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Writing

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

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Poetry

The Donkey

G.K. Chesterton assumes a surprising and memorable perspective from which to view the events of Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:1-11) The Donkey by: G.K. Chesterton When fishes flew and forests walked And figs grew upon thorn, Some moment when the moon was blood Then surely I was born. With monstrous head…

by Arthur KayApril 14, 2022
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Hermeneutics

The Tree, the Cross, and the Supper

There is a common biblical principle: you must give back what you steal. In the Bible, restitution is repayment with interest. If you rob someone of their money, you have to pay back double what you stole. A thief must pay back fourfold if he steals a sheep, and if…

by Kyle LammottApril 12, 2022
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Isaiah

The King’s Cure

Identifying Isaiah’s suffering servant with the promised Messiah is unthinkable for a Jew because it combines the offices of humble priest and victorious king. While it is frustrating that Jews refuse to see the sufferings of Christ in Isaiah 53, the reluctance of Christians to interpret the passage in its…

by Mike BullApril 5, 2022
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How to Worship

When Our Men Sing Again

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Psalm 150:6 (ESV) The command to praise God is pervasive throughout Scripture. In the verse above the Spirit calls all things with breath to praise the Lord. Song is also clearly featured all throughout Scripture and is a featured…

by Grant Van BrimmerMarch 29, 2022
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Culture

The Transgender Bait and Switch

“Gender is a social construct.” That’s shocking to people who have assumed that gender and sex were synonyms but at least since I was in college, in the ‘80s, we were taught that “gender” refers to the forms, the customs, the traditions that our culture teaches us to define what…

by John CarpenterMarch 22, 2022
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Biblical Studies

Israel, Judah, and the Narrative Flow of the Bible

In Genesis 49, Jacob prophesies about (blesses and curses?) his twelve sons. The first three of them don’t fare well. Jacob recalls Reuben’s offense of taking his concubine (Genesis 35:22) and the murderous violence of Simeon’s and Levi against the Canaanite inhabitants of the city of Shechem (Genesis 34). He…

by Mark HorneMarch 17, 2022

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Judgment of This World

It’s a joke. It’s a comedy routine. Doom is coming! Doom doom doom! The world is ending, the kingdom is coming. Head for the hills, run, escape! The end is near! Repent! So says John, so repeats Jesus, like long-hairs with picket signs at the street corner. But then it…

November 13, 2014

How To Say, “I Am Righteous”

How many Protestants are comfortable applying the label “righteous” to themselves? How many Protestants can sing or pray the Psalms with a clean conscience, appealing to the Lord to accept them because of their righteousness? How many Protestants instead experience an instinctive mental reservation when they speak of their justification?…

November 12, 2014

1-2 Kings in nuce

This is a gloss and summary of the overview I offer in my Brazos commentary on 1-2 Kings . Though the book is detailed and sometimes convoluted, the overall shape is neatly symmetrical. A. David and Solomon found the United Kingdom; Solomon builds a house. B. Jeroboam founds the Northern…

November 12, 2014

Derrida's Paul Problem

Ward Blanton’s Materialism for the Masses provides a rebuttal to Nietzsche’s claim that Christianity was nothing but pop-Platonism. On the contrary: Paul can be read as offering a “materialist spirituality” that has never been more needed than it is today. There’s something in that, though Blanton’s meandering book makes it…

November 12, 2014
Gratitude

Jesus Was an Ingrate

Jesus was an ingrate. That’s on of the themes of Gratitude: An Intellectual History . Sign up now for the Theopolis newsletter, In Medias Res , and receive a free excerpt of the book. Fill out the simple subscription form here .

November 12, 2014

Fire, Smoke, Brimstone

The army revealed by the sixth seal (Revelation 9:13-21) wears breastplates of “fire, hyacinth, and brimstone” (v. 17a) and breathes out “fire, smoke, and brimstone” (v. 17b), with which it kills a third of humanity (v. 18). Hyacinth is an anomaly on the first list, but essentially the army wears…

November 11, 2014

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