Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Why Do Siblings Feud? Presuppositions, Principles, and Practice in Reformed-Lutheran Relationships Robert Kolb, International Research Emeritus Professor for Institute for Mission Studies, Concordia Seminary, St Louis, Missouri. Lecture Topics 1) Law and Gospel: Answering the Question Posed 2) The Lord's Supper: Christ's Presence and Promise 3) Worship and Created Things:…
From Genesis 3, West-to-East movement is always movement away from God’s presence and His house (cf. Genesis 3:24). Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden to the east, and when Cain was later cast out he was sent to the land east of Eden. The men of Babel,…
In his account of Jesus' birth, Matthew cites a prophecy assuring Judah of her victory over Israel and Aram. Immanuel is also a sign of the Lord’s judgment. When God comes near, He comes to bless and to curse, to save and to condemn, for deliverance and for judgment. The…
For many in the modern era, Christianity has been seen as an apolitical religion. Christianity is a private, spiritual religion. It's a convenient myth for modern people. After the Reformation, Europe entered a period of protracted and often vicious conflict that left large portions of Western Europe devastated. Many concluded…
The Christmas gospel announces the coming of day. Those in darkness see a great light, as the Sun rises with healing in His wings. The light has come into the world that lightens every man, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.…
How do we know God loved the world? John tells us that He demonstrates His love in sending His Son. To paraphrase Paul, God has demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ was born for us. He sent His Son to take on human…
Showing page 119 of 309
Showing page 27 of 43
B eginning in 1559, the magistrates of the German city of Wesel, in the North Rhine-Westphalia region, required the citizens to commune together (Jesse Spohnholz, “Multiconfessional Celebration of the Eucharist in Sixteenth-Century Wesel”). The city had been the site of intra-Lutheran struggles, and Calvinist immigrants were moving in. Worried about…
M olly Ball's Atlantic piece on “ America’s empty-church problem ” is a must-read. It provides a penetrating, and sobering analysis of the political shifts that came to the surface in the 2016 Presidential election. Trump's election was not , she argues, the triumph of the religious right or the…
M atthew Bates argues in Salvation by Allegiance Alone that “our contemporary Christian culture often comes prepackaged with functional ideas and operative definitions of belief, faith, works, salvation, heaven, and the gospel that in various ways truncate and distort the full message of the good news about Jesus the Messiah…
A fter summarizing recent work on temple building in the Ancient Near East ( 1 & 2 Chronicles , 227–229), Mark Boda takes note of the differences between the accounts of Solomon's temple building in Kings and Chronicles, with an eye to the question of whether or not the Chronicler…
I n the blink of an eye, globalization has changed from the inevitable future and the panacea for all human ills to a curse word and the source of all American misery. It takes guts to speak up for globalization these days. Brent Waters has guts. He no doubt began…
P aul said that God gives us abundantly more than we can ask or imagine, according to the resurrection power of Jesus in us (Ephesians 3:20). Solomon could have told us as much. When Yahweh appears to Solomon at Gibeon, He offers to give the king whatever he asks (2…
Showing page 194 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
