Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I have never heard anyone say that the Bible is impractical, but I have heard people, after an in depth exegesis of a passage, ask for the practical application. Offer a class on childrearing, marriage, finance and the church members flock to it; offer a course on Leviticus, the visions…
Stones External and Internal The modern practice of dismantling the Bible into a shambles of documents authored in response to disparate historical events rather than viewing it as a unified testimony inspired by God is a surefire way to miss what is actually going on in the text. This failure…
King Asa of Judah made a strong start, purging the land of idols, altars, and images, and winning a war against the ginormous Cushite army led by Zerach. It all unraveled in his final years. From his thirty-fifth year to the forty-first year, when his reign came to an end,…
What appears to be Paul’s first recorded statement on justification comes in Acts 13, in a sermon at Pisidian Antioch. It's can serve as a summary of Paul's letter to the Romans, and throws some important light on the themes of that letter. Paul begins his sermon with a quick…
Iago as Tempter The answer to our first question — whether or not Othello is really great tragedy — has already pointed the way to the answer for the second question — Was Othello a noble Moor or a fool? The two questions, of course, are necessarily related. The fall…
When Adam McIntosh was ordained as Pastor of Saint David’s Church (CREC) in Houston on June 11, 2017, it was the culmination of decades of preparation. Adam is the product of two continents and three Christian traditions. Born in Paducah, Kentucky, he lived his early years partly in Jericho, where…
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The four living creatures are “in the midst” and “around” the throne of the Enthroned one (Revelation 4:6). They continuously sing the Sanctus, and when they do the 24 elders fall down to prostrate themselves to the Enthroned one (v. 10). Given the arrangement, they cannot help but prostrate themselves…
Bruce Ellis Benson argues in The Improvisation of Musical Dialogue that the distinction of “composing” and “performing” doesn’t “describe very well what musicians actually do.” In place of this “binary” scheme, he offers an “an improvisational model of music, one that depicts composers, performers, and listeners as partners in dialogue.…
Alex Tabarrok has as solution to the problem of capital accumulation that Thomas Piketty identifies as the driver of inequality ( Capital in the Twenty-First Century ): Change the birthrate of the rich: Increasing fertility rates would do the trick: “If every wealthy family has 4 children, wealth per person…
Watch the trailer and tell me that Godzilla hasn’t become Godziller. Now I have proof. One “Dr. M” observes that he’s tripled in size since he was first sited in a movie theater near you: “In 1954 Godzilla was a mere 50 meters (164 ft). In the newest movie, Godzilla…
John sees a book at the right side of the enthroned Father, and a “strong angel” asks, “Who is worthy to take the book and open it by breaking its seals?” The Father Himself is worthy (4:11) to receive all glory, honor, and power. Yet no one mentions Him as…
God created winged-things (Genesis 1:21; kanaf ), and they were preserved in the ark (Genesis 7:14). But there aren’t many references to winged-things in the first book of the Bible. At the Exodus, Yahweh sprouts eagle wings and carries Israel from Egypt (Exodus 19:4, the first use of pterux in…
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