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Nevin Lectures

Fourth Annual Nevin Lectures: Robert Kolb

Why Do Siblings Feud? Presuppositions, Principles, and Practice in Reformed-Lutheran Relationships Robert Kolb, International Research Emeritus Professor for Institute for Mission Studies, Concordia Seminary, St Louis, Missouri. Lecture Topics 1) Law and Gospel: Answering the Question Posed 2) The Lord's Supper: Christ's Presence and Promise 3) Worship and Created Things:…

by Brian MoatsDecember 30, 2016
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Advent

Exodus to Eden

From Genesis 3, West-to-East movement is always movement away from God’s presence and His house (cf. Genesis 3:24). Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden to the east, and when Cain was later cast out he was sent to the land east of Eden. The men of Babel,…

by Peter LeithartDecember 30, 2016
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Advent

Immanuel's Table

In his account of Jesus' birth, Matthew cites a prophecy assuring Judah of her victory over Israel and Aram. Immanuel is also a sign of the Lord’s judgment. When God comes near, He comes to bless and to curse, to save and to condemn, for deliverance and for judgment. The…

by Peter LeithartDecember 29, 2016
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Abortion

Holy Innocents

For many in the modern era, Christianity has been seen as an apolitical religion. Christianity is a private, spiritual religion. It's a convenient myth for modern people. After the Reformation, Europe entered a period of protracted and often vicious conflict that left large portions of Western Europe devastated. Many concluded…

by Peter LeithartDecember 28, 2016
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Advent

Christmas Light, Christmas Love

The Christmas gospel announces the coming of day. Those in darkness see a great light, as the Sun rises with healing in His wings. The light has come into the world that lightens every man, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.…

by Peter LeithartDecember 27, 2016
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Advent

Word Made Food

How do we know God loved the world? John tells us that He demonstrates His love in sending His Son. To paraphrase Paul, God has demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ was born for us. He sent His Son to take on human…

by Peter LeithartDecember 26, 2016

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Melvillian

In a short story called “The Fog-horn,” Ray Bradbury wrote of his most important prose-poems: “One day many years ago a man walked along and stood in the sound of the ocean on a cold sunless shore and said, ‘we need a voice to call across the water, to warn…

July 28, 2014

Anti-Urban America

Steven Conn ( Americans Against the City ) thinks there’s a contradiction at the center of America’s attitude toward cities. Cities play a huge role in our economy and culture, because of their density of population and the possibilities this opens for public institutions and cultural spaces. Conn examines “two…

July 28, 2014
Trinity

Anti-Anti-Formalism

In his stimulating study of Augustine, Barth, and contemporary Trinitarian theology, Incarnational Realism , Travis Ables summarizes two tendencies of recent Trinitarian thought: Hegelian idealism and personalism. He sees both “as salutary in their intentions” but in danger of service “as an increasingly formalistic conceptual paradigm to serve idealist or…

July 28, 2014

Who is Michael?

Michael and his angels fight the dragon and his angels, and expel them from heaven (Revelation 12). Who is this Michael? Michael appears in Qumran texts, and in apocalyptic texts outside the canon. My focus here, though, is on the what the Bible itself says about Michael. Revelation 12 begins…

July 28, 2014

Crowded Universe

Anti-moderns often speak nostalgically of the “crowded universe” of yesterday, when the world wasn’t just matter in motion but full of fairies and sprites and whatnot. It’s a charming picture, but the reality of a crowded universe wasn’t necessarily a happy thing. Stephan Maul writes of ancient Mesopotamia: “If a…

July 26, 2014

Sun and Shield

Stephan Maul summarizes the ritual that an ancient Mesopotamian would have to go through to be released from the displeasure of the gods, which was communicated to the person by a bad omen (a barking dog, a growling cat, etc.). The key portion of the rite was played out before…

July 26, 2014

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