Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
First John 5.16-17: If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life–to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for…
A few years back I read Lesslie Newbigin’s little book Truth and Authority in Modernity . 1 I was particularly impressed with his argument in chapter 2 “The Mediation of Divine Authority.” Now, maybe this is old hat to many of you, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard it…
Baptism is not Christian circumcision. There’s a lot of loose talk to that effect in Presbyterian circles; but it’s not accurate. The old world rite of circumcision was fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Baptism unites us to Christ and therefore makes us participate in the circumcision of…
In recent years I’ve observed a number of Reformed-type churches trying to institute corporate handraising in certain sung parts of worship. This often does not seem to work very well. Some people don’t do it. Some do it half-way. Some do it with one hand. Some dramatically stretch to the…
Most modern scholars recognize that behind Arius’s campaign to differentiate Jesus from God was the Hellenistic theological conviction that the high God cannot suffer. Rowan Williams argues that Arius had the right idea about divine suffering, but the wrong idea of God, which “puts the unavoidable question of what the…
Charismatics have been much maligned for constantly “praising the Lord.” They would say if you hit your finger with a hammer, you should instantly say, “Thank you Jesus that You let me hit my finger…” This of course, as we all know, is stupid. There was once a lady who…
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Here is a brief explanation of baptism I used in a service this morning: As we saw this morning, Jesus’ baptism and reception of the Spirit was immediately followed by combat in the wilderness with the devil. The church fathers saw that this was one of the meanings of Christian…
The exhortation for August 31, 2003. The essence of original sin, and of every sin, is to trust Satan’s word above God’s word. Satan’s word comes to us in many forms, but in essence every word of Satan is a slander against God. We succomb to temptation when we begin…
In Luke 4, Jesus responds to the wonder and marveling of the crowd by saying that “no prophet is welcome in his home town” (v. 24). The comments, like the comments in v 23, seem to come out of left field. Why does Jesus say this? What’s he up to?…
Adam (son of Saul) Bellow has written a book in praise of nepotism. Well, du-uh.
Dale C. Allison, Jr., The New Moses: A Matthean Typology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993). Dale Allison, a research fellow at the Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, has written a superb case study in the New Testament’s use of the Old. Though he focuses on only a single typology (Christ as a…
Here is a very partial review/summary of a wonderfully stimulating book. I hope to go over it again sometime and add to this, but here it is in its unfinished form. Jeremy Begbie, Theology, Music and Time (Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). This is a…
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