Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
> Dave, > Jason > > I am surprised this is so hard for me to communicate effectively. Prosecuting Leithart while inwardly struggling with my questions was easy, because the issue was NEVER “Whose views are correct?” In a Reformed denomination we all operate under the supposition that our doctrinal…
Discussions on the catholicity of the church have led one RC advocate to write to me that according to 2 Timothy 1:16-18, Paul is clearly and unmistakably praying for a dead person. He points to a couple of Protestant writers who had agreed with this, though they are in a…
The great True Catholic historian, Philip Schaff, points out as regards the beginning of prayers to the saints in the post-Nicene Church: Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (Volume III, Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity A.D. 311-390, P. 409-427). In the first three centuries the veneration of the martyrs in…
The Nicene Creed states that the Holy Spirit “spoke through the prophets in (or into) one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” Contrary to usual translations, neither the Greek nor the Latin originals say “ I believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” As written, the thought of the authors…
One of the latest sectarian movements to arise around the fringes of the Christian religion is something called “family integrated churches.” What this seems to mean, depending on the advocate, is that youth groups are bad, age-segregated Sunday Schools are bad, families need to sit together in church, and even…
This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 8. Comments on The Covenantal Gospel by Cornelis van der Waal This is an excellent book, and every Bible student should read and master it. Cornelis van der Waal was…
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Phyz.org reports that clothing still makes the man, but it may not be the most expensive of fashionable clothing that makes the best status statement. Harvard University researchers found that students attributed higher status to the more slovenly: “In one study, students were asked to rank the perceived professional status…
Exhaustion has become a popular topic in Germany, many complaining “We are the most exhausted age.” Wolfgang Martynkewicz provides some contrary evidence, though he doesn’t appear to know it. In Das Zeitalter der Erschopfung , he examines German bourgeois and bohemians of the early twentieth century and finds that they…
Jesus’ declaration to the prostrate John (Revelation 1:17-18a) is a neat little, rich little chiasm: A. I am ( ego eimi ) B. First C. Last D. Living One C’. Became dead B’. Behold! Alive A’. I am ( eimi ) to ages of ages Several observations: First, the whole…
In addition to heaven, earth, sea, and underworld, Mesopotamian cosmology believes in an intermediate region between the earth and the underworld, belonging to the god Ea. Though not entirely consistent in mythologies, and the relationship between the Apsu and the sea and the Apsu and the underworld is ambiguous, Horowitz…
David Biale observes in Blood and Belief that “the ancient Israelites were the only Near Easterners to make blood a central element in their religious rituals” (10). He fills out the picture: “There were, to be sure, magical and medical rituals mentioned in Akkadian, Sumerian, and Hittite texts that used…
Drawing on the work of Jonathan Klawans ( Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism ) and others, David Biale ( Blood and Belief ) points to the difficulty of reconciling the “Priestly” and “Holiness” sections of Leviticus. In the “Priestly” code, found in Leviticus 11-15 and Numbers 19,. impurity is…
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