Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The drink offering or libation ( nesek ) is mentioned in only three places in the book of Leviticus. When the sheaf of the firstfruits was waved before the Lord, a grain offering was to be burned, along with "its libation, a fourth of a hin of wine [approx. one…
When I became a Calvinist it wasn't long before I learned that John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ was regarded as the masterful treatise on what is known as "Limited Atonement"--the "L" in the TULIP mnemonic device for "the five points of Calvinism." This wasn't…
One of the advantages of paying very close attention to the details in the Bible, especially chronological and genealogical details, is that they can shed light on situations that don’t seem to make much sense apart from them. One such situation is that of Bathsheba. It appears that Bathsheba willingly…
The Feast of Ingathering in the seventh month of the Sinaitic calendar is also called the Feast of Sukkoth, of Booths, also called Feast of Tabernacles. I have usually called it by that last phrase, and it is the most common today; but there is a problem: A tabernacle is…
When Matthew’s Gospel was first read aloud to the fledgling Christian congregations, the experience must have been like seeing the words “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” appear afresh on cinema screens in 1999. Yet, unlike The Phantom Menace, the New Testament did not disappoint. Why?…
Fragmentation and integration are phenomena which artist Makoto Fujimura feels bodily, and about which he is concerned profoundly. What do these mean for him? How may we draw his insights into this ongoing consideration—itself integrative—of integration in a fragmented world? Thus far I have been acquainting you with matters already…
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Treatments of Romans 7:7-25 are commonly massive exercises in missing the point. Readers pose questions that the text isn’t intended to answer, in particular: “Is the ‘I’ regenerate or unregenerate?” The passage isn’t about that. It’s about the law, and has two main aims: First, to vindicate Torah (vv. 7-13);…
Last week, I posted a critical response to David Bentley Hart's recent That All Shall Be Saved . Below, David responds. Well, Peter, let me give you credit for what you have not done. To this point, no reviewer who has written a negative piece on my book has actually…
There's a revealing moment in the "Second Meditation" of David Bentley Hart's That All Shall Be Saved . He opens the chapter with the comment that Christians must not make "any theological pronouncements in total abstraction from or contradiction of scripture" (92). He concedes "a certain presumptive authority" to the…
Romans 5-8 is arranged chiastically: A. 5:1-11: The justified have hope for glory in midst of tribulation B. 5:12-21: Adam and Christ: Adam's sin reversed C. 6:1-14: Death in baptism, deliverance from dominance of sin D. 6:15-23: Members as weapons of righteousness E. 7:1-6: Death to the law D'. 7:7-25:…
"What shall we say?" Paul asks at the beginning of Romans 6. "Shall we continue in sin that grace might increase?" This is typically taken as an "antinomian" objection. Paul emphasizes free grace. He's just said that grace abounds where sin abounds. He's heading off the false inference that we…
Ron Sider ( If Jesus Is Lord ) doesn't think the New Testament episodes about soldiers tell us anything much about the Christian ethics of war. He acknowledges that John doesn't tell the soldiers who come to him that they have to abandon their profession. BUt that doesn't matter, since…
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