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Biblical Horizons

Liturgical Man, Liturgical Woman, Part II

Click HERE for an audio version of this article. For part 1 of this series, click HERE . The New Covenant changes none of this. There is nothing new or odd about Mary’s sitting at Jesus’ feet, nothing strange about various “deaconesses” serving the Incarnate Tabernacle. Paul affirms that in…

by James B. JordanJune 5, 2004
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Apologetics

God in Control?

An Introduction Despite my rather hectic schedule as a father and pastor, I’ve become more and more concerned that a tract defending God’s sovereignty and fore-ordination of all things would be a helpful tool for the Reformed pastor–one converstational in tone and persuasive in style. I have decided to undertake…

by Mark HorneJune 4, 2004
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Baptism

Trying to be Objective: A Short Test For Those Concerned About An Alleged “Baptismal Regeneration” Teaching

There has been a great deal of controversy in the various conservative Reformed microdenominations in North America. Since I am a pastor in one of these and have been advocating a return to the historic Protestant and Confessional view over again the baptistic mutation that is now prevalent in our…

by Mark HorneJune 3, 2004
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Eucharist

The Meal that Kills: The Danger of Privatized Communion

I have recently written on justification as a covenant status and justification and adoption , understood as joining with Christ and his family at the Lord’s Supper . I write about things like this because it seems quite common in America to denigrate the need for community in one’s commitment…

by Mark HorneJune 3, 2004
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Baptism

Samuel Miller, Baptism, & Covenant Theology

Samuel Miller was one of the early professors at Princeton Theological Seminary. As a Presbyterian he wrote a book that defended infant baptism . Miller’s book was fine, but his appendix on baptismal regeneration seems problematic. Of course, his initial attack on superstition is quite warranted, but I am speaking…

by Mark HorneJune 3, 2004
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Baptism

Baptism, Evangelism, & the Quest for a "Converting Ordinance"

Awhile back I wrote the following, first quoting from the author of the excellent book, A Baptism That Saves : The sacramental view [of baptism] most accords with the idea of God’s initiating a covenant by his sovereign decree in election–effecting this through effectual calling. This is because, instead of…

by Mark HorneJune 3, 2004

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What Happened in Waco?

Malcolm Gladwell’s lengthy essay on the Branch Davidians normalizes and humanizes a group that even to American Christians was a strange, unnerving cult. Gladwell presents a damning indictment of the FBI response to the extreme Adventist community that was destroyed near Waco in 1993. Gladwell argues persuasively that the government…

April 2, 2014
Uncategorized

Chiasm of Defects

Trevaskis ( Holiness, Ethics, and Ritual in Leviticus ) proposes a chiastic outline of Leviticus 21-22: Priestly defects (Lev. 21.16-24) A. [4 defects] blind, lame, disfigured, an ‘overgrown limb’ ( ???? ) (v. 18) B. [2 defects] impaired leg, impaired hand (v. 19) C. [6 defects] hunchback, withered member, a…

April 2, 2014

Theocracy and Toleration

Van Ruler is an advocate of “theocracy,” but he at the same time insists that toleration is “an absolute necessity in the state” ( Calvinist Trinitarianism and Theocentric Politics , 186). It is necessary because every people is religiously mixed, because intolerance invariably leads to coercion, because of the reach…

April 2, 2014

Nature or Nurture?

Bad question, says Justin Barrett ( Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology , 26): “No aspect of our biological development, let along our cognitive development occurs without important contributions from both our biological endowment and our environment. Cells don’t divide and multiply without a steady stream of chemical nourishment from their…

April 2, 2014

Holiness, Ethics, and Ritual

I review Leigh Trevaskis’s Holiness, Ethics, and Ritual in Leviticus at the Trinity House site. Click here .

April 2, 2014

Russophiles, Anglophiles

Donald Rayfield reviews two recent essay collections on cultural relations between England and Russia in the TLS : Anthony Cross, A People Passing Rude : British Responses to Russian Culture and Russia in Britain, 1880-1940 , edited by Rebecca Beasley and Philip Ross Bullock. The links are broader and deeper…

April 1, 2014

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