jesus in John 3:1-15 is often regarded as an illustration of the tremendous stupidity of the Jews of our Lord’s day. Those who take the passage this way fail to recognize the profound nature of Nicodemus’s questions and of Jesus’ answers. In verse 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus…

by James B. JordanNovember 5, 1993
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Deuteronomy

1994? — Not! (Part 3)

In his book 1994? , Harold Camping asserts that the life spans of the primeval patriarchs of Genesis 5 & 11 were actually epochs, one after another. This together with other mistakes in interpretation yields for him a creation date of 11013 B.C. From here, Camping tries to work out…

by James B. JordanNovember 5, 1993
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1 Corinthians

The Woman’s Head Covering in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16

I have received a number of letters asking for my comments on this difficult passage. Here is my best shot! 2. Now I praise you because you remember me in everything, and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you. This statement opens a new section…

by James B. JordanOctober 5, 1993

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Architectural Justice

J ames Jordan has often called attention to Ezekiel 43:10-11, where the Lord explains the purpose of the elaborate temple vision that He has shown the prophet. When Israel hears the design and plans of the temple, its entrances and exits, it straight lines and its corners, they will “be…

March 17, 2017

Protestantism and Nature

L awrence Feingold doesn't much like de Lubac's work on the natural desire to see God . He doesn't think the neo-Thomist distinction of natural and supernatural is responsible for the rise of atheism and naturalism. On the contrary, the distinction is necessary to combat naturalism. Feingold writes, “the Thomistic…

March 17, 2017

Odysseus and Dialectics of Environment

N ear the beginning of their Dialectic of Enlightenment , Max Horkheimer and Theodore Adorno “allegorize” on an episode in the Odyssey , in which Odysseus takes his ship past the Sirens who entice mariners toward the dangerous shoals of their island with their sweet singing. Odysseus wants to hear…

March 17, 2017

Talking Trees

T rees are slow, like Ents. The electrical impulses that pass through trees travel at a rate of one-third of an inch per second. Why do trees need electricity? According to Peter Wollheben ( The Hidden Life of Trees ), they need electricity to talk to each other. He's not…

March 17, 2017

Indirect Subject

S lavoj Zizek ( Mythology, Madness, and Laughter ) explains Hegel's sublation of Kantian transcendentalism by noting that Hegel accepts Kant's root insight, the “the subjective constitution of reality, the split that separates the subject from the in-itself.” Yet Hegel doesn't stop with this acceptance: “this very split is transposed…

March 17, 2017

God the Temple

T he Bible is a narrative of architecture and city planning. The Creator is a divine architect and builder. On earth, He is first a landscape architect, designing and planning a garden, then a designer of tents and temples, finally an architect of people who builds a church of living…

March 17, 2017

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