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Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Authority

Eldership and Maturity, (Part 2)

(continued from previous issue) Between 30 and 50 What did the Levites do between age 30 and 50? Numbers 4 shows us that they carried the house of God on their shoulders. Lifting up the Lord is an image of worship in the Bible, and David’s restructuring of the Levites…

by James B. JordanJuly 8, 1995
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Romans

The Great Hangover, Parts 1-2

When God created the world, He created two lands: the Throne-land of Eden (entered through the sanctuary-garden, the Garden of Eden), and the Outlying Lands, such as the lands of Havilah and Cush. This essentially bi-polar world is the world of the Old Creation, and it continued to exist until…

by James B. JordanJuly 5, 1995
Architecture

Concerning Colors, Architecture, and Sacraments

Color is inescapable, except for those who are color blind. In our church architecture, we either employ color schemes that are helpful to worship, or we employ color schemes that are not helpful. Of course, this assertion merely begs the question: What color schemes are most helpful. God showed interest…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1995
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Baptism

Jesus’ Baptism Into Priesthood

As I noted in an earlier article in Rite Reasons , the Church Fathers Tertullian, Ambrose, and Augustine all claimed that baptism inducts the baptized person into membership in the royal priesthood of the church, and Thomas Aquinas said that baptism, by imprinting an indelible “character” on the soul, confers…

by Peter LeithartMay 26, 1995
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Baptism

Renewing Circumcision

When the Aaronic priests were ordained, the blood of the ram of "filling” was placed on the lobe of the right ear, the right thumb, and the right big toe (Lev. 8:22-24). Similarly, the cleansing rite for a leper included smearing the right ear lobe, thumb, and big toe with…

by Peter LeithartMay 14, 1995
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Daniel

A Correction on Daniel 7

In my Preliminary Commentary on Daniel , which many of you have obtained, I argued in chapter 13 that the four monsters called up from the sea by the evangelistic work of the four winds (the saints) represented the deep hatred of God that evangelistic work brings to the fore…

by James B. JordanMay 7, 1995

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Illumination and Investiture

In a 2006 article in the Westminster Theological Journal , William Wilder offers a sharp interpretation of the significance of the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” and the clothing of Adam and Eve with animal skins in Genesis 3. He makes the striking point that “the most important…

February 18, 2013

The Forgotten Reformation?

James B. Jordan outlines features of the forgotten Reformation in the first of a series of essays at the Trinity House site.

February 18, 2013

Eucharistic meditation

Colossians 2:11: In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. You are circumcised, Paul says. You, Gentile Christians, who have been buried with Jesus in baptism, you are true Jews because by…

February 17, 2013

Exhortation

The liturgy is not all confession of sin, or singing, or listening, or eating and drinking. We can’t do all these things at once. We do one after another. The church year stretches the liturgy over twelve months. Each season has its own flavor. Lent is the confession of the…

February 17, 2013

Veiled Bride

It’s not difficult to see how allegorical interpretation of the Song of Songs inspires the topsy-turvy world of Jewish and Christian mysticism. The poem speaks of the veiling of the bride (1:7; 4:1, 3; 6:7). That’s natural and literal, of course, since ancient Israelite women wore veils (Genesis 24:65; 38:14).…

February 16, 2013
History

Korean Christ

In her numbing account of North Korea, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea , Barbara Demick observes that what set Kim Il-sung apart among twentieth-century tyrants was his sensitivity to the uses of faith: “His maternal uncle was a Protestant minister back in the pre-Communist days when Pyongyang…

February 16, 2013

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