Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Mark Horne has done a good job elucidating how martyrdom paves the way for revival and success of Christ’s kingdom in the world, just as it also can bring more hardship and suffering. The diverging wheat and tares both growing up together, both benefitting from the watering of blood on…
For Part 1, click HERE . Anyone who has read James B. Jordan’s Through New Eyes: Developing a Biblical View of the World and appreciated it as a revelation of how God communicates in symbols and types—both in His Word and in the created order—understands what it is like to…
Abel was the first martyr in history. There is no evading this. Jesus pairs him with a murdered prophet (Matthew 23:35; 2 Chronicles 24:20-22). Abel’s blood was heard by God (Genesis 4:10), and God responded to the cry by driving out Cain, Abel’s killer, from the eastern borderland near Eden…
Adapted from The Shape of Isaiah: A Covenant-Literary Analysis The prophetic texts are the most difficult parts of the Bible to understand. And when it comes to baffling the reader, they are no respecter of persons, perplexing with their Delphic wiles even the studied scholars. It has been said that…
The subtitle for the 2004 film Dodgeball is “A True Underdog Story.” If the viewer lets the words pass by without a double-take, he or she will likely spend the rest of the movie, which applies the “unlikely teammates make the best teams” trope to the “sport” of dodgeball, asking,…
The book of Ezra gives an almost odd amount of attention to vessels. These holy vessels, whether cups, bowls, or flagons, are either dedicated as tribute or were used in temple service. The two Hebrew words translated as ‘vessel’ in most English translations are used a total of 14 times.…
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What do we do when we disagree about what the Scriptures say? Augustine's answer to that question has rarely been put into practice. This from The Literal Meaning of Genesis : “And when we read in the divine books such a vast array of true meanings, which can be extracted…
Jon Baskin's piece on David Foster Wallace is the best thing I've come across on Wallace. He starts with the arresting claim that in time “it will be recognized that Wallace had less in common with Eggers and Franzen than he did with Dostoevsky and Joyce.” His fiction is a…
H ezekiah “completes” a Passover (2 Chronicles 31:1a), then starts breaking things. He continues until the destruction is also “complete” (2 Chronicles 31:1b; Heb. kalah ). He breaks pillars, cuts down Asherim, and pulls down high places and altars. Hezekiah's purge is described in a single complex verse, 2 Chronicles…
A “Kantian chapter on emotion and responsibility,” write John Sabini and Maury Silver ( Emotion, Character, and Responsibility ), ...is easy to write and quick to read: the domain of the moral is the domain of the will expressed in action; it is the domain of that for which we…
S ince at least Max Weber, historians and sociologists have assumed that the Reformation contributed to what Weber called the “disenchantment” of the world. The thesis has inspired rich historical, sociological, and philosophical studies, from Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic to Charles Taylor's A Secular Age .…
T he Chronicler's account of Hezekiah's Passover (2 Chronicles 30:1–12) is arranged in a neat chiasm: A. Hezekiah sent letters of invitation to Israel to join in Passover, vv. 1–4 B. Couriers take decree throughout the land, vv. 5–6a C. Content of the invitation/decree, vv. 6b–9 B'. Couriers pass through…
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