Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Mrs. Marguerite Lane of Grand Rapids writes to ask if I have ever noticed a correlation between the eight beatitudes of Matthew 5 and the eight woes of Matthew 23. I confess that I have not. A glance at various commentators reveals that such a correspondence does not seem to…
1. The words of Agur, the son of Jakeh, the burden. The man declares to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal: 2. Surely I am more stupid than any other man, And I do not have the understanding of a man. 3. And I have not learned wisdom, But I have…
Psalm 137 is widely regarded as one of the meanest of the imprecatory psalms. Certainly as we read it it is seems to be a song of pure vengeance. The exiles in Babylon, in grief over the judgment that Babylon has brought upon them, pray for the destruction of that…
In the Levitical law, the priests received two particular portions of each peace offering: the "wave offering" of the breast and the "heave offering" (or better, "contribution") of the right thigh. The purpose of this essay is to attempt to determine the reason why the second of these, the thigh,…
The story of Jesus’ visit, early in His ministry, to the synagogue in His home town of Nazareth is recorded for us in Luke 4:16-30. You may remember that Jesus read from Isaiah about how the Messiah would preach the gospel, care for the poor, work miracles, and bring in…
(The essay that follows concerns a rather touchy subject: how the Lord’s Supper is to be done. I am not writing to insult or offend, but to challenge. To that end I have not "held back" but have "gone ahead" and said what I think needs to be said —…
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John 17 may provide some basis for developing the holiness of God along perichoretic lines. Jesus prays in vese 17-19 that the disciples would be sanctified. Jesus sanctifies Himself, so that the disciples too might be sanctified. The means by which the disciples are sanctified is through the “truth,” which…
Mark Heim has a fine piece on salvation as communion in the October 2004 issue of Theology Today . He begins by distinguishing various sorts of relations that human beings have with one another. It is possible for two persons to have an impersonal relationship (a man falls off a…
Roger D Lund has an intriguing article on wit in seventeenth century English literature in the January 2004 issue of the Journal of the History of Ideas . Lund quotes Hobbes, whose statement sets up the opposition that continued through the following century: “Those that observe . . . similitudes,…
Neuhaus provides an illuminating summary of Stephen Ozment’s history of Germany in the November issue of FT . This in particular: “‘The original motives for the war were completely self-centered, not Judeocentric or anti-Semitic. Germans wanted to avenge and repair, by total victory, the draconian reparations they had been compelled…
The November 2004 issue of First Things had a couple of pieces on Czeslaw Milocz, both emphasizing the religious, Christian ground of his poetry. I was particularly struck by this quotation from an article by Jeremy Driscoll: “To put it very simply and bluntly, I must as if I believe…
Robert Letham?s book, The Holy Trinity (P&R, 2004) is a superior introduction to Trinitarian theology, certainly the most complete, reliable, and best treatise on the subject to come from a Reformed theologian for I don?t know how long. It covers the biblical bases for the doctrine, provides a long and…
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