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Biblical Horizons

On Not Yoking an Ox and an Ass Together

5. Simeon and Levi: Brothers they destroyed. They treated violently their circumcised-covenant fellows. 6. "Into their counsel let not my soul enter. Into their assembly let not my glory join. For in their anger they killed a man, And in their pleasure they hamstrung an ox. 7. Cursed is their…

by James B. JordanAugust 4, 2000
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Biblical Horizons

The Seven Edomite Kings

The fact that there is a "week" of seven kings over Edom, before we come to an eighth, hints that perhaps these have some link with the days of Genesis 1, especially as we find this list in the book of Genesis. Clearly the list of seven speaks of the…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 2000
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Theologia

The Ethic of Eternal Schism

Remember, whatever sins are committed by those with whom you are in covenant are your sins as well. You need to fear the judgment of God if you continue to be part of this denomination. I have recently discovered that the above rationalization is floating around cyberspace to justify breaking…

by Mark HorneJune 3, 2000
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Biblical Horizons

Not Drunk As You Suppose

While Samuel’s mother Hannah prays at the tabernacle, the high priest Eli sees her lips moving silently and concludes that she is drunk (1 Samuel 1:13-14). Hannah protests that she has poured nothing into her, but is "pouring out" her soul before Yahweh; far from being giddy with wine, she…

by Peter LeithartMay 27, 2000
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Federal Vision

CREDO | Regarding Personal Justification before God

For the record: I believe that those whom God effectually calls, he also freely justifies: not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone;…

by Mark HorneMay 20, 2000
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Biblical Horizons

How to Chant the Psalms

Over the years, the ministry of Biblical Horizons has strongly advocated singing the psalms in worship. The Psalter is God’s hymnal, and we don’t need any prooftexts to know that as such, it should form the center of our praise to Him. To be sure, other hymns are permitted, just…

by James B. JordanJanuary 4, 2000

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Aesthetic Theory of Atonement, Again Again

Brian Leftow ends his 1995 Modern Schoolman article with this: “Anselm’s appeal to fittingness, then, might serve to undermine the claim the value of efficiency has on God’s choices. For if beauty can trump efficiency, it could be a rational virtue for a perfectly wise being to act inefficiently, if…

February 26, 2013

Rational poetry

In a couple earlier posts , I took a look at the aesthetic dimensions of Anselm’s theory of the atonement. He certainly begins with a patristic atonement theory stressing the poetic symmetry of fall and redemption, and aesthetic concepts keep cropping up all along. But it seems that he abandons…

February 25, 2013

Elegant Atonement

In a 1995 article in Modern Schoolman on Anselm’s theory of atonement, Brian Leftow offers this list of “incidental benefits” that, Anselm claims, follow from God’s choice to save through incarnation and cross. It’s a demonstration of the “elegance” of the atonement. The rest of this post is directly quoted…

February 25, 2013

Unrequired gift

According to Bavinck ( Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume , 442-3), vicarious satisfaction means that Christ gives to God all that He demands from us, which we are incapable of giving: “The demand posed by God to fallen humanity was twofold: one, that humans would keep the law perfectly,…

February 25, 2013

Masters and slaves

A characteristically hilarious rant from Tom Shone about movie directors as “masters”: “it must be a terrific thrill to boss people around like that, and be rude to the press, and stick conversations about life, plants, astronomy into a movie on someone else’s dime just because one can, because one…

February 25, 2013

A Vision of Social Harmony

Take a look at James Jordan’s second essay in a series on “Continuing the Reformation” at the Trinity House site.

February 25, 2013

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